Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

[Iangrayson]

Has anyone been able to actual get any of these tickets? I am trying to arrange for 2 adults and 3 children to travel to London for a couple of days in July. Received the special offer flyer today from school and yet the site seems to show no availability for any of the trains that I am trying to get. Anybody know of tricks or a search technique? ???

I commute from Sheffield to Wakefield to work each day and by buying a South Yorkshire TravelMaster ticket together with a season ticket between Moorthorpe and Wakefield is costing me £107.95 per month instead of the full season ticket price of £133.50 between Sheffield and Wakefield. This combination of ticket is valid on a through train which does not call at Moorthorpe station (e.g. 0712 Virgin Train) as permitted under Condition 17(c) of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, which says:

17. A combination of tickets
You may use two or more tickets to travel on one train journey as long as together they cover the entire journey and one of the following applies:

(a) they are zonal tickets;
(b) the train you are on calls at the station where you change from one ticket to another; or
(c) one of the tickets is a season ticket, which for this purpose does not include season tickets or travel passes issued on behalf of a passenger transport executive or local authority, and the other ticket(s) is/are not. You must comply with any restriction of use to a particular Train Company's trains shown on the tickets (see Condition 10).

I have met a number of other regular passengers travelling from Sheffield (or Dronfield and Chesterfield) to Leeds each day and I would strongly advise them to do the same.

South Yorkshire Zone TravelMaster ticket: £63.50 per month;
One Month season ticket between Moorthorpe and Leeds: £72.20 per month;
Making it £135.70 per month altogether.

One full season ticket between Sheffield and Leeds: £151.00 per month.

By buying a combination of tickets as above, a saving of £15.30 per month can be made, plus the cost of all public transport to and from Sheffield station as the TravelMaster ticket is valid on all buses and trams as well whilst the season ticket between Sheffield and Leeds is valid on trains only, and the cost of a FirstMonth ticket on the bus will cost an additional £39 per month.

This combination of tickets satisfy condition 17(c) because the Moorthorpe to Leeds season ticket is the season ticket required and the South Yorkshire TravelMaster ticket is the 'other' ticket when the condition says clearly that it is not to be regarded as a season ticket for this purpose.

My other favourite ticket is the Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket when it can be used in conjuction with a Cheap Day Return ticket from Burton on Trent for travel to Birmingham.

Derbyshire Wayfarer - valid between Sheffield and Burton on Trent: £7.50 (includes a free child place!)

Cheap Day Return from Burton on Trent to Birmingham: £5.90 - making it £13.40 in total.

A full saver return between Sheffield and Birmingham costs a wapping £27.30 - plus half fare for a child if you are taking one.

By buying a combination of ticket as above, a saving of at least £13.90 can be made just for one day out! However, in this case, the trains that you travel must call at Burton on Trent station as neither ticket is a season ticket and so condition 17(b) applies.

[woodkitten]

hi i am looking to book a return apex train ticket from cardiff to gatwick anyone got any help on how to get in there first when they are released, as i keep tel, and they keep telling me to check again next friday etc, this been going on for weeks ??? ??? last year i did it like this and missed them at the end :o

[MMMIARMW]

check out this website

http://www.thetrainline.com/default.asp?href=&T2ID=9272_2004721141249

It's easy to check train times and book tickets. Key in a journey and it will show whether Apex tickets are available.

I have used this excellent service quite a few times to buy both Apex and non- Apex tickets - they arrive next day.

[woodkitten]

Thanks for the help i have ordered my tickets now but had to keep checking daily to see if the APEX returns had come on offer. What i do not understand is how when i telephoned the great western ticket line they told me they were not available yet, for the return part of my trip the 2nd october and to try again in a few weeks :o later that day i tried again with ticket line and there they were so booked straight away ;D £30 return Cardiff- gatwick. SO THANKS AGAIN FOR THE HELP
CHEERS woodkitten ;)

Hello there - I suggested the Trainline link but not sure how I came to have name of MMM whatever - must have leant on the keyboard!

I am delighted you got your apex tickets from Trainline - as I said I have used them a couple of times with excellent results. I find it's much quicker to buy on-line.

I'm pleased you saved money!

[pipmadams]

If you travel by train and regularly buy a season (weekly/ monthly) ticket, you could be wasting money. Season tickets include weekends, so if you are only travelling on weekdays you could be paying for eight journeys a month that you don't use. Consider buying a return ticket each day- the hassle is worth it: I saved £100 a month from Guildford to Basingstoke by spurning the season tickets.

[AP]

You might be right if you only travel during off-peak hours, i.e. with the outward journey on a train scheduled to depart after 9.30am when you will be able to get a Cheap Day Return instead of a Standard Day Return ticket.

A 7-Day season ticket is usually priced at 4 times the price of a Standard Day Return ticket, so you will still save money even if you only travel Monday to Friday.

A one-month season ticket is priced at 3.84 times the price of a 7-Day season ticket with an annual (12-Month) season ticket priced at 40 times the 7-Day ticket which give even bigger discounts.

As long as the duration of the season ticket is at least one month, you can actually have it for 1 Month and 1 Day, 1 Month and 2 Days, ... , or even 1 Month and 9 Days, etc., with each additional day calculated at 1/29.5 of the price of the one-month season ticket. I always make use of these extra days on top of my one-month season ticket so that it finishes on a Friday and I don't have to start another one until the Monday after.

For long distance journeys or where a journey crosses the boundary of two counties, consider buying the tickets separately for the journey of each county. The cost of the tickets together may add up to less than the price of one through ticket. You are allowed to travel on through trains which does not stop at the station where you change from one ticket to another as long as one of the tickets is a season ticket and the other is not. This is specifically permitted under Condition 17(c) of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage.

[pin]

BTW a yearly season ticket in London (well for me anyway) you pay for 11 months and one month is free, also most train operators are offering a 5% discount on renewals.

[Chris_Powell]

Remember also if you are going to have time off to schedule any tickets to include this - I used to have a card when at college and offest higher weekly prices against holidays taken - most people I knew just paid for month at a time or yearly not thinking they would not be using it for about on third of the time

Good idea about buying extra days

[AP]

The fact that an annual season ticket is priced at 40 times a 7-Day one already takes into account people have to go on holidays some time during the year, plus all the bank holidays, sick leave, etc. You can also pay by monthly direct debit if you wish.

