Summary with all the stats

This UK Rail Tour was two years in the planning.  Covid brought major delays with lockdowns and travel restrictions. Then railway companies only ran temporary schedules and finally the May to December timetable was published three months late.

During these months I developed a rather large spreadsheet containing all the relevant train times, connection times, refreshments, train lengths and much more. Train length is important: if you find yourself at the wrong end of a 9-coach train as it'll take a full 5 minutes to walk the length of 9 coaches to the lift/bridge/exit.  

Please skip the following if spreadsheets are not your thing.

Detail of part of one sheet of the spreadsheet 

LH column:

Station mnemonic (e.g. TRN=Troon), useful in many train websites.

Miles between stations (TRN->GLC = 33miles)

2nd column: 

Station name

Recommended minimum time to change trains (A Network Rail figure)

Link to, and number of, the electronic timetable for this journey

Number of station stops (TRN->GLC=11)

3rd,4th,5th columns:

Arrival, platform number, and arrival time

Station refreshments (+) (if wait >45minutes), calculated earliest next train (*), actual wait time (**)

  (+) 1st lge = First class lounge, c=cafe, pub=pub, etc.

  (*)arrival time + min. change time + walk half train length + 10minutes allowance for late arrival

  (**) departure time - arrival time

Departure, platform number, departure time

Journey time to next station, time of previous train (in case early), onboard refreshments(*)

  (*) Trlly = snacks and hot drinks at seat (often booze too), Free = Free meal & drinks at seat

Columns 6 to end:

Grey: Train class (*), ID Code (to find no. of coaches), Train type (**), valid=connection checked

  (*) E=Express, can be 10 min late, L=Local, can be 5 min late.

  (**) There are over 60 train types. e.g. EMU0 = Electric Multiple Unit 3 or 4 coaches, EMU390 = Pendolino with 9 or 11 coaches 

Coloured: Train destination (GLC=Glasgow Central, EUS=London Euston), no. of coaches, Train operating company (SR=Scotrail, VT=Avanti West Coast), Class (First/Standard), Reserved seat number

Another sheet summarises this into handy daily itineraries such as shown here 

To the nitty gritty:

The Extremities Tour (NSEW)

These three journeys would have cost much less if it would have been possible to booked all the sleepers for consecutive nights. Then, buying a 7-day Rail Rover and paying the excess fares for sleeper accommodation would have saved around £500.

5 nights accommodation: £645

Food and drink: £355 (I didn't hold back in the lounge cars!)

Total £1,000  = £200/night

Transport: 2840miles 1st Class: £902 plus 794 miles Std Class: £194

Total travel time: 3days 8hours

Total £1096 = 30p/ml

UK Circular Tour

13 nights accommodation: £1297

Food and drink: £439

Total £1736 = £134/night

Transport: 1158miles 1st Class: £467 plus 981 miles Std Class: £373

Total travel time: 2days 7hours

Total £840 = 39p/ml

This is slightly more expensive because I had a rest day in Shrewsbury and another in Inverness, that's two days not travelling and using the Rail Rover.

UK Circular Tour Corrections

The following includes not only the corrections journeys themselves (orange in the previous maps) but also travel to, from and between them and the two extra days to use up the Rail Rover (purple and red in the maps).

3 nights accommodation: £247

Food and drink: £42

Total £289 = £96/night

Transport: 1509miles 1st Class: £489 plus 465 miles Std Class: £91

Total travel time: 1day 12hours

Total £540 = 27p/ml

All these travel costs compare very favourably indeed with the running costs of my small 8-year-old car which currently stands at 41p/ml (plus depreciation which would add 45p/ml)

The value of a Rail Rover and Senior Rail Card

The Senior Railcard is easy. For £30/year you get approx. 1/3 off most fares (not the accommodation part of sleepers) so just one trip costing over £100 does it. That could be a spur-of-the-moment 1st Class return to Kings Lynn, Bournemouth or Bath.

As for the Rail Rover, if I'd purchased a Standard Class Rail Rover and then paid the excess for the First Class journeys it would have cost £51 more, including the Senior Railcard discount.

The disadvantages I found with the Rail Rover were:

1/ The only place online where you can reserve seats is the GWR website, (go to www.gwr.com and register for an account. Sign in, and click Bookings at the top.)

and I didn't get the seats I asked for with Avanti, TransPennine an East Midlands, even when they were available.

2/ You must queue for the manned exit at automatic barriers.  I did this from day one because I didn't want to risk such an expensive ticket being gobbled up by the barrier. But if people ahead in the queue have disputes about their tickets this is a slow and lengthy process. 

On the penultimate day I did try my 14-day Rover in an automatic barrier - it was not accepted! So queueing for the manned exit seems to be mandatory.

The End