UK Travel Planning

15 UK Train Travel Mistakes First-Time Travellers Make and How to Avoid Them

• Tracy Collins • Episode 157

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Doug and Tracy reveal the 15 most common mistakes travellers make when planning UK train journeys, drawing from their extensive experience helping thousands plan stress-free rail trips across Britain.

• Getting advice from non-experts who share outdated or incorrect information
• Travelling on Sundays when engineering works and staffing issues cause the most disruptions
• Bringing too much luggage that becomes difficult to manage on trains and in stations
• Not booking assistance services at least 24 hours in advance when needed
• Overlooking different ticket types and railcards that could provide significant savings
• Arriving at stations without enough time to navigate, find platforms, and board comfortably
• Failing to reserve seats on long-distance journeys, risking standing for hours
• Not using helpful apps like National Rail Enquiries to track real-time train information
• Forgetting to plan for food and drink when catering services may be limited
• Losing track of belongings in busy station environments
• Relying on onboard Wi-Fi which can be patchy, especially at high speeds
• Not planning the onward journey from arrival stations to final destinations
• Missing opportunities to explore scenic alternative routes between destinations
• Not allowing enough time for connections between trains
• Booking international flights on the same day as long-distance UK train journeys

For more help planning your UK train adventure, check out Doug's "Guide to UK Train Travel" ebook or book a personalised itinerary consultation.

📝 Show Notes - Episode 157

🎧 Listen to next

  • Episode #151 - Essential UK Train Travel Tips + Q&A
  • Episode #145 - Exploring Scotland by Train: Edinburgh to Inverness by train
  • Episode #43 - Unravelling the mysteries of train travel in the UK

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Tracy Collins:

Planning to travel the UK by train. In this episode, Doug and I share the 15 most common mistakes we see travellers make and how you can avoid them. From ticket tips to travel day pitfalls, this is one you don't want to miss.

Intro:

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, Tracy Collins. In this podcast, Tracy shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Tracy Collins:

Hi and welcome to episode 157 of the UK Travel Planner Podcast. So this week I am once again joined by Doug.

Doug Collins:

Hi everybody, Great to be back.

Tracy Collins:

Who is here, as always, to talk all things trains. Now, of those of you who are in our Facebook group or have done a consult with us or have followed along on a previous podcast, you will know that Doug worked in the UK rail industry for over 25 years and he's travelled on every single national rail train line across the country. So through our consultation, facebook group and our e-book, we help thousands of travellers plan stress-free UK rail trips, and today we're sharing the 15 most common mistakes we see people make, especially if it's their first time.

Doug Collins:

That's right. Whether it's booking the wrong type of ticket or not, considering the risk of travelling on a Sunday or just bringing way too much luggage, we've seen it all yep.

Tracy Collins:

So stick around for this episode to find out what those mistakes are, those put falls are, and so you can avoid them and travel smarter. Now and remember, if you want more help, we've got our guide to uk train travel ebook, which doug wrote, and we have personalized itinerary consultations with doug to help make your planning easier, and I will put links in the show notes to both of those so you can find the ebook and, if you want, book a session with Doug to help you plan your real itinerary around the UK. So we're going to go through each of the 15 mistakes one by one and have a little bit of a discussion about why it's a mistake and what you can do to fix it. So the first mistake that we see people doing is getting too much advice from non-experts online.

Doug Collins:

That's true. If I had a pound for every time I have heard somebody told me, or I've seen somewhere, or I've just read somewhere so and such, I would be very rich by now. The problem is, of course, you can overload with information. There can be too much information and unfortunately there's a lot of information out there that is incorrect, inaccurate, partly or completely wrong, and so a lot of people are overwhelmed before we've even heard from them.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, that is true, they're posing questions and you can.

Doug Collins:

I was going to say you can hear in what they write down, but you can actually come.

Tracy Collins:

It comes across as they are totally overwhelmed completely overwhelmed, stressed out and actually I will say at this point as well that and we do say this actually quite a lot on the facebook group as well is that we will see the same query, um, about travel generally in the uk, and it will be put in five different facebook groups now and what happens is you get I don't know 50 responses and it becomes really, really confusing. And you know it's important, doug has this specific you have a facebook group just for change our travel and that's right.

Doug Collins:

I encourage people to join that one because that is myself and I have two moderators also involved in the the rail industry in the UK. We have that great knowledge between the three of us myself and took my two friends, the moderators. We cover every single aspect of UK passenger travel and what I don't know, they know and what they don't know I know and we've covered it so many times. Questions have come up. We've not had yet Torchwood had a question that one of us has not known the answer to.

Tracy Collins:

So that's a you know. It kind of reinforces that don't ask or try to get information from people who don't necessarily know about the rail industry. Go to the Facebook group or Doug's written a book.

Doug Collins:

Yeah, I've written the e-book A Guide to UK Train Travel, which covers everything you need to know. Plain and simple, it covers everything you need to know, and a lot of the information that's out there people read, hear speak about is well-intentioned and I'm not questioning that. But what I am questioning is a lot of the content is inaccurate or out of date. So, yes, you need to be talking to the experts and obviously you also offer an itinerary consult as well.