Most people will just buy one-month at the time when I find that the extra days you can add on for it to end on a Friday and doesn't have to start again until the Tuesday after a bank holiday extremely valuable.

[dplumb]

I've held an annual all zones season ticket from Potters Bar to London for about the last 15 years. My daily journey (probably like most other commuters) is to zone 1 or 2 station and I hardly if ever use anything else in zones 3-6. If I do, it's likely business travel which I could claim back if I didn't already have a valid ticket.

It is permissible within the rail T&C's to buy two (cheaper) season tickets to cover this journey; one a point to point NR ticket from Potters Bar to Finsbury Park (which is in Z2) and then a Z12 travelcard. The cost of these combined tickets is £375 a year cheaper than the all zones would be. I believe you could also buy a season to R12 from the station but in my case I have upgraded to Oyster. Anyway, whenever they quote prices (http://www.wagn.co.uk/fares2005.pdf), it's always just say "all zones" or "london terminals" and I've never questioned whether there was a different way of doing this.

Since I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times in the year I need anything in the outer zones (and if the train isn't running then the tube will accept tickets anyway) this is what I've renewed this year. Oh and now there is only one bus zone across London, this Z12 ticket works all the buses too. That £375 would cover a lot of travelling out of my normal pattern.

Here's (http://www.swt-seasontickets.com) a good web site to check out season ticket prices (use a trainline.com login if you have one). It is run by South West Trains but you can price (and buy) any TOCs annual tickets.

Caveats!
1. NR conditions of carriage rule 17 (http://nrekb.nationalrail.co.uk/conditions.htm) specify that for this to be valid, the train must stop at the station where the tickets change over. In my case if I chose to take a slower train I could save more by buying the ticket to zone 3 and then a Z123 travelcard, but some trains don't stop there. All trains stop at Finsbury Park.
2. If you would get a discount on your ticket because of poor charter performance, then you only get this discount if you renew for an identical ticket :(
3. It doens't work out cheaper for all stations.
4. Charter discounts are given on the total cost of the ticket, whereas after doing this you'll only get the discount on the rail portion, not the zonal portion.
5. Check all valid permutations, i.e. Welham Green to Oakleigh Park and a Z1-4 is more versatile and cheaper still.

e.g.
Potters Bar save £375 £896+£808=£1704 normally £2080
Welham Green save £524, £628(to Oakleigh Park)+£1168(Z1-4)=£1796 normally £2320
Hatfield save £388, £1424+£808=£2132 normally £2520
Knebworth save £332, £1800+£808=£2608 normally £2940

I have no idea how well this would work on other lines.

I'm just disappointed I've travelled so long with a ticket I never needed. The saving over the years is thousands.

I won't claim originality in this idea, I saw it on Usenet somewhere, but there seems to have been little exposure elsewhere.

[Glad]

welcome to the site and what a great 1st post ;D

[dplumb]

welcome to the site and what a great 1st post !;D
Why thank you ... I've lurked a while but never had anything to contribute before!

[AP]

If you look carefully at Condition 17(c) of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, it means that as long as you have one rail season ticket with one (or more) other tickets, you can travel on through trains which do not stop at the station that you change from one train to another. As you only have to satisfy one of 17(a), (b) or (c), Condition 17(b) will not apply if you have already satisfied Condition 17(c).

Your London Zones ticket is not classed as a season ticket for the purpose of this section, only rail season tickets do. So if you get a rail season ticket from Potters Bar to Finsbury's Park and then a London Zones ticket for the rest of your journey, you can travel on trains which do not stop at Finsbury's Park station, as permitted by Condition 17(c) of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage.

I travel from Sheffield to Wakefield on the train each day and I get the South Yorkshire TravelMaster ticket (the South Yorkshire equivalent of your London Zones ticket) with a rail season ticket from Moorthorpe (boundary station for S Yorks/W Yorks) to Wakefield, and I have been using the Virgin Trains non-stop service between Sheffield and Wakefield which does not stop at Moorthorpe station without any problems.

South Yorkshire TravelMaster ticket - £63.75 per month (also includes travel on all buses and trams).
Moorthorpe to Wakefield season ticket - £49.20 per month.
Total = £112.95 per month.

Sheffield to Wakefield season ticket - £133.60 per month (Trains only, no bus or trams!)

Minimum savings for buying 2 tickets - £20.65 per month + bus fares.

[dplumb]

Your London Zones ticket is not classed as a season ticket for the purpose of this section
Now that is extremely interesting, thank you!! I assumed the travelcard was still a season, though LU only refer to them as "travelcard periods" and the word "season" is not mentioned anywhere.

I picked Finsbury Park because all of my trains do stop there, but I could gain a couple of extra zones and save a few more quid by buying a short point to point and an all zones travelcard (I am literally only a mile or so outside zone 6).

Fares & ticketing options are complex though, TFL propose new zones out to Stevenage to iron out London fares.

In addition, RPI's aren't sure of, e.g. on WAGN it is permissible to travel in 1st class with a STD ticket if the train is only advertised as STD in the timetable. I felt trying my luck too far was not worth the hassle, although I wouldn't turn down the extra zones.

I'm done for this year and very happy with the saving made already but will look at that next year, thank you!

[Savvy_Sue]

Yup, your tip doesn't just apply to London. I know there were savings to be made for people commuting from Guildford to Basingstoke by buying your ticket to a different station (further out) but I don't know exactly how it worked and whether clause 17 subsection z {paragraph 99} still applies. ;D

[cfz1]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1416530,00.html

[islandman]

Thanks for that information which I have printed off and intend giving to a relative who recently grumbled about the fare from Peterborough to Birmingham.

My "dumb" question is "am I right in thinking that you ask for the two seperate return tickets from your departure station?".

My second not so dumb question is, "how do you set about deciding which of what could be many stations on route, do you request the return section to be effective from?"
Islandman

[AP]

There is another article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1416844,00.html
giving a few illustrations on how to save money by buying multiple tickets for one train journey.

