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From Times Online

May 2, 2007

Ask our expert: rail days

David Knight of Melbourne wants to take two rail day trips from London during his visit. Our expert has some scenic favourites

Image of a London to Glasgow Virgin train

Alan Heywood

Alan, I am visiting London for a week in June. Could you please suggest two day trips by rail that take in good scenery. Possibly ‘triangular’ journeys that avoid backtracking. Alternatively train trips to a destination with a stately home or feature garden. David Knight, Melbourne

Times Online rail expert Alan Heywood responds: One of the problems of planning circular or triangular rail trips is that you need to be careful that you don't pay a fortune for full price single tickets for each leg of the journey. Some of the railway operators confine their attractive fares to return tickets. For the best bargains, you also need to be able to book in advance and, on some routes, to avoid travelling at the same time as commuters. The British railway ticketing maze has rightly come in for a lot of criticism for its complexity but, having said all that, there are some real bargains to be had if you are careful, especially on Inter City routes.

My first suggestion is to take a First Great Western train from London Paddington to Swansea and then a beautifully scenic ride with Arriva Trains Wales over their Heart of Wales Line to Shrewsbury - as its name suggests, this line goes through the mountainous interior of the Principality and, whilst not the quickest train of the day, it is certainly the most rewarding. From here you can return to London via Birmingham using Virgin's tilting Pendolino train between Birmingham and London Euston.

This would be a long day out leaving Paddington at 8:45am and arriving back into Euston at 7:02pm. Although there are refreshment services on the trains, you certainly won't get a gourmet lunch and you may want to stock up with provisions. The longest break you get between trains is just over an hour in Swansea. By the way, don't plan to do this trip on a Sunday - you simply can't.

Referring to my comments about fares, you could pay between £12 and £58 (yes, honestly!) from Paddington to Swansea, £28.90 from Swansea to Shrewsbury and anything between £10 and £40.40 btween Shrewsbury and Euston. All prices are for Standard Class.

The second excursion is a lttle more leisurely and gives the opportunity to have a look around the attractive and historic city of York. Leave London Kings Cross with a GNER express at 8:45am direct to York, arriving at 10:33am. You then have five hours in the city before continuing with a Trans Pennine Express across the "backbone" of England to Manchester where, once again, you will pick up a Virgin Pendolino train for London Euston, arriving at 8:06pm. Of course you could, if you wished, return direct from York to Kings Cross and you may wish to use this option if five hours in York is insufficient for your sightseeing.

Fares range from £12.50 to £88.50 for London to York, £17.70 from York to Manchester and range from £12.50 to £58.50 for Manchester to London.

I can't stress too strongly the need for advance booking - if you turn up on the day, you'll pay the high fares. For this, you'll need a rail specialist agency or an online agency such as www.thetrainline.com It woud also be useful if you could give the agency a UK address to which they can send your tickets.

Alan Heywood is a director at rail specialists, Ffestiniog Travel

Got a question for Alan, or any of our other travel experts? Email us at yoursay@timesonline.co.uk

I would be grateful for any advice you can provide as to how to approach the following.

Last July we booked a holiday to Florida with Virgin Holidays commencing 18/7/07. The final payment is due 23/5/07.

My wife has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and is to have an operation tomorrow . The results of the operation are not expected to be known until approx 30 May but the surgeon has told us that he can see no reason why we will be unable to go on holiday ( and he will certify fitness for travel) if the result of the operation is as expected.

Our dilemma is that we will not know the result of the operation until a week after the final payment (over £4,000) is due. Obviously we need to inform our insurers but I am wondering whether I first ought to approach Virgin Holidays to ask them to allow us to pay the final payment 10 days later than it is due. Can you offer an advice as to whether such an approach is likely to be successful. My Tel No 07711008338 for more info

Chris Avill, Sheffield,