Trains and Planes in the UK in May/June

[blackrat]

Trains in the UK may be horrible compared with - say - anywhere in Europe, but at least there are trains. I suspect we get spoilt when we have something that may not be the best that it can be and should be. We turn on a tap in the kitchen because we are conditioned to expect clean water to come out, but in many parts of the world they would welcome even a single tap within a mile of their hovel.
Sorry, that sounds a bit preachy!
In the US, there are very few passenger trains which is why there are billions of miles of twenty lane highways running through cities and spewing out carbon by the 'train' loads. 🚙🛻🚌🚕🚐🚚🚛🚜All thanks to Ford who wanted everyone to buy his cars and the government to build interstate highways and neglect passenger trains. There are lots of freight lines though, and airports.

 

[blackrat]

Andy, I can't help with the planes and trains, but I wanted to check if you are aware of the new immigration rules into the U.K. for dual nationals? I only discovered them a few weeks ago and have had to cancel an upcoming trip to the U.K. in Easter because my children won't be able to comply.

Essentially if you are British or British by descent, dual national, (Which my children are) you have to travel on a British Passport to enter the U.K. British people are barred from applying for an ETA and the only way you can enter on a German passport, is by applying for a Certificate of Entitlement that will cost £589.

Sorry if you already know this, but I have a lot of Dual National colleague's , who like me, were completely unaware of all of this until a couple of weeks ago and it's caused a lot of upset.

Yes, I came across this only today. My two sons are dual nationals but only travel on a US passport, so they would be affected.
I only travel on a UK passport, so I'm home free. 🇬🇧🇬🇧

 

[chriswoody]

Yes, I came across this only today. My two sons are dual nationals but only travel on a US passport, so they would be affected.
I only travel on a UK passport, so I'm home free. 🇬🇧🇬🇧

My young son was born here in Germany and I've never made any attempt to register him as British, yet the British government have automatically conferred British citizenship on him because of me. So now we face the problem that the only way he can travel into Britain on his perfectly valid German Passport is to spend £589 on a certificate of entitlement, or we can go through the hassle and expense of obtaining a British Passport. My German wife meanwhile, can easily travel on her German passport and £16 ETA visa. I'm absolutely livid with the British government for this grossly unfair, unnecessary and ill communicated travesty.

Anyway apologies for the off-topic post, maybe it will be useful for other dual nationals.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I'm absolutely livid with the British government for this grossly unfair, unnecessary and ill communicated travesty.

Let's face it, they've got form for that sort of behaviour.

 

[blackrat]

My young son was born here in Germany and I've never made any attempt to register him as British, yet the British government have automatically conferred British citizenship on him because of me. So now we face the problem that the only way he can travel into Britain on his perfectly valid German Passport is to spend £589 on a certificate of entitlement, or we can go through the hassle and expense of obtaining a British Passport. My German wife meanwhile, can easily travel on her German passport and £16 ETA visa. I'm absolutely livid with the British government for this grossly unfair, unnecessary and ill communicated travesty.

Anyway apologies for the off-topic post, maybe it will be useful for other dual nationals.

Odd! Until I registered my sons as British they would have remained sole American citizens. Could it be because you are in Europe?

 

[chriswoody]

Odd! Until I registered my sons as British they would have remained sole American citizens. Could it be because you are in Europe?

It has nothing to do with my me being in Europe as far as I can tell, instead it all hinges on when he was born. According to the British government's website:

"You’re automatically a British citizen if you were born outside the UK and all of the following apply:

• you were born on or after 1 July 2006
• your mother or father was a British citizen when you were born
• your British parent could pass on their citizenship to you"

All of the above apply to me, so from this I'm making the assumption that my son is automatically British. The problem is there is no one to actually speak to and ask, it's all online and hopefully I'm interpreting the information on the website correctly.

 

[blackrat]

It has nothing to do with my me being in Europe as far as I can tell, instead it all hinges on when he was born. According to the British government's website:

"You’re automatically a British citizen if you were born outside the UK and all of the following apply:

• you were born on or after 1 July 2006
• your mother or father was a British citizen when you were born
• your British parent could pass on their citizenship to you"

All of the above apply to me, so from this I'm making the assumption that my son is automatically British. The problem is there is no one to actually speak to and ask, it's all online and hopefully I'm interpreting the information on the website correctly.

Well, that's new(ish). So under those conditions if your children born overseas are now 20 or less years old, they are automatically British?
From my perspective I would say that's a good thing and indicates some degree of being proud to be British, but with the new rule, and for you, maybe not?
Maybe your son would like the idea of having two passports?

 

[bluenotebob]

Anyway apologies for the off-topic post, maybe it will be useful for other dual nationals.

I'm glad you did post the info here. It's both pertinent and bewildering.