I am particularly impressed by the family in Exeter travelling First Class return to London saving £211.90 by buying an Annual Season Ticket between Ryde Esplanade and Ryde St John's Road (in Isle of Wight!) beforehand.

ATOC said that ticket clerks did not always advise passengers of the cheapest deal because it would take too long was not entirely true. I would say that these people simply would not know the nitty gritty of every aspect of the entire ticketing system - when obviously extensive research needs to be done to come up with such a scheme in the abovementioned article to save this amount of money for the family in Exeter.

[islandman]

In view of the latest example, I say again, "how does one know which of the stations you call at, is the "changeover" ticket?"

[AP]

In view of the latest example, I say again, "how does one know which of the stations you call at, is the "changeover" ticket?"



There are no hard and fast rules on this but it's usually the one which is about half-way through your journey, or one which is at a county boundary where you crosses from one county to another.

[AP]

Please also see my previous posts on this topic at:

http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Travel;action=display;num=108938187 9

[AP]

New updated train fares for journeys above from 02/01/05:

South Yorkshire TravelMaster Monthly Ticket - £63.75 (includes all bus and tram journeys within South Yorkshire)
1 Month season ticket from Moorthorpe to Leeds - £79.10
Total = £142.85

1 Month season ticket from Sheffield to Leeds - £156.70

A saving of £13.85 per month (plus bus and tram fares) can be made by buying this combination of tickets.

Also, Burton on Trent to Birmingham Cheap Day Return - £6.60
Derbyshire Wayfarer Ticket - £7.50 (includes 1 free child place). This ticket is valid between Sheffield and Burton on Trent.
Total = £14.10 (or £17.40 with a child)

Sheffield to Birmingham Saver Return - £28.40 (or £42.60 with a child)

A saving of £14.30 (or £25.20 with a child) can be made on this journey by buying this combination of tickets.

[robinson-marshall]

Any ideas about travelling by train and not breaking the bank?
I wanted to travel to Scotland to visit family and was quoted £130!

If anyone has any ideas I would be grateful.


Thanks Spike

[Sheel]

Hi

I'm moving this over to the Motoring & Public Transport board for you

regards , Sheel

[trafalgar]

Have you got any rail cards ...................for instance my daughter bought a £20 family card ,it lasts for a year but the discounts she gets on tickets are very good.
Sometimes single tickets each way can be a lot cheaper than buying a return ...................booking early is another tip ,look out for 14 day savers that sort of thing .:)

[seth]

I used to use GNER to LEEDs for 6 months I got the 19 quid tickets same rate to Scotland. Go to the GNER web site and look at the 6am departures 18 days or more ahead! Get a return.

I always use the quick ticket machines, as there is no way the post can get lost if you go to the machines. A Tip get the tickets WELL BEFORE you travel don't try and use the all night machines at Kings Cross at 5am as there is no one to help you!!

Also if you have an Oyster card used the 2 quid max before 7am deal to get a cheap underground ticket :)

You can change these ticket times etc (but not at GNER) go to a BR ticket office and pay the 30 quid fee.

Easyjet and Ryanair are fine for low cost flights, but so are British Midland who fly from Heathrow. I hunt for the 8 pound tickets again look 14day ahead.

[paulie558]

Cheapest travel has to be National express,we've just booked a pound each way London-Aberdeen in April on the overnight coach.
Hope we survive the journey!!

[robinson-marshall]

Hi

I'm moving this over to the Motoring & Public Transport board for you

regards , Sheel


Hope this might help!

spike

[robinson-marshall]

I used to use GNER to LEEDs for 6 months I got the 19 quid tickets same rate to Scotland. Go to the GNER web site and look at the 6am departures 18 days or more ahead! Get a return.

I always use the quick ticket machines, as there is no way the post can get lost if you go to the machines. A Tip get the tickets WELL BEFORE you travel don't try and use the all night machines at Kings Cross at 5am as there is no one to help you!!

Also if you have an Oyster card used the 2 quid max before 7am deal to get a cheap underground ticket :)

You can change these ticket times etc (but not at GNER) go to a BR ticket office and pay the 30 quid fee.

Easyjet and Ryanair are fine for low cost flights, but so are British Midland who fly from Heathrow. I hunt for the 8 pound tickets again look 14day ahead.

Sounds like a good idea, Have tried this in the past but couldn't find the tickets.

Any more tips to find them would be great.

Thanks alot

Spike

[vanoonoo]

I've merged a couple of tips thread for rail together - hope no one minds :)

[Finishrich]

If your find yourself travelling by train in Switzerland, cheap tickets can be found Here. (http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/billette/clickrail.htm) Tickets can only be booked 2 days in advance and can only be used on the train service that has been booked. Not all trains are available on this Click & Rail special offer, but it does offer quite a bit discount on the normal fares.


Or an alternate option is the Swiss Transfer Ticket (http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reiselust/int-gaeste/sts/swiss-transfer-ticket.htm) which is valid for an outward and return journey between the Swiss border or airport and your destination station (valid for a maximum of 1 month). Only available online or from the My Switzerland Tourist Office in advance.

[BigBelly]

IM A GUARD AND FOUND THAT SOME RETURN TICKETS ARE A LOT CHEAPER IF YOU BUY IT FROM B TO A INSTEAD OF A TO B AND THEN USE THE RETURN PART OF THE TICKET FIRST.
EXAMPLE
CHICHESTER TO LONDON PEAK DAY RETURN £34.40
LONDON TO CHICHESTER PEAK DAY RETURN £19.00

IVE SPOKEN TO A NUMBER OF TICKET CLERKS AND NONE SAID YOU COULDNT DO THAT

I'm afraid that's not true. If you are a guard then look in your fare manual (actually I'm surprised that this fairly elementary point was not covered in your training). The relevant bit of the fare manual is also on the net at:

http://www.atoc.org/traveltrade/manuals/nfm/sectione-pages1-17.pdf

If you look under "SD Standard Day", you will see that the footnote states that "The outward portion of a Standard Day Return is valid only in conjunction with the unused return portion"

[girleight@]

Any ideas on Oxford to Peterborough return a week on Sat? I have a student rail card but is it possible to go for less than £27?

girleight

[jenyorkshouse]

Another way to get cheap fares is to avoid using Virgin or GNER for long distance routes. This isn't always possible but sometimes can yield high savings. For example, travelling Leeds to Cardiff on the Virgin Voyager via Birmingham or Bristol costs around £80. Instead, going to Manchester on the Transpennine Express then changing onto Valley Trains only costs about £40, and only adds about half an hour to the route.

