(15 Jan 2017, 5:17 pm)Jamie M wrote I either bus or I drive where bus don't go. You do have to pay for a night's in and fuel, but you are sure to end up in the right place and not end up throwing money down the loo for missing trains etc. Both ways have their pros and cons.
(15 Jan 2017, 5:26 pm)Andreos1 wrote That's the thing though. Miss a bus through a late connection and you're potentially screwed - especially if it's the last one. Thats money thrown down the loo.
Miss a train through a late connection and you're looking at a refund (at least partial) and potentially a free taxi for the last leg if it was the last train of the night.
I unfortunately cannot drive (would actually like to learn) so I don't have this option.
I personally tend to find the train the most comfortable way to travel, I can usually manage to walk fine when I get off a long train journey (often fast walking/running due to the fact the train always seems to arrive just before the Aycliffe buses depart in Darlington). I find car journeys quite painful, anymore than two hours is painful for me. Not been totally comfortable on National Express between Middlesbrough and Manchester, especially as two out of the three trips I made I got Go North East Volvo B12B/Plaxton Panther's with worn down seats with metal sticking in your arse for three hours was in no way pleasant.
Unfortunately some of my recent train journeys have been quite chaotic, irritatingly today I arrived in Birmingham 58 minutes late, two minutes short of full refund for delay repay due to train arriving early. The thing is though, any form of transport can go wrong, on one trip to Liverpool a accident put an extra hour onto our journey which was already painful enough. Nothing particularly bad has happened on National Express but I have feared about getting home on normal service buses, once thought I was going to have some one terribly long expensive journey home from Ripon one night as there was no sign of the Dales & District 70, fortunately it did turn up 20 minutes late in the end which of course made me miss the train at Northallerton to reach Darlington.