Tracy Collins:

So I know we do a video one. So if somebody has questions or they've got an itinerary and they just want a bit of fine-tuning and want to ask you questions about traveling the uk by train, you can do a video consult. So you send us your itinerary and then doug will record a video response to you and send it back to you, also with a google doc with with information in it.

Doug Collins:

If you want access, doug, you can book a one-to-one session that's right, I don't bite, I'm quite not, I'm quite normal and, believe it or not, trace about me. I thoroughly enjoy talking about trains, so that is not a problem.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, so absolutely, he loves to do that. So that's the first problem, but we've solved it for you. So we will put links to all of those resources in the website. And, of course, don't forget, we do have other podcast episodes about train travel and we also have the website, where we have a whole train section. So do make use of all that we also, if you subscribe to our newsletter, you will receive information about train travel. So we've got a huge amount of resources that you can use. Just stick with us. We know what we're talking about. We know all about train travel.

Doug Collins:

That's it. We'll see you around.

Tracy Collins:

Right. So now the second mistake we see people make, and this is one I know you talk about all the time in the Facebook group. So tell us what it is.

Doug Collins:

Yes, it's Sunday travel, plain and simple. The Sunday train travel in the UK is at best unreliable, at best unreliable. You have some good days where things were entirely to plan, but over many, many, many years of myself traveling and commuting to and from work, sundays was always the day that created most problems. It's a question of risk. The risk on a Sunday of engineering work impacting your journey, the risk on a Sunday of being short staffed, the risk on a Sunday of diversions and cancellations is much higher than the other six days. So, unless you're traveling a shorter distance, really not the best of ideas to travel a long distance, because the trains for some bazaaries are also very full, because on a sunday timetable there is less trains running on that day, and so it stands to reason there's gonna be more people travel. Yeah, but it's not the ideal day to travel because there's engineering works, they have to work. Yeah, but it's not the ideal day to travel because it's engineering works, they have to work.

Doug Collins:

At some point I was involved with this myself overnight work, and overnight work can be on a friday, saturday and sunday night, and sometimes it overruns, sometimes it goes into a saturday, goes into a sunday. So sunday is the day where the risk is highest of cancellations and delays. So if it's possible in your itinerary to avoid the Sunday travel, do so. Now I have to add to that it goes without saying. Sometimes it is unavoidable, sometimes you have no choice, sometimes you've just got to do it. In that case, I would advise try and travel in the middle of the day. Make sure you book your seat reservations and other things which will come across mistakes that people make. But do a search. The topic of conversations regards sunday travel I have covered so many times on our facebook group seven times, I think it's the most common um thing that we we comment on when people ask a question.

Tracy Collins:

In fact you've solved that problem many times when we've done itinerary consults where people are trying to juggle days and we'll go no try and avoid particularly a long trip on a Sunday because potentially it can be problematic and I know when we've spoken in trip reports when people have had problems it is tended to be around the Sunday travel.

Doug Collins:

It is because I think what people do in their itineraries they see Sunday is a nice, convenient day for traveling between places yeah and it's a nice, easy day for travel. Sometimes it, you know, can be on the roads. Certainly it can be less travel, less, less people traveling. But Sunday by train is the day I would avoid okay, I think we've covered that one really well.

Tracy Collins:

Um, so that's the mistake traveling on a sunday and the workaround is to try and avoid traveling on a sunday if possible, or I could access the middle of the day those sort of strategies put in place. Tip number three, or mistake number three, I should say, is bringing too much luggage, and I know this can be really, really difficult, but honestly, I think you really need to consider, if you're planning a train uh itinerary around the uk is to consider how much luggage you're going to have yeah, so it's easy to bring too much luggage because you know if you can carry a lot more luggage than the next person, you're not carrying too much luggage, because if you can carry a lot more luggage than the next person, you're not carrying too much luggage, plain and simple.

Doug Collins:

But it has to be what you can safely manage and lift onto trains and put onto luggage racks and stacks or behind seats. So it's what works for you, plain and simple. Really, because there is limited space on board trains, and particularly the trains for train stations themselves, you know, we know from our own experiences that the lifts on the escalators may not be working yeah, absolutely, and so you have to be prepared to be able to lift your luggage if need be yeah, considering, if you've got to climb, take it upstairs, you've got to take it downstairs, um, are you going to be able to do that?

Tracy Collins:

are you going to be able to lift it onto the train, get it off the train, um, you know. So that's something that we consider really carefully. Now there is a, I guess, one thing we would recommend. For example, if you're starting your itinerary in london and ending your real itinerary in london, you could actually leave some of your luggage in a left luggage in London or in a hotel if you're going back to the same hotel. And we've done that in numerous destinations around the world.

Doug Collins:

We have done that.

Tracy Collins:

So that is a possibility, but just try. I just know that as you travel, the further you travel, when you've got too much luggage, whatever that looks like for you, the luggage just becomes a pain.