Which you probably make up anyway, since only 80% of Virgin trains run on time! Valley Trains are really old and rubbish but at least they don't have those annoying electronic reservation systems that always go down, automatic doors that squash you flat and horrible food for £5 per sandwich.

This doesn't seem to work with online bookings, but it does if you go into a ticket office and ask people. I have always found ticket people to be helpful in finding you the cheapest route, if you ask them nicely!

[littlemoo]

check out this website

http://www.thetrainline.com/default.asp?href=&T2ID=9272_2004721141249

For reasons I don't understand, despite both the trainline (link above) and http://www.virgintrains.co.uk being owned by virgin trains, it costs £7 to get a refund from the trainline and only £5 for virgintrains.co.uk Therefore, although it doesn't directly save money, in the unlikely event of needing a refund, it's better to have bought the tickets from virgintrains.co.uk
~moo

[BigBelly]

Any ideas on Oxford to Peterborough return a week on Sat? I have a student rail card but is it possible to go for less than £27?

girleight

If you don't mind going by bus/coach then you can go for less than £12, or as little as £5.50 if you are coming back the same day.

You could get the X5 coach from Oxford to Milton Keynes, then X4 to Peterborough.

Ask for an Explorer on the first Stagecoach bus you get - which should cost either £5.50 or £5.99, depending on whether you get on in Oxford or Peterborough. This lasts a day, so you need one each way, if it isn't a day trip. This is ideal if you need to get a connecting bus in Oxford or Peterborough - you can use the Explorer on these too as long as they are Stagecoach.

Timetables are on

http://www.scbeastmidstravel.co.uk/X5Timetable.html
http://www.scbeastmidstravel.co.uk/X4Timetable.html

Alternatively, you could get the X5 from Oxford to St Neots, then a WAGN train to Peterborough from there, but that would cost more.

[crossleydd42]

Any ideas about travelling by train and not breaking the bank?
I wanted to travel to Scotland to visit family and was quoted £130!

If anyone has any ideas I would be grateful.


Thanks Spike

You don't say where you want to travel from and your profile doesn't say where you live, either. However, if you want cheap travel, don't forget www.megabus.com where you can, for example, get a bus from London to Glasgow for £10 if you book three or four weeks in advance. It takes 9 hours, but is cheap, compared with £130!

[crossleydd42]

Remember that some routes are cheaper than others.

For example, it's much cheaper to travel from Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone than Birmingham New Street to London Euston. The former just takes a little longer.

[paulie558]

You don't say where you want to travel from and your profile doesn't say where you live, either. However, if you want cheap travel, don't forget www.megabus.com where you can, for example, get a bus from London to Glasgow for £10 if you book three or four weeks in advance. It takes 9 hours, but is cheap, compared with £130!
Or London to Glasgow or Aberdeen for £1 with no booking fee with national express.Trying Aberdeen next month.

[girleight@]

If you don't mind going by bus/coach then you can go for less than £12, or as little as £5.50 if you are coming back the same day.


Yay thanks for that BigBelly. Should save us loads (there's a few of us heading there for a 21st)

[amboy]

can anyone help me find a train ticket for my friend from bournemouth to york departing around 20 - 22 march for 7 or 8 days, she will be travelling with her 18 month old boy.

The cheapest i can find is £90 and there is no way she can afford that, the booking system does not let you choose the £14 single fare option though.

Must be a cheaper way

[BigBelly]

can anyone help me find a train ticket for my friend from bournemouth to york departing around 20 - 22 march for 7 or 8 days, she will be travelling with her 18 month old boy.

The cheapest i can find is £90 and there is no way she can afford that, the booking system does not let you choose the £14 single fare option though.

Must be a cheaper way

The 18 month old boy is free, but he may be required to sit on the lap of your friend.

For outward travel 20th March and return 27th March, I have found a return from London to York for £40 Apex Return, and also from Bournemouth to London for £16.60 Apex Return, but you need to play with the dates and times so that you allow 1 hour minimum to get between Kings Cross and Waterloo. You also need to pay for tube fares (£2 each way) to get between Waterloo and Kings Cross, unless you pick up an Oyster Card in London (say at Waterloo tube station), which cuts the tube fare to £1.70 each way. However, you need to pay a £3 deposit to get the Oyster Card, but that can be refunded (by cheque in the post) if you want.

With the Apex, you are required to use the trains stated on the ticket. If not, you will have to pay again.

If you don't mind going by Megabus I have found the following journeys:

20 Mar 0700 Bournemouth - 1010 London £3
20 Mar 1130 London - Leeds £5
27 Mar 1300 Leeds - 1730 London £7
27 Mar 1930 Bournemouth - London £1

(total cost £16.50, with 50p booking fee)

The times are the same on all days, but fares differ.

You would need to get train fares between Leeds and York (£8.50 single each way), and you have to get between Leeds bus station and Leeds City Station (train). Alternatively, you could get the bus between Leeds and York (www.yorkshirecoastliner.co.uk) which would save money as they offer a period return (£7.95). However frequency is low if you go on Sunday.

There is a (small) risk of missing the connection in London - Megabus are not obliged to maintain connections. However, in an emergency, you should be able to get on a National Express coach for reasonable cost.

National Express funfares are also a possibility, but availability is less. Try www.nationalexpress.co.uk, again trying London to Leeds and London to Bournemouth separately (as these are routes were special 'funfares' are available), trying different days to see if you can get a funfare. You could also mix and match - try train between London and York and National Express/Megabus between London and Bournemouth or train between London and Bournemouth and Megabus/National Express between London and Leeds (then train/Yorkshire Coastliner between Leeds and York).

[amboy]

thanks very much for that I shall get on with booking that

[Nigel1]

"In addition, RPI's aren't sure of, e.g. on WAGN it is permissible to travel in 1st class with a STD ticket if the train is only advertised as STD in the timetable. I felt trying my luck too far was not worth the hassle, although I wouldn't turn down the extra zones."

