The Lemon Fool

I am due to travel tomorrow by car from the North East to Bristol and then back again the next day.

DAK if this is wise given the fuel situation or whether media reports are overblown and fuel is available along the route? (A1/M1/M42/M5/M32)

TIA.

I wouldn't dream of it.
In spite of Grant Shapps telling us the worst is over I can't find a single garage open in my part of Essex.
I've put business on hold for 7-10 days in the hope it will be sorted by then.
Someone needs to face a firing squad when it's all over.....I'll volunteer to pull the trigger.

richlist wrote:I wouldn't dream of it.
In spite of Grant Shapps telling us the worst is over I can't find a single garage open in my part of Essex.
I've put business on hold for 7-10 days in the hope it will be sorted by then.
Someone needs to face a firing squad when it's all over.....I'll volunteer to pull the trigger.

I'm not sure I'd recommend a route that takes the OP via Essex, particularly if he has concerns about fuel.

dealtn wrote:

richlist wrote:I wouldn't dream of it.
In spite of Grant Shapps telling us the worst is over I can't find a single garage open in my part of Essex.
I've put business on hold for 7-10 days in the hope it will be sorted by then.
Someone needs to face a firing squad when it's all over.....I'll volunteer to pull the trigger.

I'm not sure I'd recommend a route that takes the OP via Essex, particularly if he has concerns about fuel.

And it seems they have firing squads in Essex!

Motorway stations are more likely to have fuel than normal stations
Only people who can't plan ahead use them as they tend to be much dearer

not sure how useful this is but
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/13817095 ... wn-advice/

This IS useful
https://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/#S ... y_Services

Are you petrol or diesel powered? What size is your fuel tank? Is it full now or will it be full before you leave?

My experience today was that the services on the M3 had petrol but not diesel. One non motorway station had petrol but no diesel but I managed to fill up at my local Sainsburys.

If you need one fill up on the return journey then you should probably be OK, just start looking early. I could now do the trip with my full tank, what is your range?

John

I've just been out shopping in Shrewsbury. Both the BP and the Sainsburys just off the A5/A49 looked back to normal at 1pm,. 4 or 5 vehicles waiting but not all the pumps in use, which is pretty usual as they're 3 in a line and the middle ones are tight to get to.

Yesterday afternoon was similar when I passed, no signs out and no long queues, although I gather Sainsburys was out of diesel by teatime.

Deliveries are as they were a week ago, certainly around here, the overnight ones have arrived as normal. Reports from elsewhere suggest that the queues are subsiding.

It really depends on your car - how many times will you need to fill up to make the trip, can you fill up if the station has a limit[1], what time will you be traveling as many supermarkets get restocked overnight?

Paul
[1] £35 maximum in some stations. Really it should be a £25 minimum spend. Can't fit £25 in your car? - tough, the rest goes in the charity tin.

redsturgeon wrote:Are you petrol or diesel powered? What size is your fuel tank? Is it full now or will it be full before you leave?

My experience today was that the services on the M3 had petrol but not diesel. One non motorway station had petrol but no diesel but I managed to fill up at my local Sainsburys.

If you need one fill up on the return journey then you should probably be OK, just start looking early. I could now do the trip with my full tank, what is your range?

John

Not sure until I collect a hire car in the next hour or first thing in the morning. It sounds like petrol would be the best choice.

neversay wrote:

redsturgeon wrote:Are you petrol or diesel powered? What size is your fuel tank? Is it full now or will it be full before you leave?

My experience today was that the services on the M3 had petrol but not diesel. One non motorway station had petrol but no diesel but I managed to fill up at my local Sainsburys.

If you need one fill up on the return journey then you should probably be OK, just start looking early. I could now do the trip with my full tank, what is your range?

John

Not sure until I collect a hire car in the next hour or first thing in the morning. It sounds like petrol would be the best choice.

Unless you get a diesel with a full tank. Newcastle to Bristol is only 300 miles, there are many cars with a 600 mile range.

John

I can't help thinking that this is the motorist's introduction to what life is already like as a pilot where everything, including fuel availability, has to be planned in advance.

