Birmingham airport

mel.b

My flight arrives at Birmingham airport on Sunday morning at 8.35am from SNN. I will have carry on only. What's the chances of being able to make a train leaving at 8.55? The next one after that isn't for another hour.

Bosley1421

You should be fine, the airport is small and train is not much of a walk/run.

Sorry eta, do you mean the rail link time (shuttle) or the train time? If train time, you could be pushing it.

mel.b

Not sure TBH - is there a shuttle that goes to the train station? All I know is from thetrainline website it says the train leaves at 8.55 from Birmingham international.

PLUG71

No problem, shuttle buses, monorail or a taxi!
Birmingham international is only five mins away.

spurious

I'd wait for the one an hour later. Have a coffee, don't stress.

Vego

very rare a train in the uk would leave on time anyway

Ponster

20 minutes is doable if you were leaving the plane at 8:35 but if you land at 8:35 and only leave the plane 10 minutes later then you won't make it.

Buy the ticket in advance and pick it up at the station. Birmingham have ticket machines right by the entrance to the tracks where you just enter your card and the ticket is printed in seconds. No entering PIN or such.

mel.b

Thanks - I'll watch the arrivals for a few days and see how much they pad the schedule by before deciding which train to get.

evilpixie

It would be touch and go, depending on if your flight gets in early or not and which gate. Once you exit the security, turn left and walk pass the car hire places. Go up the escalator, keep walking in same direction. You'll come to the monorail which takes you directly to the train station. Do not worry about buying the ticket at the station, you wont have time. You'll be able to buy one on the train from the conductor. Ive done it in 10 mins. Its all signed anyway. Good luck!

irishbloke77

Having done that route a few times, that's very VERY tight, indeed can't see you making it. The Aer Arann flight from Shannon, upon arrival at a normal stand, disembarks passengers onto a shuttle bus just to get to the terminal. One bus does the whole plane, so you have to wait for everyone before the bus even moves. Admittedly, when it does move, it's only a 2/3 minute journey to where you go into the building. BUT, even from there, with no baggage, no other delays, it's about 5/7 minute walk to the taxi rank/shuttle train to the train station. From there, it's only about 1/2 minutes to any platform, it's pretty closely when you get off the shuttle train. DONT bother with a taxi to the train station, that will take longer to get. As for the train tickets, just watch, some tickets need you to stop by a self kiosk at the train station to pick up the prepaid and ordered tickets. If you use trainline.com, you will need the reference number they give you and the credit card used to book it at one of these kiosks to get your actual tickets. This can take another few minutes. Finally, some of the trains, depending on destination, date of travel etc, may allow you to use any train, as long as it's operated by the same company. For example, at off peak times, the train to Birmingham city centre costs 3 pound and when you book it online, it's valid for any Virgin train off-peak. That's just an example, but by the sounds of your journey being every hour, sounds like it's a less frequent service, so it maybe train specific.
Sorry if I ranted on a bit, just wanted you to be aware of everything, personally I thinks it's too close, unless the flight is on stand by 8.25

mel.b

Just thought i'd update this. Was watching the arrival times all week and the flight seemed to be consistently getting in about 10min early, so took a punt and booked my tix online. Flight did arrive about 10min early which was great and i was at the station, ticket in hand 20min later and time to spare before my train. However in the end it didn't matter as my connecting train at Moor St was cancelled so i still ended up waiting around for an hour!