Doug Collins:

It just becomes something that is just so stressful.

Tracy Collins:

It's awful, it is true, and the reality is the less you carry, the more enjoyable your real experience. Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. So, uh, mistake number four that we see is not booking assistance if you need it or leaving it too late that's right.

Doug Collins:

There is a great passenger assist system settled in the uk and it works very, very well. But what you do need to have, you need to make sure you book that assistance at least really 24 hours in advance. Okay, so the the assistance that you book. It takes the form of assistance with a member of staff helping you onboard the train and getting off the train, helping you to your seat, making sure your luggage is stowed correctly and you're comfortable. Make sure you are comfortable before the train goes, before the train leaves. The train goes before the train leaves, so that, if that means, uh, you're able to walk and they'll just help you with your mobility to get on board and onto the seat. Or it's actually physical assistance with a wheelchair, in which case ramps are used to board trains. So, but the secret there is a is to be aware that you do need assistance and acknowledge the fact, and B is actually book it in good time. There's a very good page on National Rail Enquiries actually gives all the phone numbers you could possibly need to arrange that.

Tracy Collins:

Okay, so we'll link to that in the show notes as well. What about if I was arriving at a station and then I had to change platforms and get onto another train? Will they help assist with that?

Doug Collins:

Yeah, that's all part of the book. In advance they will. You'll include your rail itinerary and so what they'll say is somebody will meet you and say the station concourse at one, the first station and they will help you board that train. They'll take the platform, wait with you until that train comes in and then I'll help you board the train. And then you stay in your seat when the train arrives at your next station and somebody with a ramp will be there to meet you. They'll know exactly which door, which carriage you are sitting in, so it'll help you out to that one and onto your next train as well. Sometimes, if you're using multiple train operators, that is all aligned through the national rail inquiries. They will be communicating with the next service and is that a free service?

Doug Collins:

that is a free service okay, so that's a.

Tracy Collins:

That's a great one to use.

Doug Collins:

If you, if you need assistance, make sure that you book it, yeah it's important to have your rail tickets purchased in advance of booking the assistance okay, okay, and again, it's 24 hours.

Tracy Collins:

Is what you're saying?

Doug Collins:

yeah I mean you can risk it later on closer to, but really as a rule of thumb, 24 hours is really when you need to make sure those places, those that that help is in place. Okay, cool right.

Tracy Collins:

So mistake number five, we see, is not exploring the different different ticket types and not being aware of all available rail cards or passes, because these can save you a lot of money if you know about them that is true and I do have a lot of sympathy.

Doug Collins:

Uh, it's taken me years to fully understand all the different ticket types, the national rail cards, availability and the types of, say, brit rail passes. There's a lot there. There's a lot to take on board. There's a lot to get your head around when you're doing your research. So it comes back to the same point talk to the experts, talk to us. No question you ask. As regards ticketing, we have not or have not experienced before and, as I say, with help of the two other moderators in my, our training group, we can answer every single question. There's nothing that's gonna be asked that we have not encountered before well, there just seemed to be a bit of confusion.

Tracy Collins:

I know when we've had questions about the brick rail pass and then people are talking about then booking a ticket that's right.

Doug Collins:

That comes up quite often, isn't it? Yeah, um, it's so. They've done that level of research and quite possibly, as you said on the first part is, they've talked to somebody, they've read somewhere, you know, under the impression of that, yeah, you buy the brick rail and then you've got to go and buy more tickets, which sort of defeats your business.

Tracy Collins:

It'd be very expensive way to do things yeah, it's.

Doug Collins:

It's those little things that we take for granted as being obvious, but if you don't know, it's not obvious at all.

Tracy Collins:

Well, it's also if you don't know, you don't know what you don't know necessarily. But I think that there does seem to be a lot of confusion around that and I know you've just recently published an article on the website explaining that yeah, that's right.

Doug Collins:

So just to sort of clarify as to how Brit Rail Pass, for example, works, how you validate it and what coverage of the Great Britain it actually includes.

Tracy Collins:

And now, what about information about the different rail cards? I know that you've included those in your e-book.

Doug Collins:

Yeah, that's right. There's quite a few different types of National Rail card and they are mostly for one for one year or bit. There is a additional ones for three years and the price of that is 35 pounds If you qualify. There's so many different times, just two together. Rail card. There's friends and family rail card. This is the senior rail card, and not to mention the student rail cards as well, because he's available for people not just in the UK.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, I was rail cards as well, because these are available for people not just in the uk. Yeah, I was going to ask you. That I was going to say is that if I live, if I live in america or live in australia, like we do, or live in new zealand or live in singapore, can I get access to those?

Doug Collins:

yeah, you can you can buy these online before you arrive, and so what the the natural rail cards tell you to do? You still buy your train tickets, but you are listing the fact you have a rail card already and that will give you a third off the ticket price, which is really good.

Tracy Collins:

I remember actually you were doing a small YouTube video about how to use that, how to actually purchase a ticket from the train line if you actually have already got a rail card.

Doug Collins:

Yeah, that's right.