Back in BR days, this was definitely legit if advertised as 2nd/Standard only. I used to make use of it occasionally on local trains into London. Not sure what the current rules are though.

[margaret]

Any ideas on rail travel prices from Glasgow to London?
Thanks.

[BigBelly]

Any ideas on rail travel prices from Glasgow to London?
Thanks.

Look on the Trainline www.trainline.com

'Book in advance' fares (where you must specific particular trains and travel only on those) vary from £27 to £74 return.

A Saver return if these aren't available is £90.60 (valid on most trains outside the rush hours, no need to book in advance)

'Book in advance' singles vary from £17 to £73

Megabus charge between £1 and £14 single (plus 50p booking fee per transaction) www.megabus.com (must quote reservation number to driver, no changes, no refunds)

National Express charge between £1 and £12 single for 'funfares' (book in advance, must print out e-ticket, no changes, no refunds), also £34 or £43.50 return for regular tickets www.nationalexpress.com

[margaret]

Thanks a lot BB.

[Jonapet]

Fares Manual
Sadly, the best way to find bargain fares is to use the National Fares Manuals. Unless you work in the industry, you won't have access to these (although it might be worth checking in a library). Much of the fares manual is available here http://www.atoc.org/traveltrade/fares.shtml - except for the main fares bit. But you will still find useful info about things like rail rovers (section G - cheap off-peak travel if you are travelling for a few days in a row), boundaries for cheap fares (sections O,P,Q) etc.



There are ways to crack into cheap fares. For example, I'm planning a trip from York to the lake district. I want to travel to Ravensglass (on the Cumbrian Coast). A standard single is £41.30. However, a standard single to St Bees (just a few miles up the coast) is £29.80. Plus a single from St Bees to Ravenglass (£2.15), gives a saving of £9.35. If I go via Carnforth, a ticket from York-Carnforth is £18.90, and Carnforth-Ravenglass is £10. A saving of £11.40 (or 28%!!). There are four of us going, so it is a major saving.
The reason is that the £41.30 Ravenglass route is valid via Preston. To go via St Bees means going via Carlisle. There is no significant time difference between these - just different routes. In addition, I buy a York-St Bees ticket because (and this is where the fares manual comes in handy) - for most journeys, they use the same fare for St Bees as for Workington (which is a fair way back) - so I'm kind of travelling between Workington and St Bees for free.
The Carnforth option is even cheaper because not many trains go that way - but it may well suit my purpose.

So the key tips are -
1)look at the routes you can take - one may be significantly cheaper than another.
2) If you're going to a small station, find out which larger stations are close by for the fare to come under - if you can work it out, you may be able 'hop' between stations. I appreciate this sounds complicated.

Don't use trainline
People have mentioned trainline - I would strongly advise people not to use this. It often doesn't have the cheapest fares available. If you phone up, or go into your local station, you are much more likely to be able to get the cheapest fares. In addition, its database doesn't show engineering works. Thus, you could book your tickets, and find yourself sat on a replacement bus service for five hours. If you are determined to use trainline, at least check on nationalrail.co.uk for engineering works updates first. The GNER website is a good one for special discount tickets. http://www.gner.co.uk/GNER/Tickets/Specialoffers.htm


Refunds
Many people aren't aware that if you don't use your ticket, (or if your ticket is not stamped by the conductor) you can get a refund on it. This can be useful if you buy a return ticket, but then somebody offers you a lift home. It is less cost-effective with saver tickets, since they refund you the difference between a single and a standard return (minus an admin fee).

Compensation
Never neglect to apply for compensation if your journey is delayed (the passengers' charters tell you how late you need to be to qualify for this).

Don't get caught out
Always check your ticket validity. If you've missed your connection (particularly with GNER), get a conductor to validate your ticket before you board the train. Getting caught with an invalid ticket can be a very expensive mistake which easily cancels out any savings you've carefully researched. In addition, always buy your ticket before boarding the train. Railcard discounts and saver tickets usually aren't available to buy off the conductor.

Hull trains
If you're going to London, then Hull Trains stops at Hull, Brough, Howden, Selby, Doncaster, Retford, Grantham and London Kings Cross. If you are a bit flexible about times, you can get a first class seat cheaper than a standard class on GNER (and HT's standard class seats are really cheap) - something to look out for.

Final word of caution
Don't waste too much time looking for tricks to save money on fares. They do exist, but for most journeys, it is best to just ask for the cheapest ticket in the booking office (and be aware of your rights/conditions etc.). Looking for tricks like the York-Ravenglass one above is only really worth doing if there are a few of you travelling, or if you do the journey regularly.
Perhaps the best way to do this is to talk to fellow commuters and see what they do.

[evesham1988la]

eh....? why would anyone want to go to hull?

[kevtrader]

Thanks BB for the link to a band's website! I'm quite enjoying the music lol!

I think the website you meant is www.thetrainline.com!

BTW how do I do smiley's?

[AP]

Sometimes, you may find that buying a ticket to a local station further away from a main line station will turn out to be cheaper.

E.g. For Standard Day Single Fares:-

Dewsbury to Leeds - £2.50
Dewsbury to Wakefield (via Leeds and change trains at Leeds) - £2.00

Wakefield to Leeds - £2.00
Wakefield to Cross Gates (via Leeds and change trains at Leeds) - £1.90

Wakefield to Doncaster - £5.30
Wakefield to Kirk Sandall (via Doncaster and change trains at Doncaster) - £5.10

Wakefield to Sheffield - £5.80
Wakefield to Dore (via Sheffield and change trains at Sheffield) - £5.50

Condition 15 of the National Rail Conditions of Carriages states that:

Breaking or ending a journey at intermediate stations

You have the right to break and resume a journey covered by your ticket (in either direction in the case of a return ticket) at any intermediate station, as long as your ticket is valid for the trains you want to use. You may also end your journey before the destination shown on your ticket at any such intermediate station. However, these rights may not apply to certain tickets. If so, the relevant Train Companies will state this in their notices and other publications.

[girleight@]

Does anyone know any cheap ways to get Oxford to Wakefield 18/04 and back 19/04? The train prices just keep going up. I want to travel at night both times. Thanks.

