You can plan a journey in a number of different ways to suit
your needs.
Plan me a journey door to door...
The simplest way to search is using the
door-to-door journey planner, which searches for up to five
journey options - by joined-up public transport or by car. You
can plan from postcodes, places, stations and even local
attractions.
You can type in where and when you want to travel from and
travel to...
...and the system will give you a list of options to choose
from.
Highlight your preferred journey, the "Details" button
allows you to see step-by-step directions, including any
connections you need to make, stations names, interchange times
or driving instructions if you have selected the car journey.
Some of the images and text on the Details page contain links
to further useful information, too.
The "Maps" and "Tickets/Costs" buttons allow you to see
route maps, ticket prices and driving costs.
By clicking "Tickets/Costs", you can check the prices and
availability of rail and coach tickets. If you want to book, we
can automatically pass your journey details to one of our
partner retailer sites so that you can buy online.
Similarly, you can see your route, or individual sections
of it, on a map by clicking the "map button". You can also list
stops for a service by clicking on the transport icon in your
journey itinerary.
I know how I want to travel...
Perhaps you have already decided what form of transport to
use for the main part of your journey.
In this case you would be better off starting with
Find a
train,
Find a
flight,
Find a car
route,
Find a
coach or
Find a
cycle route. These will list journeys for just that
type of transport.
If you use
Find a
Train, you can choose between a search by time or by price.
A search by price allows you to choose from a range of fares
before you see the journey details relevant to that ticket
price.
You may also want to compare train, plane, coach and car
journeys between two cities or towns in Britain on a given day.
You can do this using
compare how
to get from city to city.
Alternatively you may want to find your nearest station or
car park and then plan a journey to or from there. Or find a
place on a map and then plan to or from there. This is easy to
do - see our
Find a Place page for
more details.
Plan me a cycle route…
Planning a cycle route on Transport Direct is simple. You
can find our cycle planner by clicking the links in the left
hand menu on the home page and on the journey planner pages.
There is also a link from the icons at the top of this page and
in the sitemap.
The cycle planner is designed to plan you local cycle
journeys within urban areas – for example, your journey
to work or school. Once you are in the cycle planner simply
enter your start and end location and choose between
Address/postcode, Facility/attraction or Station/airport. You
can even select the point you want to start or end your journey
from a map. Then enter a date and time and choose a type of
journey. You can chose from the quickest journey, one that
takes the quietest route, or a recreational journey. Then click
next.
There are also advanced options which allow you to :
- Set your cycling speed (average speed is
20kph/13mph)
- Nominate a via point for your journey
- Avoid unlit roads, or walking with your bike
- Avoid time based restrictions
At the moment there are a limited number of local authority
areas included in our cycle planner. This is due to the
availability of good quality cycle route data. We are working
closely with Cycling England and local authorities to produce
data and the areas where you are able to plan a cycle journey
will increase steadily in 2009.
There is an FAQ
describing the areas where cycle data is available.
The planner will use roads, cycle paths, bridleways, tow
paths and other routes available to a bicycle. We have tried to
make the data as detailed as possible but if you should find a
route you believe to be incorrect then we would welcome your
feedback. Please let us know by clicking the “Contact
us” link at the bottom of the journey results page.
Once Transport Direct has found your cycle route the details
will be displayed along with a graph showing the gradient of
the journey. There will also be the option to look at your
journey alongside other modes of transport to see how CO2
emissions compare – click the ‘CO2’
button.
The ”Maps” button allows you to see a route map
of the journey. If you choose to print the map we will also
display more detailed tiled views of the journey.
Those of you with GPS devices for your bike will be able to
download a
GPX
file which you can load onto your mobile device giving
you a route plan of your journey.
Amending my chosen journey
Once you have found a journey you want, you can add further
parts to your journey or amend some or all of your journey.
|
You can find the main part of your journey and then
extend the plan to show how to get from the station to
your door by car or public transport. |
|
You can modify your journey by replacing a section
that uses public transport with a car journey, for
example to travel home from the station by taxi rather
than by bus. |
|
If you would like to allow more time at the places
where you have to change transport, you can adjust your
journey. |
Once you have found some journey options, you can adjust the
times and the routes, either by clicking the "Amend" button or
by using the "Amend date and time" feature, at the bottom of
the page.
Can you remember my journey request?
Once you have found a journey, you can save it as a bookmark
("favourite") in your browser...
...and retrieve it at a future time from the "Favourites"
menu in your browser.