Tracy Collins:

Because that's something else we often get asked in consults. When we say about you could qualify, you could buy this rail card, then there's a bit of confusion about then purchasing a real ticket and then how do you kind of get the discount.

Doug Collins:

That's right, and some of the the websites for purchasing the tickets. They're not the most straightforward, so, like the youtube videos that we have, they explain that visually yeah because sometimes you look at these websites and you're looking all around it and you just can't find what you're looking for. So you need somebody to help signpost you to exactly where you need to be.

Tracy Collins:

So I will put a link to that YouTube video as well in the show notes.

Tracy Collins:

Now okay mistake number six is not arriving at the station early enough. And I can attest this one not arriving at the station in early enough. And I can attest this one on my, my sister a few years ago, who arrived, uh, with not enough time to spare, thought she had to get to the station as the, and she kind of waved it bye-bye on the platform, um. So this one is something that you talk about all of the time, isn't it about arriving in?

Doug Collins:

Yeah, it's one of those things that sounds very, very simple and we would always do it, but no, it's so easy to underestimate the time it takes you to get to that station, whether it's public transport or relying on other people, but also when you get to the station. Some stations in the UK, as they are around the world, they are huge.

Doug Collins:

Yes, really complicated if you've got multiple entrances and exits. If you arrive into that main station, concourse area, departure area you don't know where to go. It's now what, what? What do we do? So you've got to make sure you allow yourself so much time, especially especially if you've got plenty of luggage or traveling with others that might need some assistance, or children. It's you've just got to rely that added time to get there. I mean, you maybe want to go to the shops as well to buy some refreshments. So you just got to allow plenty of time to get there. And the other thing is there's a security element to that as well. You need to be on the ball. You need to be paying attention to what you're doing. So, yeah, the big stations or all stations really, but particularly the big, big stations in london like king's cross, waterloo, victoria, houston give yourself a lot of time to get there also I was going to say about that, um is, there is a website that I can see a plan for each of the train stations.

Doug Collins:

Yeah, there certainly is. The National Rail Enquiries is a very, very good resource when it comes to looking at station layouts, whether that's entrances, where the taxi rank is, where the shops are, where the toilets are, where the ramps are, for any accessibility to aid, accessibility if there's lifts anywhere as well. It's an incredibly, very good resource. Every time look at the national rail inquiries, there I seem to find something different and it is the one go-to side if you need specific station information because I'm going to put my neck on the line, I think the station information for every single station in Great Britain oh, wow, I think they have. I mean, some stations are bigger than others, obviously, but I think even you know my local station where I'm from, burton-on-trent. It's got all the information there.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, I think I've checked that before and it tells you things like if taxis are available.

Doug Collins:

That's right if there's luggage lockers. Is there toilets? Is there disabled toilets there?

Tracy Collins:

So that's an amazing resource to tap into. And also, we do have an article about London's main train stations as well on our LondonTravelPlanningcom website, which has got photographs of the different stations as well, so it's worth also checking out that article. Now, mistake number seven that we see is not reserving a seat on long distance journeys. Now I highly recommend that you do this, because sometimes, honestly, the trains can get incredibly full and you do not want to end up standing that's right, um, seat reservations are free to make in the uk.

Doug Collins:

When you buy a ticket online through different operators or open access companies, they should come with the option to make a seat reservation.

Doug Collins:

But if you're driving a train station and it's very busy because, let's face it, most of the London terminal stations are very busy so when the platform opens for people to be able to move down towards the train, there can be a bit of a rush, and if you've got a seat reserved already, you can go your own safe pace and it's so much worth. It gives you peace of mind. If you've got a preference to which side of the train you want to sit on what are the key things to see on on route, which is all information on our website as well. We cover that. It just makes for a whole all-around better rail experience. If you've got your seat there, you've got your seat preferences that you prefer, and a very important one. There is. Most people, myself included, rather sit and face the direction of travel and if you're just chancing to a seat which again you can do if it's your preference, you could be sitting anywhere and you can reserve a table as well if you want to keep your.

Tracy Collins:

That's right, yeah, together yeah, yeah, that's right.

Doug Collins:

It's whatever your preference is, but for a long distance journey and by long distance I mean anything really over two hours I would certainly be looking to make a seat reservation well, I'll just have a little anecdote on this one.

Tracy Collins:

I actually traveled from edinburgh down to l London in I think it was February, and I did have a reservation, but I decided to go on an earlier train because I'd finished doing what I was doing about three hours before. So I managed to get onto the train beforehand, but I did not have a seat reservation and it was absolutely packed. It was so full. Now I somehow miraculously managed to pick a seat that, even though it had reserved on it, nobody jumped on it to take the reserved seat up. But, believe me, every time I pulled into a station where it was a change of reservation because it was a long trip, so there was, the seats have been reserved numerous times I was stressed out to the max because I thought if somebody gets on and they've got this seat, where am I to go and sit? So you know, even I've made that mistake before. So it's free to make a train reservation on see to get your seat. So just do it that's what do it?