[porko]

I commute from Basingstoke to Southampton Airport on a daily basis, and for the past six months have been paying £8.60 return. I was wondering whether anyone could help save me money on this journey in the short or long term? Thanks

[Jonapet]

I commute from Basingstoke to Southampton Airport on a daily basis, and for the past six months have been paying £8.60 return. I was wondering whether anyone could help save me money on this journey in the short or long term? Thanks

the obvious answer is to buy a season ticket.

[MSE Andrea]

The NationalRail site has a list of ongoing promotions here (http://nrekb.nationalrail.co.uk/promotions/?a=displayAlphaIndex&promoType=ordinaryPromotion).

[miserlite]

Hi,

I've read with interest the success stories on this thread. I have tried similar tactics in trying to lower my season ticket costs, but am getting nowhere.

Please could those with much more knowledge and experience in this area guide me in trying to beat the £3,476 p.a. season ticket cost for Oxford to London. This is bloody daylight robbery! Monthly, it is £333 and weekly, £87.

My commute ends at Liverpool St, and my understanding is the above at least cover the necessary Tube travel from A to B. I've looked into driving to Zone 6, say Hillingdon, and then taking the Tube, but this adds an extra hour and the 100miles per day isn't a great saving car-wise.

Any help or advice would be really appreciated!

ML.

[BigNeil]

I remember once when I lived in Newcastle upon Tyne it was cheaper to go Newcastle-Edinburgh-London than go Newcastle-London. Really stupid seing as though the Edinburgh-London train stops at Newcastle. It was to do with Apex availability if I remember it correctly.

Other tips:

Restrict yourself to certain operators. This is particularly true if you're going to London at peak times. Often it is a lot cheaper. I wanted a Peterborough-Staines return (Coming back the same day) but leaving Peterborough quite early. By buying a WAGN only return to London followed by a tube ticket and a return to Staines I saved about £40!

Avoid going via London. This can save a fair bit of money (again especially at peak times) and avoids the hassle of the tube.

If you can get a ticket with a London Underground TravelCard built in and you've got to go via London then it can oftn be cheaper to buy the TravelCard ticket and another ticket out of London. Be sure to use the cheapest station to leave from though.

[BigBelly]

Hi,

I've read with interest the success stories on this thread. I have tried similar tactics in trying to lower my season ticket costs, but am getting nowhere.

Please could those with much more knowledge and experience in this area guide me in trying to beat the £3,476 p.a. season ticket cost for Oxford to London. This is bloody daylight robbery! Monthly, it is £333 and weekly, £87.

My commute ends at Liverpool St, and my understanding is the above at least cover the necessary Tube travel from A to B. I've looked into driving to Zone 6, say Hillingdon, and then taking the Tube, but this adds an extra hour and the 100miles per day isn't a great saving car-wise.

Any help or advice would be really appreciated!

ML.


Have you looked into getting the Oxford Tube between Oxford and Hillingdon?

http://www.oxfordtube.com/tube_fares.php

£940/year
£1730/2 years

(this includes free travel on Stagecoach buses in Oxfordshire)

[miserlite]

I have looked at that, thanks. The trouble with the bus is that it will add another hour at least to my journey each way, which is not really an option. It's sort of a lose/lose situation as I see it!

BigNeil, I can't really avoid going via London, but I will look into going as far as the Travelcard zones. Does a TC cover national rail trips as well? I am guessing the way to do it would be to buy a zones 1-6 TC and then a rail ticket (from a station the train calls at) to Oxford?

I really appreciate the advice so far, thank you both.

[PatR]

I need to book train tickets from Wolverhampton to London in July.
Does anyone know how soon in advance the cheap Saturday Saver and 7day saver tickets appear on Trainline? Although I want to be sure of getting tickets, I don't want to be ripped off and pay over the odds.
These tickets are shown in May but not July.

This is my first post on the forum although I have been an avid Moneysaver fan for some considerable time.

Do hope someone can help.
Big Thanks.

[Nigel1]

I need to book train tickets from Wolverhampton to London in July.
Does anyone know how soon in advance the cheap Saturday Saver and 7day saver tickets appear on Trainline? Although I want to be sure of getting tickets, I don't want to be ripped off and pay over the odds.
These tickets are shown in May but not July.

This is my first post on the forum although I have been an avid Moneysaver fan for some considerable time.

Do hope someone can help.
Big Thanks.
Pat, take care with the terminology. The book ahead tickets I think you mean are the Virgin 'Value' tickets which are sold in limited numbers. They should be available 12 weeks ahead but as you've probably discovered, at weekends they often are not. Virgin need the train times from Network Rail in order to load them into their computer, and have been blaming NR for not supplying those times until just a few weeks before. NR say its all to do with all the engineering work. Either way, the only way to be certain is to keep trying every day.
Don't be stampeded into buying a 'Saver' ticket. These are walk up tickets that are unlimited in numbers sold and can be bought right up until the last minute. So if all else fails, you could buy a Saver on the day.
Another alternative is to book a separate Chiltern ticket from Birmingham to London. These are generally much cheaper than the equivalent Virgin tickets, especially if you're coming back the same day. It just takes a bit longer to get to Marylebone than to Euston. Check out the National rail Enquiries website http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney/time_table/journey_requirements.asp?&T2ID=3445_2004710171233
Hope this helps.
Nigel1

[BigBelly]

Another alternative is to book a separate Chiltern ticket from Birmingham to London. These are generally much cheaper than the equivalent Virgin tickets, especially if you're coming back the same day. It just takes a bit longer to get to Marylebone than to Euston. Check out the National rail Enquiries website http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney/time_table/journey_requirements.asp?&T2ID=3445_2004710171233
Hope this helps.
Nigel1

Further to that re Chiltern, there is a Just 15 ticket at £15.00 return (from most stations in the West Midlands, including Wolverhampton to London Marylebone), and you need to change at Birmingham New Street then walk to Moor Street to get the train to London.

There is no need to pay separately from Birmingham, a through ticket from Wolverhampton is also £15, as long as you go via Birmingham Moor Street and use Chiltern into Marylebone.

