Does anyone know how far London is from Leicester? Are there any direct trains? If so, how long does it take and how often do they run?
It's 99 miles. Call it 100.
There are two direct trains an hour and I would guess without looking it up that they take about 90 minutes.
There are only really 2 ways to travel on public transport in England - coach or train.
For train just look at http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com as you can book virtually any train in the UK through it.
For coach you basically have National Express (http://www.nationalexpress.com)
For some routes you can get a cheap train or coach through http://www.megabus.com - but the routes are limited
That's long distance / inter-town / inter-city.
It takes just over an hour from St Pancras and there are direct trains but most stop at Luton, Market Harbough and run every 20 minutes or so.
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East Midlands trains run this franchise and tickets (bought well enough in advance) can be had for as little as £11 each way.
Trains will invariably stop at Luton,Wellingborough and Market Harborough and some will also stop at Bedford and Kettering.
Journey times are between 77 mins and 88 mins.
It's a very easy journey.
Don't quite know what is going on here. There is a pattern of departures from London St Pancras and normally those at 25 minutes past the hour run directly to Leicester with no stops - time taken 1 hour 7 minutes. So they do not "invariably" call at intermediate stations.
<< Don't quite know what is going on here. There is a pattern of departures from London St Pancras and normally those at 25 minutes past the hour run directly to Leicester with no stops - time taken 1 hour 7 minutes. So they do not "invariably" call at intermediate stations. >>
If that's the case then I can only apologise. I have only ever been on trains that stop at the stations mentioned - clearly they weren't the trains leaving at 25 minutes past.
Sorry for any confusion.
There are 2 types of trains on the London St Pancras to Leicester route.The fast one/two or non-stop direct express service which takes just over the hour uses 125 rolling stock sets.Most of those trains on this route are destined for Sheffield. And then the semi-fast=more stops ie intermediate stations which is nevertheless very comfortable and uses more modern train sets.I lived in Leicester until 5 years ago and travelled the route frequently.
You might want to try Megabus.com - they also sell train tickets for journeys between London St. Pancras and Leicester.
My wife and I use them fairly regularly, and journeys start at a phenomenally low £1.00 (+ 50p booking fee).
Best fares are to be had by booking well in advance, but usually they still end up cheaper than East Midlands Trains. Have also booked via Virgin Trains before and they are often cheaper than EMT too.
(NB. both Mega Bus and Virgin Train tickets use standard EMT train services.)