Doug Collins:

yep, and it's. It makes a great peace of mind. If you purchased a bit well pass, for example and if you know all the trains and your your real itinerary, just make all the reservations. When you arrive, you can go to any staff train station and make your seat reservations and you've done that before I know.

Tracy Collins:

We've had people in consults, we've talked about that and given that tip.

Doug Collins:

Yeah, and the feedback we've had, that has worked so so well. And I also have to point out if you plan on catching a certain train and, for whatever reason, you don't catch that train, if you've got a brick rail pass, for example, jump on the next one. You know that's, that's not a problem. Go make another seat reservation, you know it doesn't matter.

Tracy Collins:

It doesn't matter okay, so mistake number eight is not using helpful apps properly, and we've just actually spoke about, uh, the national rail inquiries app, which I know you, you just think is a game changer.

Doug Collins:

I think the national rail inquiries uh, particularly their live trains function is absolutely fantastic, and it frustrates me a little that people do not use that more often, because you could be on one train and you're making a connection and you want to know if your train that you're catching is on time, or even from which platform, and you can look at that one and you can find that information. You know which platform you're going to. Okay, yes, you need to double check that as well, but you know if it's running on time, and that can make life so much easier. I mean, I could use an anecdote as well for that one.

Doug Collins:

On my last visit, going from Birmingham New Street, the connection I was making, the train was about 20 minutes late. So once I arrived at Birmingham Moore Street I was making, the train was about 20 minutes late. So once I arrived at Birmingham Moore Street, I was going to walk up to Birmingham New Street. I didn't need to rush, I knew that the train I was catching was running a little late. So I sort of strolled in nice and leisurely onto the platform which hadn't changed, and, yeah, it makes life so much easier. Use the information that's there, use the tools available. You know that's a national rail inquiries, um live trains app train line, also very, very good. And in london, the tfl, the transport for london. They have the go app, which is fantastic when it comes to journey planning and also um how each service or different lines, how they're working at that moment in time. You know, use the information that's there. It can make such a difference.

Tracy Collins:

Absolutely, and the train line we do recommend it's just because it keeps all your train tickets in the same place. It's just easier and more organized.

Doug Collins:

That's right. Yeah, the train line is a very good one to use if you don't know the individual train operators in the UK, because you know there's over 22 of them, and then you've got the open access companies as well and you wouldn't know which operators operate on which line.

Tracy Collins:

So the train line, everything's under one hat and you can just go through that way perfect, okay, so mistake number nine we see people making is not planning for food or drink on board. Now you need to remember that not all trains have a catering trolley or buffet service, especially on Sundays, and we've actually been on trains as well where the trolley has not actually been able to make it to our carriage because it's been so busy.

Doug Collins:

So busy, that's right. So what I said earlier about getting to the station in time, get there in plenty of time. Earlier about getting to the station in time, get there in plenty of time. But also stockholm, most of the the large stations, all the ones in london, have um marks and spencers or wx. They have shops there that you can go and fill up and get some food and drink. You know there's a bottle of water is an absolute minimal, because I've also been on trains many, many times, not just the uk, all around the world when it's been delayed, it stops, doesn't move. You know all times a year. And even in the middle of winter inside those trains, especially the busy, can get very, very hot it's true so always make sure you have a backup drink.

Tracy Collins:

And also it's a good idea to take a reusable water bottle, because I know many places now there are free kind of water refill places.

Doug Collins:

That's right, yeah, environmentally friendly. There's lots of water refill stations.

Tracy Collins:

I know in Birmingham New Street. We saw one in London Houston.

Doug Collins:

Probably most of the stations now A lot of stations have these now.

Tracy Collins:

So you can just refill your water bottle before you get on the train.

Doug Collins:

I do that then.

Tracy Collins:

You do, yeah, okay. So then tip number 10 or mistake number 10, we'll give you the tip is not keeping an eye on your belongings.

Doug Collins:

That's true, and you know, I do have a lot of sympathy with this one, because it is so easy to take your eye off all your luggage and you're in unfamiliar surroundings. You're not familiar with the stations, you're not familiar with the, the um, the stations, you're not familiar with the station departure boards and how they work, particularly if you you're an overseas traveler to the uk and english may not necessarily be your first language as well. So it's so easy to take your eye off, particularly in large, large stations, in the departure halls. So, but unfortunately, we, you know we have stories of this, don't we?

Tracy Collins:

yeah, well, yeah to us where things have been stolen, um, unfortunately, train stations throughout the world or somewhere where criminals will hang out to try and steal your belongings. So they're pickpockets and if they see that you're stressed or confused and it's busy or you know, it's a perfect mix, unfortunately, for somebody to take your bag or to you know, to pickpocket you. So we always recommend I mean, I use a crossbody bag, you use a crossbody bag don't you, I do.

Tracy Collins:

I have a lanyard for my phone just so. Then it keeps my hands free as well, so that I can be moving the suitcases around, if we've got suitcases.

Doug Collins:

But we have a tried and tested method, don't we?

Tracy Collins:

when we're travelling together. Yeah, we do.