Just as a head's up this could go further to include filing a "drive-plan" with a local authority an hour in advance for many journeys and getting an explicit clearance before legally entering busy road junctions. Just sayin' Chris .

csearle wrote:I can't help thinking that this is the motorist's introduction to what life is already like as a pilot where everything, including fuel availability, has to be planned in advance.

Spot on, particularly as our family car is all electric but doesn't quite have the range and my wife uses it for work, school, dog training and child's fencing class today. All essential long journeys for work are therefore planned in advance and hire cars only used where public transport doesn't work.

The irony this time is just last week I was planning what to do it we have winter power outages and we can't charge our electric car. What a difference a few days made!

Newcastle to Bristol by train. Direct train/no changes, 5 hours, from £69.20 single or about £155 return.
Less flexible, but more relaxing.
Obviously less attractive if more than one travelling.

That's what I HATE about train fares
"From" and "About"
just tell me what the cost is (FFS)

pje16 wrote:That's what I HATE about train fares
"From" and "About"
just tell me what the cost is (FFS)

Just say when you wish to travel and you can have an exact price.
You'll have to get used to variable pricing for road travel in the near future. It's the same thing with air travel too, when things are busy it will cost you more.

pje16 wrote:That's what I HATE about train fares
"From" and "About"
just tell me what the cost is (FFS)

And you would know the exact cost of petrol used for the same journey by car?

It is easy to get an exact ticket price for the train journey. It is only "from" as there are multiple prices as not everyone would want the same cheapest option. No doubt if it was just a single quoted price and your option wasn't that one and when you selected it you would be moaning the price was wrong as it was now higher.

I think the issue might be with you if you can't interpret and get the exact cost (FFS).

dealtn wrote:

pje16 wrote:That's what I HATE about train fares
"From" and "About"
just tell me what the cost is (FFS)

And you would know the exact cost of petrol used for the same journey by car?

It is easy to get an exact ticket price for the train journey. It is only "from" as there are multiple prices as not everyone would want the same cheapest option. No doubt if it was just a single quoted price and your option wasn't that one and when you selected it you would be moaning the price was wrong as it was now higher.

I think the issue might be with you if you can't interpret and get the exact cost (FFS).

I think you see me and decide to get personal - give that a rest, I'm fed up with it
Read the last line of your post

I was orignally quoting a poster who used the words "From" and "About"

Or can't you read (yes a personal dig)

Come on then, don't keep us in suspense.
Did you try it, did you make it, or is your silence due to still walking back along the A1 with a water bottlel of unleaded?

Paul

I'd walk back and get the car. Fuel available in Bristol and Yorkshire. Essex might be a problem though.

DrFfybes wrote:Come on then, don't keep us in suspense.
Did you try it, did you make it, or is your silence due to still walking back along the A1 with a water bottle of unleaded?

Paul

TLDR; made it without a hitch.

The longer version is I only received the hire car 5/8 full so managed to fill it before I left and again on the motorway going South - which was enough to get me home. There seemed to be many places serving fuel along the way with only the occasional motorway sign saying 'no diesel' or 'no HGV fuel' at the odd services.

Gerry557 wrote:I'd walk back and get the car. Fuel available in Bristol and Yorkshire. Essex might be a problem though.

That is a good synopsis and backed-up by this map:

That map's out of date, this is the version for yesterday per Sky, I wonder why Northern Ireland has no problems? :


Anecdotally, things seem to be getting a lot better - round here seems to have been particularly badly hit, but now seems to be at the stage where every petrol station has fuel, but you may need to queue. Having been on fumes I was able to get a tankful yesterday after about 10 minutes queueing, the only restriction was fuel tanks only, no jerry cans.

Yesterday the PRA were saying that 16% of members in their survey had no fuel at all, compared to 27% on Thursday and 2/3 last Sunday. Of course the leader of the Supreme Soviet will attribute this to his bringing in the Army - next Monday.

MSO is still saying that motorway service stations are completely out from Kent to Beaconsfield/Winchester/Reading and those further north have been sporadically running out of diesel or petrol at times.