The railway, without the folklore

Tracks are national. Trains are run by operators with regional names: LNER and Lumo on the east coast to Scotland, Avanti on the west coast, GWR toward Bristol, Bath, Devon and Cornwall, CrossCountry across the middle, ScotRail inside Scotland, Transport for Wales in Wales, Northern and TransPennine in the north of England. You rarely need to care which logo is on the carriage. You care about the time, the station and whether your ticket is for that train only.

London is the exception that swallows newcomers. Contactless bank cards and Oyster cover the Tube, Elizabeth line, Overground, DLR and most suburban rail inside the fare zones. Do not buy a paper ticket for a two-stop Tube ride. Tap in and tap out, same card, every time.

For intercity travel, book on the operator’s site or a national retailer such as National Rail or Trainline. Advance fares are cheap and tied to a specific train. Off-peak and Anytime fares cost more and flex. If the page is shouting at you, you are probably looking at a Friday afternoon in summer.

Split ticketing — two fares for one journey, changing the ticket but not always the seat — can be cheaper. It is also a fine way to miss a connection and invalidate the second half. For a first trip, buy the through ticket. Railcards (16–25, 26–30, Two Together, Senior, Disabled) cut eligible fares by about a third. Visitors can use a Two Together if two named adults travel together, or a BritRail pass if the arithmetic of many long trips works out. Do the arithmetic. Passes are not magic.

A car is the right tool in the Highlands, much of Wales, the Lakes if you are based in a village off the branch line, and the Cotswolds if you refuse to walk between honey-coloured towns. It is the wrong tool in London, Edinburgh’s Old Town, central Bath, and any July Saturday on the A30 into Cornwall.

Drive on the left. The country is faster than it looks and slower than the satnav’s optimism at 8am. Single-track roads with passing places are a social system: pull in, let people through, do not park in the passing place to photograph a sheep.