Doug Collins:

And so what we always do is have the conversation before we arrive, which one of us is watching the luggage at all times and which one of us is looking at the departure board. And you know, tracy and I we both have also traveled independently, so what I do and Tracy does as well when you arrive at the station is try and stand a little away, with your back to the wall, somewhere you can physically watch all your luggage at the same time as looking at a departure board. It's so easy to or, if you're not easily able to do that, go and talk to station staff, ask them for assistance.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, and it's just really important. Make sure you know where your belongings are, keep your most precious things on you in your bag. I always use a travel-on backpack or a pack-safe backpack or cross-body bag. I've been using them for years. Between the two of us, we've got I don't know how many um, but we just find that it gives you a little bit more peace of mind that when you're having to concentrate on lots of things at the same time it's easy to be distracted, yeah you don't have to worry too much about like having to have your hand on absolutely everything because it's kind of safely in your bag, um, but really, yeah, don't take your eye off your belongings.

Tracy Collins:

That's a, it's a mistake if you do that, and you I mean not guarantee that something's going to happen, but I would just say just be aware, just be aware um same actually on the train, because we do, once we're on a train, we will keep an eye on where our suitcases are most certainly.

Doug Collins:

Yeah, I always, if possible, try. If I've already got a seat reserved, I try and board the train. So I'm facing my luggage if I'm putting it in luggage racks at the end of the carriage or on the overhead racks as well, on the length of the train and also because I'm a great advocate for using the luggage space behind seats as well and closer to it, ideally right behind me, so I can put my hand on my suitcase. Now and again I can keep my eye on if other people try and push luggage on top of it yeah, we've all seen yeah yeah, um.

Doug Collins:

So just keep your eye on it, you know, stay on the ball, stay on the ball okay, so then mistake number 11, we see, is relying on onboard wi-fi to stay connected yeah, that's right, even the, the new trains, the new posh yeah, that's right, even the the new trains, the new posh, bright and shiny, fast trains.

Doug Collins:

Their wi-fi can still be a little bit patchy, particularly at high speed, particularly in rural areas and really obviously in tunnels as well, but it works best at stations. So really the idea is to not rely on it, yeah, and have your own wi-fi device yeah, but even then, to be honest, you can lose.

Tracy Collins:

I've found that you lose signal, and so you know you need to be prepared, because I have seen there's a couple of things that I've seen happen on trains is that a ticket collector will come around and the person can't. There's no signal, they can't get access to the ticket, yeah, or, and I've also seen a situation where their phone had the battery died and they couldn't switch the phone on. So there's a couple of suggestions you've got for that yeah, the ideal one is.

Doug Collins:

Ideal one is to download your tickets, so you're not relying on a signal, but also take a screenshot of it yeah and even if you do that, if you, but if your phone runs out of juice, you can have a problem. So make sure you take a power bank with you yeah, we always do that.

Tracy Collins:

Make sure you actually and this is something that I doug always reminds me is make sure that your power bank is charged.

Doug Collins:

I was next thing. I was going to say having a power bank is one thing, but making sure it's charged is another I kind of depend on doug to remind me on that one, because I yeah, you said have you got the power bank?

Tracy Collins:

I mean, yeah, I've got a power bank. Is it charged? Uh, maybe not, um, but if you are going to use onboard wi-fi, it worth also just mentioning that. Um, you know that is an unsecure network, so make sure you have a vpn if you are going to connect to public networks, because that will protect your private data. The last thing you want is somebody hacking in when you're checking out your bank, or even on Facebook having a look, and that's why you need a VPN. You don't want to be on a public network.

Doug Collins:

Most definitely. I mean a lot of the new trains do have charging sockets and USBs or whatever.

Tracy Collins:

Don't depend on it. Don't depend on it because wherever you travel in the UK there is still some older trains out there, older coaching stock, which really does have nothing available for public use. Okay, so let's go on to mistake. Number 12, is not planning the onward journey from the station.

Doug Collins:

Yeah, and this is a thing that we've experienced many times when we've done the itinerary consults on this going from Edinburgh to London or London to Edinburgh, and the catching X train arrives X or Y time and you say, well, how you gonna get to your hotel? Well, not thought of that, we're not even consider that yeah, it's making sure that you plan that onward.

Tracy Collins:

You know, once you actually arrive at the station, you still got the rest of your journey to go and if you think, if you're arriving somewhere at night or somewhere a bit more rural and you know we often get asked a lot, I know what comes up. A lot is actually going out to Highclere. You could go to Highclere Castle, downton.

Tracy Collins:

Abbey is getting a train from London to Newbury, and then we get asked a lot and actually we've got it in the article yes, there are taxis outside Newbury train station, but you know, you don't know that, do you? You don't know which is why we get asked. So we don't know that before you go, and you might not know that for any train station.

Doug Collins:

Yeah. So a little bit of preparation work, a bit of research, again talking to the experts, We'll give you that advice.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, we do that research, don't we?