There is no need to book in advance and the Just £15 is available 7 days a week on any train leaving Birmingham Moor Street after 11.00. Return from London Marylebone any time between 11.00 and 15.00 or after 19.30.

Railcard discounts apply too.

[Sherise]

Help! on a last minute notice,I need to go from stockton-on-tees, somewhere near newcastle, but nearer middlesborough to london this weekend.

And the train fares are exorbitant! I have tried mega bus, but the timings are such that I spend less than 24h of the whole weekend in London before I have to travel back.National express is expensive too, over £30 and timings are about the same as mega bus.

Any help would really, really be appreciated

[alanrowell]

Cheap and short notice don't go together, so either pay the full whack or take the overnight bus to / from London.

[sparkymark]

See my post in Freebies Freebies Freebies section for details of how to get hold of one which entitles you to 33% off most rail tickets as long as at least 1 child in your group travelling together.

[Sherise]

Hi,
I have scrolled through the forum posts.does anyone have any idea how do I
1) break this journey?
2) any promotion going on in any place that is part of this leg of the journey

so as to achieve cheap Stockton-on-Tees tickets to Bristol?

Thank you to alanrowell who answered my previous post.

[fezza]

Try different routes eg across to manchester and down to bristol using searches in trainline,national rail enquiries, virgin ,some fairs are available on one site and not others.My dear old mum tried to book a ticket yesterday at the station, from north scotland down to me in cardiff for end of may was told it would be £146 odd.Today by breaking up the journey into 3 chunks and buying super advance returns for each legg of the journey I managed to reduce that down to £96.It took a bit of juggling back and fore for the connections :but it can be done. The super advance only needs 24hr notice.

[Mids_Costcutter]

A number of people have asked how to go about breaking a rail journey up into shorter legs and thereby reduce the total cost of a fare from A to B.

In my experience this works best for day returns by seeking journey legs where a cheap day return or standard day return fare is available. The ticket clerk at my local station suggested that as a rule of thumb these fares are available on journeys up to 30 - 40 miles, though this depends on the train operator. So try to break a journey up into legs of this length buying separate return tickets (cheap day or standard day returns) for each leg.

An example travelling from Birmingham International to Leeds for the day:

A saver return costs £38.20 (subject to time restrictions and usually doesn't allow travel before 09.00) and an open return £59 (choose any train you like). However the journey could be broken down as follows:

Birmingham International to Derby: £12.10 standard day return
Derby to Sheffield: £7.40 cheap day return
Sheffield to Leeds: £8.80 standard day return

This results in a total fare of £28.30 saving £9.90 on the saver or a £30.70 saving on the standard open return.

Similarly the fare for a Birmingham Oxford day return can be signifcantly reduced by buying separate Birmingham Banbury and Banbury Oxford returns.

For journeys to London though this trick doesn't seem to work - a different fare structure? I'd be interested to hear the experience of others on this.

[AP]

An example travelling from Birmingham International to Leeds for the day:

A saver return costs £38.20 (subject to time restrictions and usually doesn't allow travel before 09.00) and an open return £59 (choose any train you like). However the journey could be broken down as follows:

Birmingham International to Derby: £12.10 standard day return
Derby to Sheffield: £7.40 cheap day return
Sheffield to Leeds: £8.80 standard day return

This results in a total fare of £28.30 saving £9.90 on the saver or a £30.70 saving on the standard open return.


You can actually do better than this by using the Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket which is valid between Sheffield and Burton on Trent on train services scheduled to depart after 9.00am, and you can take a child for free. The tickets would then be as follows:

Assuming that you arrive at Burton on Trent after 9.00am -
Birmingham International to Burton on Trent: £9.10 Standard Day Return
Burton on Trent to Sheffield: £7.50 Derbyshire Wayfarer
Sheffield to Leeds: £7.00 Cheap Day Return (Not via Doncaster) - as it will be after 9.30am by the time you arrive at Sheffield

Total = £23.60 which means even more savings! However, the train must stop at Burton on Trent for this combination of tickets to be valid.

[sockospice]

You might be interested to know that as of 12th June, Virgin will no longer be offering compensation on any 'value' advance purchase tickets (unless the circumstances are exceptional, ie several hours late). At the moment you can apply for compensation if the train is delayed by 30 mins.

[rolpaula]

I always go to the desk and ask about all variations of tickets along my route just ask about prices to different destinations on your route and along your route instead of the one journey .......cheap day returns and period returns can work out much cheaper than paying for a ticket to a specific destination in one go.......booking in advance normally saves a packet........hope that helps........on One trains in the East best deal is day ranger.......... travel anywhere in the region at one price

[GJS]

A number of people have asked how to go about breaking a rail journey up into shorter legs and thereby reduce the total cost of a fare from A to B.

In my experience this works best for day returns by seeking journey legs where a cheap day return or standard day return fare is available. The ticket clerk at my local station suggested that as a rule of thumb these fares are available on journeys up to 30 - 40 miles, though this depends on the train operator. So try to break a journey up into legs of this length buying separate return tickets (cheap day or standard day returns) for each leg.

An example travelling from Birmingham International to Leeds for the day:

A saver return costs £38.20 (subject to time restrictions and usually doesn't allow travel before 09.00) and an open return £59 (choose any train you like). However the journey could be broken down as follows:

Birmingham International to Derby: £12.10 standard day return
Derby to Sheffield: £7.40 cheap day return
Sheffield to Leeds: £8.80 standard day return

This results in a total fare of £28.30 saving £9.90 on the saver or a £30.70 saving on the standard open return.

Similarly the fare for a Birmingham Oxford day return can be signifcantly reduced by buying separate Birmingham Banbury and Banbury Oxford returns.

For journeys to London though this trick doesn't seem to work - a different fare structure? I'd be interested to hear the experience of others on this.


Mids

It worked FROM London on a recent Saturday journey to Brum. Value tickets to Coventry are less popular it seems than Brum so with a Value ticket to Coventry and a single ticket from Coventry to Brum I could travel on the same train at a considerably lower fare ...

GJS

[saver_sam]

If you are in the Southern Railways area (mainly the south coast between Hastings & southampton) they do a ticket called 'DaySave'. However, Southern DaySave is only available for offpeak travel, can only be booked online, and must be purchased a minimum of 7 days before travel.