If you'd created a separate thread on this subject then it would probably have been closed down as NACA material.

If your son gets a UK passport (in addition to his German one), does that solve the problem? Yes - hassle and expense are involved - but that's always been the case.

How long would the (extraordinarily expensive) Certificate of Entitlement last?

My initial thoughts about all this were that it's yet another post-Brexit ripple - but I'm beginning to doubt that. I'm curious as to what the UK government are trying to achieve with these measures. Closing down a loophole somewhere? There was an article about it on the BBC News website earlier in the week - but I can no longer find it. It may have shed some light on the rationale behind this.

 

[chriswoody]

Well, that's new(ish). So under those conditions if your children born overseas are now 20 or less years old, they are automatically British?
From my perspective I would say that's a good thing and indicates some degree of being proud to be British, but with the new rule, and for you, maybe not?
Maybe your son would like the idea of having two passports?

I'm glad you did post the info here. It's both pertinent and bewildering.

If your son gets a UK passport (in addition to his German one), does that solve the problem? Yes - hassle and expense are involved - but that's always been the case.

We'd always liked the idea that our son could potentially gain British citizenship and were always of the opinion that we would leave it up to him whether or not to pursue it. In principle I'm not upset that he has citizenship and will have a British passport.

Where my grievances lie are in the fact that this has been forced upon us and with little to no notice. Like I said earlier I've had to cancel a forthcoming trip to the U.K. because there's no way we can get a passport in the 3 weeks left before the trip. We will need to get documents like his birth certificate and my marriage certificate officially translated and sent off and alongside these costs, the passport office have foisted an extra 20 pounds mandatory courier fee on top of the passport costs to deliver it to us.

The British government saying that it's been on there website for the last 4 months, brings to mind that scene in the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy where they are saying that the humans can't complain because the plans for the demolition of Earth had been in a planning office of another planet for years!

How long would the (extraordinarily expensive) Certificate of Entitlement last?

Just for the life of his current German passport, so currently he has one year left on his current one, then we would need a new one with his new passport. This is another major grievance, if the British Government said 50 pounds for this certificate, then I may well seriously consider it, but over €600 is crazy.

If you'd created a separate thread on this subject then it would probably have been closed down as NACA material.

I know, hopefully these points don't breach these rules, I am sailing close to the wind!

 

[Dadam]

I'd rather travel further to Manchester now and fly from there.

Wouldn’t fly from Manchester if you paid me.

LBA FTW! It’s the right size not the size of a small city, it’s half an hour away. A week’s parking with shuttle to the door every few minutes cost about 60 quid last time.
Jet2 staff are friendly and helpful. Only had issues once when we flew on the first flight out on a Saturday and there were massive queues. Last few times though we’ve been through to airside in 15 minutes.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

We'd always liked the idea that our son could potentially gain British citizenship and were always of the opinion that we would leave it up to him whether or not to pursue it. In principle I'm not upset that he has citizenship and will have a British passport.

Where my grievances lie are in the fact that this has been forced upon us and with little to no notice. Like I said earlier I've had to cancel a forthcoming trip to the U.K. because there's no way we can get a passport in the 3 weeks left before the trip. We will need to get documents like his birth certificate and my marriage certificate officially translated and sent off and alongside these costs, the passport office have foisted an extra 20 pounds mandatory courier fee on top of the passport costs to deliver it to us.

The British government saying that it's been on there website for the last 4 months, brings to mind that scene in the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy where they are saying that the humans can't complain because the plans for the demolition of Earth had been in a planning office of another planet for years!



Just for the life of his current German passport, so currently he has one year left on his current one, then we would need a new one with his new passport. This is another major grievance, if the British Government said 50 pounds for this certificate, then I may well seriously consider it, but over €600 is crazy.



I know, hopefully these points don't breach these rules, I am sailing close to the wind!

Does this help?

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

 

[Mike_P]

For some reason most journey planners for LBA-York the fastest way using the train from Leeds a suggest change of bus going to Leeds. The airport bus stops a 2 minute walk around from the railway station
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Sta...try=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDIyNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==
Alternatively staying on the bus to the bus station and taking a York bus from there is at the expense of c.50 extra minutes
A further alternate is a bus to Harrogate where the bus station and railway station are next to each other but that bus is only hourly; the train onwards is half hourly Mon-Sat except evenings

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Trains in the UK may be horrible

In what way did you find them horrible?

 

[chriswoody]

Does this help?

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

Thanks for the link, I'd actually popped in there last week and started the process of applying. I'm currently in the process of getting documents officially translated.

 

[blackrat]

In what way did you find them horrible?

It is utterly disingenuous to take one piece of a comment and attempt to create controversy with it.
Part of what I said - continuing with another's post was:
Trains in the UK may be horrible compared with - say - anywhere in Europe, but at least there are trains.