Doug Collins:

Yeah, I mean, if you're arriving late at night and your accommodation is 50 minutes away, it's a good idea to have something already planned.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, absolutely yeah. I mean that's something that we always check out and we know what we're doing, especially because you don't know if the train might be delayed, that's right. Or you know you might arrive, and it's, you know, half past ten at night and you've got to then find your accommodation. Know exactly how you're going to get there.

Doug Collins:

Most definitely, and you know exactly how you're going to get there. Most definitely, and also that makes for peace of mind as well, because it can be quite stressful if you're arriving into a new town or city you've not been to before and you've got to get somewhere a long way away. It can be quite stressful.

Tracy Collins:

Okay, so mistake number 13 is not exploring all route options. Now, I'm definitely going to get Doug to explain this, because he's the expert on this.

Doug Collins:

That's right. I mean, we've done a podcast on this before and all the different routes between London and Edinburgh, for example in Scotland. But because the East Coast, for example, is the fastest way to get there between the two cities, they don't explore all the other options. So whenever I'm doing a plan and a journey not just the UK but anywhere we do like circular trips, don't we?

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, we do. We want to go a different route and see different things.

Doug Collins:

Yeah and agreed. It may not necessarily be the quickest, most straightforward, but sometimes, for example in the UK, you can go up the East Coast main line, you can go via York to Edinburgh and then when you come back you can maybe stop off on the West Coast main line and go to the Lake District.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, so you've got different options but. I think and we see that quite often and it depends on time. If you're on a rush, we understand that you maybe want to go on the East Coast Main Line because it takes you straight up there and back down again. But honestly, if you have the time, it's worth exploring the route options because there's some great train routes that you can take.

Doug Collins:

That's right. So I mentioned the East Coast Main Line and the West Coast Main Line. I also like taking the cross-country route. I do not just because it goes through my hometown, but also you're going through like the industrial midlands and it's just seeing something different. You know it's not they say not the fastest, but it just gives you a whole different context perspective of the uk yeah perfect.

Tracy Collins:

So mistake number 14, we see, is not giving enough time or leaving enough time for connections between trains.

Doug Collins:

That's right and if you're putting a search in, well, I use the example if I'm going from into Birmingham, from Birmingham Moore Street, and I'm changing at Birmingham New Street, and then for journeys to Newcastle, they were just plotting their whole journey route from the starting point to the end point without realizing you can change that time between connections on what?

Tracy Collins:

what if you're?

Doug Collins:

doing using National Rail Enquiries, or even if using the train line or any others. If you split your journey up, if you don't know how to actually change your transfer time between trains, you can always do your search as individual or split the journey okay, so you could work out.

Tracy Collins:

So if I want to go I don't know from, say london to york, and then I wanted to then go from york to Liverpool, I'm just throwing ideas out here. Instead of doing it London to Liverpool, I can just do London to York and then York to Liverpool, and then I can decide I want, say, two hours in York, or five hours in York, or ten minutes in York, or whatever.

Doug Collins:

Exactly, and you can set that time yourself, because if you feel rushed between platforms, you know this. You'll give an example in a second. That's what you know. Escalators and lifts are dangerous places, and we've seen, I've seen people fall or trip over suitcases, and so you've got to give yourself a safety net yeah you've got to put that time between platforms as much as safely you can walk or transfer between the two Well, because you know I refuse to run.

Tracy Collins:

I refuse point blank to run where we have to change trains. I fell a few years ago and since then I've just said no, I'm not rushing. So Doug knows that we have to have a reasonable amount of time. Now, only you will know what is a reasonable amount of time for you to go between. You know, give yourself the time to go between the platforms. What I just want to be sure of and clear off here, doug, though, is where do I put this time that I want? So if I want to have a 20 minute, so I understand that I can book each of the legs, so I can put in london, new york, york to liverpool, for example. But if I want to do the whole thing, and I put it in and we're talking here National Rail Enquiries if I put in London to Liverpool and I wanted time in New York, where do I put that? Is that on the actual?

Doug Collins:

website yeah, it's on the website and on the app you can set it transfer time for short, medium time or long time. You can actually specify exactly how long you want it to be.

Tracy Collins:

How many minutes?

Doug Collins:

In intervals yes, oh, okay, oh that's really useful.

Tracy Collins:

Well, that is a really good one, and I usually depend on Doug to sort our connections out. But I know, and we have been asked numerous times actually, and you've been asked a lot in the Facebook group recently about do I have enough time to get even changing train stations in london? You know, have I got time to go from london to king's cross and then I've got to go to st pancras to catch a train? Um, you know I've got five minutes. Is that going to be enough time? Um, well, we can tell you straight away that wouldn't be um and doug's expert, he will know that sort of information. So it is worth asking if you're unsure. But again, I think it's calculating yourself what would work for you.

Doug Collins:

There's one thing in the example you've just given when a train arrives say, a train is due to arrive at 10.30 and it pulls in at 10.30, in some scenarios it can be 10 minutes before you've even left the train.

Tracy Collins:

That is true, that is absolutely true.

Doug Collins:

Yeah.

