Getting to PHX

As you all most likely know, Swansea is local to pretty much no where, so here is a quick guide on traveling to the LAN centre. I hope this helps and you have a safe journey.


Luckily Swansea railway station is located very close to the Crossfire LAN centre, Google estimating a 7 minute walk.
When you travel in the UK, you can find routes from two major websites, the first being National Rail, these guys are responsible for all rail travel in the UK so you can find live status' and delay news here. It may be easier and I personally find it easier using a website called TheTrainLine, here you can find routes, times and also purchase your tickets.

The most expensive rail travel in the UK are tickets that are 'open' tickets, these allow you to travel on any train, so if you want to be cautious you should purchase these (they can be purchased at the railway station). For you Europeans here, if there is a ticket office at the railway station you must buy a ticket before getting on the train, else you will commit a criminal offence, and they do check your tickets on the trains frequently in the UK.

Walking from the train station to the LAN centre

International Rail
You can use the Eurostar service to travel by rail to London St. Pancras from either Paris Gare du Nord or Brussels Midi/Zuid. From here you can take the London Underground service to a National Rail station for a train to Swansea, this will be included as part of your National Rail ticket. Kings Cross does have a ticket office if you wish to purchase the rail ticket when you arrive.
The prices of the Eurostar train can vary quite a lot, so it is best to check prices out yourself at their website. The train from St. Pancras/Kings Cross is £75.00 (85.09 EUR)* Return off peak open ticket.**


There are several coach services in the UK, the major one being National Express.
Like the train station, the coach station is also very close to the LAN centre, just an 8 minute walk. In most situations, it will be cheaper getting a train ticket to Swansea as National Express are quite costly.

Using National Express to get to Swansea is not advised due to cost and inconvenience.

Another alternative coach travel is with Megabus, these guys were pointed out to me recently and having a look, appear to be substantially cheaper than National Express and National Rail services. The issue with these, is their limitations of destinations, and most importantly, they don't go directly to Swansea.
If you wish to save money however, these are the way forward for travel in the UK, if you are arriving to Stansted or Luton airport, you can get either a bus or train link to Victoria coach station which Megabus operated from, and then when you arrive in south Wales, get a train to Swansea. This may seem like a lot of effort, but will be the cheapest option looking at the prices.

Walking from the bus station to the LAN centre


Every major airport inside the UK will have a railway station or a free bus link to a railway station, and also will have a coach service. Once you are here, you can get to the LAN centre using either the British Rail service or National express as described above.
Most major budget airlines are based in the UK, so you can easily travel here on a low budget, the main ones being:
Ryanair
EasyJet
Wizz Air
Bmibaby

As flying directly to a close airport in Wales may be expensive, we recommend that you you travel to one of the following airports, and use the national transport system to navigate to Swansea (The Train service, or coach service as mentioned above).

• Bristol
  Fly with : EasyJet, Ryanair
  Onwards take the coach service to Bristol Temple Meads which is included in a rail ticket price for £37.50 (42.55 EUR)* Return off peak open ticket.**
• London Luton
  Fly with : EasyJet, Ryanair, Wizz Air
  Onwards take the free bus service to the airport train station which is included in a rail ticket price for £93.50 (106.08 EUR)* Return off peak open ticket.**
• London Stansted
  Fly with : EasyJet, Ryanair
  Stansted airport has a railway station underneath the main terminal building you can travel to Swansea for £91.00 (103.24 EUR)* Return off peak open ticket.**
• Birmingham
  Fly with : EasyJet, Ryanair, Bmibaby
  Birmingham airport has a 'monorail' link to Birmingham International train station, you can travel from here to Swansea for £57.70 (65.46 EUR)* Return off peak open ticket.**
• Manchester
  Fly with : EasyJet, Ryanair, Bmibaby
  Manchester airport has a railway station between the 2 terminals (1+2), you can travel from here to Swansea for £71.30 (80.87 EUR)* Return off peak open ticket.**

As well as being to get rail travel from all of the above airports, they all have coach stations/pick up points. You should refer to National Express if you prefer to travel this way.


You can get to Swansea off of Junction 44-46 on the M5, if you're travelling from England, you will need to pay to enter Wales because of the toll crossing the Severn Bridge, this is currently £5.70 (6.47 EUR)* and you only have to pay crossing the bridge towards Wales, you will not have to pay getting back.
If you need a route made, I advise you use Google Maps if you don't own a GPS, either way, enter the following destination for Crossfire: 46 Princess Way, SA1 5HE, Wales.

If you're travelling from outside of the UK, you can get to the UK in two ways, either the ferry or alternatively take the Euro tunnel shuttle, the ferry will usually be cheaper however.
There are a lot of ferry routes to the UK, the main ones being:
Calais/Dunkerque to Dover (~270 Miles from Swansea)
Rotterdam to Harwich (~280 Miles from Swansea)
For ferry travel, you should check out Stena Line Norfolk Line and P and O Ferries
Alternatively for the Euro Tunnel shuttle, you should check out the Euro Tunnel website.

Driving laws in the UK for European drivers:

• The first and most important note, we drive on the left side of the road, therefore you need to be confident driving like this. Please also note you will need 'headlight adaptors' so that you don't blind oncoming traffic when driving in the UK.
  
• Under British legislation (Road Traffic Act 1988) you are required by law to have insurance on your car, I am unsure if this is the same through out Europe, but please ensure you drive here with insurance.
  
• Driving on the motorway, the speed limit it 70 MPH unless otherwise stated (Miles, not Kilometres), you can usually identify if you're on the motorway as they tend to have road names which begin with an 'M' followed by a number, and have blue signposts.
  
• If driving through a town, assume the speed limit is 30 MPH unless otherwise stated, if at any point through your journey you see a speed sign, that is priority over the national speed limit

I advise all drivers from mainland Europe to be careful in the UK, due to major differences in our traffic, please look into this more if you are unsure. The British highway code is freely available on the main government website here

Parking
There is a Tesco store locally to the Crossfire LAN centre (Supermarket chain, postal code SA1 3RA), you can park here for free, however usually they impose a 2/3 hour limit so this should not be a permanent option. It is best if you park in the hotel you are staying at and walk from there, however there are more car parks about. For a directory of car parks, check here.

*Prices calculated with the exchange rate on 11/07/2011 1 GBP = 1.13445 EUR
**Off peak tickets are only valid certain times of day, they are substantially cheaper than open any time tickets. Check on National Rail or Thetrainline to ensure the train you want is off peak. In a majority of cases they will be.

I have tried to be as accurate as possible with the information in this, if you spot any errors, or alternatives, please let me know so I can update.
If you need assistance, also post below and I, or another Brit will be able to help you.