Meeting Travel Advice

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We are in the process of updating and improving this page so apologies for the duplicates of data

Travelling to and around the UK

There are a number of different travel options for heading to UK Universities. Depending on the location of your event, it may be wise to consider travel options that are not dependant on travelling via London. Advice on this matter will be in the specific sections for each university.

As far as possible we have included the IATA codes for airports and the short codes railway stations.

Please use the following Table of Contents to jump to the section appropirate for your needs…

Table of Contents

General Advice: Travelling into the UK

Rail Travel - Eurostar 🚅

To check Eurostar prices, you can click on the following link. Eurostar Booking

Eurostar will take you into London St Pancras station (STP), which is a direct neighbour to London King’s Cross station (KGX).

On the Eurostar website, it is possible to look at high speed links to Eurostar hubs from cities across France and western Germany as well as the Belgium and the Netherlands.

Train travel is the Green Option for travelling to and within the UK. It is, unfortunately, often quite expensive.

Air Travel 🛬

The following is a list of the major UK International airports with links to their destinations sites.

London:

Other Major UK Airports

The following map of the international airports across the UK, including some of the smaller airports with limited international destination lists - obtained from thetrainline.com’s very helpful UK travel site (further usage in Travel Within the UK section).

Bus Travel 🚍

There are a number of bus routes from mainland Europe into the UK. They may be cheap (Berlin - Birmingham is approx. £70) but can be quite a long journey (Berlin - Birmingham is around 30 hrs with Flixbus).

General Advice: Travelling Around the UK

Rail Travel 🚂

The likelihood is that when you arrive into the UK your onward travel will be via the railway network. The Trainline has a very useful page about travelling to/from UK airports via the railway network as well as the nearby major rail hubs for your onward journey.

As the UK rail system is privatised it is worth noting there are about 28 different rail operators. When buying tickets you should double check what station, via what route and which operator the ticket can be used.

Ticket machines at stations and websites/apps such as The Trainline will usually display the route restrictions when you look at ticket types.

Train Ticket Types in the UK

There are different train travel ticket types and staff will often be very strict about these:

  • “Advance” tickets are generally cheaper but you are only allowed to travel on the specfied route at the specified time.
  • “Off-Peak” tickets, if available, are generally more expensive than “Advance” tickets but cheaper than “Anytime” tickets, They have a designated time frame for travel (usually outside commuter times) and is dependant on the start and end points of the full journey.
  • “Anytime” tickets are the most expensive and can be bought for any time train on a specific route.

Bus Travel 🚍

There are a number of cheap, long distance bus routes available accross the UK. Companies such as FlixBus, National Express and Megabus offer a variety of routes, prices (much cheaper than trains) and standards of comfort/security.

It is quite hard to give general information about local buses in the UK. However, most major cities will have some kind of transport system app so a quick google search (other search engines are available) should find you the details.

Taxis 🚕

The standard price-per-mile for taxis is very dependant on the city. The size of the town/city determines whether, for example, Uber or online booking is available.

While the iconic London “Hackney Cabs” are usually black, there are no standard vehicle makes or colours of taxis in the UK.

We would recommend you check the payment method before entering a cab.

Paying for things 💳 💷

In general, in the UK you can pay either by cash or by card. However, transport is more often paid by card (in stations/London Underground) or through transport apps. Since 2020, many smaller businesses have moved to card payment only.

Travelling to Newcastle University - Home of the Penfold Group

When conducting your searches, please remember that it is “Newcastle upon Tyne”, not “Newcastle-under-Lyme”.

Travelling From Outside the UK

Rail Travel - Eurostar

Eurostar will take you into London St Pancras station, which is a direct neighbour to London King’s Cross station. Direct trains from London to Newcastle depart from King’s Cross (more information below in the Travelling in the UK section).

It should be noted that travelling via Eurostar is the Green Option for travelling to the UK. It may, unfortunately, be quite expensive.

Air Travel

Depending on your nearest airport, it may be a good option to not travel via London Airports. We recommend you consider looking at the following alternatives to London airports (the links take you to the “where we fly to” pages for each airport):

You should also note that if flying into London Heathrow Airport (LHR), you can fly directly from there to Newcastle Airport.

Bus Travel

There are a number of bus routes from mainland Europe into the UK. They may be cheap (Paris - Newcastle is approx. £40) but can be quite a long journey (Paris - Newcastle is around 20 hrs with Flixbus).

Travelling within the UK

Rail Travel

Below are a sample of journey times and return ticket costs to Newcastle Station. Please note that there are often many ways of doing the journies listed. The routes below are the most common, with changes listed in order for the outbound journey. See the General Advice section below for Ticket Types in the UK

StartJourney TimeTicket PricesRoute
Newcastle Airport30 mins£9Direct (metro)
King’s Cross Station2 hrs 50 mins - 3 hrs 20 minsAdvance: £87, Anytime: £164Direct or change in York
Edinburgh Airport2 hrs 15 mins - 2 hrs 45 minsAdvance: £53, Off-Peak: £811 change (Haymarket) or 2 changes (Haymarket, Edinburgh (Waverly))
Manchester Airport3 hrs 5 mins - 3 hrs 45 minsAdvance: £55, Anytime: £1421 change (York) or 2 changes (Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds)
Birmingham Airport3 hrs 30 mins - 3 hrs 50 minsAdvance: £87, Off-Peak: £1441 change (Birmingham New St (BNS)) or 2 changes (BNS, York)

Please note: These prices were accurate for September-December 2024. Journey times are unlikely to have changed. Price may have gone up.

Bus Travel

See General Advice: Travelling Around the UK

Newcastle Local Travel 🚌 🚊

Newcastle University travel advice has a downloadable city+campus map as well as some useful links to information about the local Metro and bus.

The Travel for Tyne and Wear website hosts the local travel ticketing, route maps and more. It can all be found on the Nexus website.