London easiest to travel to? (was National Vegan Festival - London)

[Guest guest]

On Sat, 10 Aug 2002 08:47:00 +0100, " Janey " <janey

wrote:

 

>From a public transport point of view, London must be the easiest

>place to travel to!

 

This is just patently untrue!! As we can put aside air travel (as few

UK people would travel that way for any similar event), and also rule

out driving to a venue in London (as that would be utter madness),

let's consider some train journey times:

 

(N.B. Times roughly averaged)

 

Destination: Birmingham London

 

Starting Plymouth 3h 30m 3h 30m

Bristol 1h 30m 1h 40m

Cardiff 2h 15m 2h 10m

Oxford 1h 15m 1h 0m

Norwich 3h 20m 1h 45m

Manchester 1h 45m 2h 40m

Liverpool 1h 45m 2h 50m

Leeds 2h 10m 2h 20m

Newcastle 3h 25m 3h 10m

Glasgow 5h 0m 5h 30m

Edinburgh 4h 50m 4h 35m

 

In London of course, the journey times above just get you to one of

the main railway terminals. Depending on which terminal you end up at,

you then have a (possibly lengthy) extra journey on the grimy,

overcrowded and claustrophobic tube to contend with. In Birmingham,

venues for events of a comparable size could be found which is within

easy walking distance of Birmingham New Street station.

 

On top of that it is, of course, feasible to drive into Birmingham.

Driving to London, you have to park up short somewhere and switch to

trains/tube to get into the centre and it all takes absolutely ages.

 

Unless you live in the East Anglia, or the extreme south or south-east

of the UK, London is clearly *not* the easiest place to get to by

public transport. Getting to the door of a suitable venue in

Birmingham would even be quicker from as far south as Oxford than

going into London!

 

Oddly enough, apart from yourself Janey (don't forget to allow pretty

much an hour longer for your train journey than you seem to think it

will take BTW), all the people proclaiming London to be the centre of

the universe would appear to live in or near there - funny that!

 

One final thing - don't forget to tahe an oxygen mask with you and be

very careful crossing the road once you arrive!!

 

Chris W

[Guest guest]

Put your own festival on in Birmingham next year then and compare attendances

 

 

Chris Wright [chrisw]

London easiest to travel to?

 

 

On Sat, 10 Aug 2002 08:47:00 +0100, " Janey " <janey

wrote:

 

>From a public transport point of view, London must be the easiest

>place to travel to!

 

This is just patently untrue!! (snip)

[Guest guest]

I go to London at least twice a month by train so I know how long the

journey takes! Duh!!! It's well known on here that I love the West End

theatre and that's why I frequent London so often. I always get the train.

I always enjoy it and I never moan that the theatres aren't in Birmingham,

for example! The National Vegan Festival is in London and seeing as it is

the capital, I have no problems with that at all. Get over it Chris! Geez.

There's nothing bizarre or odd about having national events in our capital.

 

Janey

 

 

> Oddly enough, apart from yourself Janey (don't forget to allow pretty

> much an hour longer for your train journey than you seem to think it

> will take BTW), all the people proclaiming London to be the centre of

> the universe would appear to live in or near there - funny that!

Chris