Tracy Collins:

If it's a lot of people on that train yeah and everybody's trying to get off.

Doug Collins:

Particularly at a terminal station.

Tracy Collins:

And then you've got to show your ticket to get off the platform.

Doug Collins:

Then you've got to orientate yourself when you get off there, Before you're even actually walking out of the station. In concourse you can't be talking 15 minutes. Yeah, that's true.

Tracy Collins:

So you've got to take that into consideration. So I know we've given you the mistake. We've given you lots of options to think about with that, but make sure that if you are having to do a connection on train, that you give yourself enough time, even if it's just changing platforms.

Doug Collins:

That's it, but do not rush Now mistake number 15 and we, we.

Tracy Collins:

This comes up a lot in consults actually, and I think this is probably where this came from, when, when we were kind of talking about what we, what were the mistakes that we hear most often or come across, and that is booking a flight out of the uk, particularly from heathrow, on the same day as you're taking a long train journey, for example, getting down from edinburgh to london in the morning and then flying out in the afternoon. Or even taking the caledonian sleeper, say, from inverness um, and then leaving the following morning flying out.

Doug Collins:

We never, ever, ever recommend doing that no, we almost cringe when we read, or hear about that.

Tracy Collins:

Well, it stresses me out.

Doug Collins:

Yeah, yeah, I mean it's just too much of a risk.

Tracy Collins:

It's a risk.

Doug Collins:

yeah, it's really too much of a risk. I mean, there was one a couple of weeks ago. Somebody was actually travelling on a Sunday from Edinburgh. They were flying out of Gatwick in London and they were planning on travelling down early Sunday morning. And I answered the question. This was in the Facebook group. I went probably not the best of ideas.

Tracy Collins:

No, definitely not that would just stress me out. Even just you telling me about it stresses me out. And I mean we know in the Caledonian Sleeper, because again, we do hear people think all right, I'll tell you what. We'll get the Caledonian Sleeper on the Monday night, arrive in London on the Tuesday and then I'll get the plane out on the Tuesday afternoon.

Doug Collins:

It's a nice plan. I mean, we just know. This week, for example, the Caledonian sleeper didn't make it up to Inverness. A tree fell on the line and damaged the overhead cables, yeah.

Tracy Collins:

So can you imagine how stressed it would be if you were coming down from Inverness to catch a flight that next day and you didn't get down to Inverness, I mean with fully understanding.

Doug Collins:

You know. If your itinerary is packed and you're short for time and you want to enjoy an extra day somewhere, I totally understand. I totally understand the motive behind it. But you've got to think if you miss that flight out, you're creating a lot more problems for yourself.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah well, a lot more costs which again is why, if you have an itinerary consult with us, it will be something we would advise on and we have advised on this numerous times and looked at itineraries and changing things around so that you have maybe the last couple of days in London, so then you're not stressing out all Edinburgh or wherever you're flying out from, so that you don't have or you are much closer to the airport on the last couple of days rather than kind of depending on well, when we do the itinerary consults, you know we always streamline, uh, everybody's itinerary.

Tracy Collins:

We usually save on time and money anyway, yeah absolutely, absolutely well, that's what we aim to do and we always get fantastic feedback on the consultations, which I will say are open at the minute. So, if you are considering a consult, there are bookings available and we're actually just going to start a waiting list as well. So if you want to put your name on the waiting list and then we'll send you an email when they do open, because we don't offer them all year round because of our own kind of things that we've got to do but, yeah, you can do that, your own commitment. But yeah, I think we've covered pretty much kind of those top 15 mistakes that we hear about and giving you the solutions.

Doug Collins:

Um, so we hope you feel more confident about planning your uk real adventure yeah, I mean, they're all easy to fix and you know once you know what to look out for.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, for sure now if you want to dig deeper, as I said, Doug's Guide to UK Train Travel eBook will walk you through everything tickets, routes, apps, passes, some scenic journeys to do, some fantastic train journeys to do in the UK and it also includes itineraries. I think there's 12 itineraries that you developed, train itineraries already done for you in that eBook.

Tracy Collins:

Yeah, definitely, and if you'd like help plan your specific itinerary, I offer one-to-one consultations where I can map it all out for you, saving you time, money and stress and we'll also invite you to join our free Facebook group, which is run by Doug, which said UK train travel tips, and you've got thousands of people in that group now really a few thousand yeah so that's good, and he's always there answering questions, sharing tips and giving out advice every week with you and your moderators, which is great.

Tracy Collins:

I will put links in the show notes to the Facebook group, the eBook, doug's itinerary consult. So that's at UKTravelPlanningcom forward slash episode 157. As I said, we also have plenty of other podcasts about train travel, as well as articles on the website, so do check that out. As always, thanks for your support, thanks for listening to this episode, and that just leaves Doug and I to say until next week.

Doug Collins:

Happy UK travel planning.

Tracy Collins:

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the uk travel planning podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favorite podcast app? We love to hear from you and you never know, you may receive a shout out in a future episode. But, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week. Happy UK travel planning.