Birmingham travel advice
I'm going to a conference in Wolverhampton on Friday. It looks as though I have two options for getting there (given that driving to Wolverhampton isn't an option in my book!).
1) Train from Oxford to Wolverhampton - there's a direct service so it would be relatively easy, although the Cross-Country service is not the most reliable and often overcrowded and I'm not particularly keen on the idea of having to stand up all the way. Journey time is about an hour and a half, plus 45 minutes to get from my house to Oxford station, and a return ticket is an eye-watering £51.
2) Train from Bicester to Snow Hill and then tram to Wolverhampton. Looks better on paper - the journey time is about the same (20 minutes' drive to Bicester, an hour and 20 minutes on the train, 35 minutes on the tram), the Chiltern Railways service has a good reputation, and the cost including parking at Bicester will be about £28.
Does anyone have any views on the relative merits of these two options? In particular, are there any Birmingham people who can offer advice as to whether the tram service is as good in practice as it looks on paper?
1) Train from Oxford to Wolverhampton - there's a direct service so it would be relatively easy, although the Cross-Country service is not the most reliable and often overcrowded and I'm not particularly keen on the idea of having to stand up all the way. Journey time is about an hour and a half, plus 45 minutes to get from my house to Oxford station, and a return ticket is an eye-watering £51.
2) Train from Bicester to Snow Hill and then tram to Wolverhampton. Looks better on paper - the journey time is about the same (20 minutes' drive to Bicester, an hour and 20 minutes on the train, 35 minutes on the tram), the Chiltern Railways service has a good reputation, and the cost including parking at Bicester will be about £28.
Does anyone have any views on the relative merits of these two options? In particular, are there any Birmingham people who can offer advice as to whether the tram service is as good in practice as it looks on paper?
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