Southern DaySave costs just £10 per adult, or in a group (valid for up to four passengers who must travel together) DaySave costs just £20.

Accompanied children travel for only £1 each (maxiumum 4 children per paying adult or group ticket).

This is a good saving for us on the coast as it costs around £18 each to get to Victoria Station off peak. Even adding on a tube ticket when getting to London still makes it much cheaper.

See http://www.southernrailway.com/book_online/book_online.shtml and click DaySave for more details

Sam

[woody505]

Hi ppl,
I want to travel between inverness and leeds and was on the national rail site earlier finding the cheapest price for me. I dont want to travel till the 24th august which is enough time to take advantage of the 14 day in advance booking but there was no little circle to click in. Does this mean they've sold out or you cant buy the 14 day advance online and that i need to visit a train station?

[Jonapet]

Hi ppl,
I want to travel between inverness and leeds and was on the national rail site earlier finding the cheapest price for me. I dont want to travel till the 24th august which is enough time to take advantage of the 14 day in advance booking but there was no little circle to click in. Does this mean they've sold out or you cant buy the 14 day advance online and that i need to visit a train station?

I've written before on this thread warning people not to book tickets online if you're hoping for a bargain (although the GNER website is sometimes an exception when they have particular online offers).

Websites like trainline don't have the availability for the value fares. Your best bet is to go into a station. Sometimes, due to inertia in preparing emergency timetables for engineering works, it can take a while for the value fares to become available. If you're travelling on a weekday, however, you will find it easier.

There are more value fares available outside of peak travelling times.

My advice is, if you don't know the system, always buy your ticket at a station. They've got the full range of tickets, and sometimes the staff can give you helpful advice about the best combination of tickets to buy.

I've also had Chester-le-track recommended to me - 0191 387 1387- they apparently have expertise in working out the best way to make a particular journey. They don't charge extra for this, unless you are creating work for them by making speculative enquiries.

[Jonapet]

Oh, and for international rail travel, I've been told that Ffestiniog travel is excellent at sorting out the journey for you http://www.festtravel.co.uk/opening_page.htm

[Elver]

I use a combination of train and London underground. Zones 1 - 4. Are there nay ways to reduce a weekly cost of £30.40? I do not have a car until October, so I tend to use the trains and buses on weekends too!

[Jonapet]

There are generally three common ways of buying a season ticket - a week, a month, or a year. If you know about these, then scroll down to the *****s - for a strategy to get the savings of an annual season ticket, but only buying "monthly" season tickets.

Each of them offers savings. Typically a weekly season ticket is equivalent to about 3.5 day's travel. So if you are making the same journey at least 4 times in a week, then there is a saving to be had.

If a weekly season ticket costs £20 (£2.86 per day), then the multiplication rate for a month is 3.84. So a monthly season ticket would cost £76.80 (£2.56 per day).

Although there is a daily saving from a weekly to a monthly season ticket, the rate then goes up uniformly up until ten and a half months. The multiplication rate is then 40 for any period from then up until one year. 20*40= £800 (£2.19 per day). Compare this to £960 for 48 weekly season tickets (assuming 4 weeks holiday)

Clearly the biggest saving is to buy an annual season ticket.

**********************
HOWEVER, there's an interesting bit which fewer people know about. You don't have to buy a monthly season ticket. You can buy a season ticket for a month and one day, a month and two days - all the way up to 11 months and 30 days if you are so inclined.

This allows you to buy monthly season tickets but skip one weekend a month by buying a couple of extra days. If you know you have two week's holididay planned, you can buy a month plus the days up until your holiday.

e.g. I shall be buying a new season ticket on monday 12th Sept. Normally a month would take me up to the 11th Oct (a tuesday). Instead, I shall extend it until the 14th Oct (a friday), which means I miss out the weekend, and buy my next one on the monday.

One weekend a month equals 24 days a year - more than three weeks. An annual season ticket effectively offers six free weeks over the cost of 12 monthly season tickets. So I've only got to find three more weeks to bring the cost of my "monthly" season tickets down to the rough cost of an annual season ticket. Not too difficult as long as I'm aware of when I will be taking my leave.

The big advantage this is no initial outlay for an annual season ticket - more interest on my bank balance and increased cash flow.


Other tips - if you are not going to be using the whole period of the season ticket you've bought, it's well worth looking into a refund. The admin fee is £10, so if you have a few days or weeks left on it, then it is worth asking.

If you prefer the convenience of buying an annual season ticket, consider buying it just before fares go up (typically in dec/january). This means you get to travel next year at this year's prices.

[Jonapet]

I use a combination of train and London underground. Zones 1 - 4. Are there nay ways to reduce a weekly cost of £30.40? I do not have a car until October, so I tend to use the trains and buses on weekends too!

Elver - I don't live in London but I think you can get period travelcards on a similar basis to season tickets - see my post above.

[darude]

Dear All,

I travel from London to Birmingham on Friday after work (at about 5pm)

and I travel from Birmingham to London on Monday morning before work (at about half 6am)

As you can see, these are all peak hours and I do this every week.

Could anyone recommend anything I could use that could save me money with the journeys I'm making (even if its a penny!) - I'm currently spending £23.05 (with Young Persons Railcard) for Return tickets every week from TheTrainLine and I have to travel Friday evenings and Monday mornings.

Many Thanks!

[mjk]

Have a look at the thread re 50% off railfares, should be easy to find There's an offer (closing tomorrow I think so get in quick!) where you book through Scotrail but can travel anywhere and save 50%. I don't know how far in the future you can book, but you should be able to get several weeks half price travel this way.

[darude]

The site is very on and off, its weird! I book a ticket and then it 50% off, I removed it from the basket because I selected the wrong Fast Ticket machine and then it doesn't give the discount. I'm going to try register in a different e-mail address.

[mjk]

Other users seem to have had problems but persistence seems to pay off. Site worked fine for me though, I was lucky!

[darude]

Yeah finally works, I must have tried it 10 times already - hope they didn't take 10 x £80 off me!!!

[sawanderer]

Link to HALF PRICE TRAIN TICKETS thread on the Grabbit board (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=86673)

Buy UK rail tickets with 50% off - book by 1st September for travel up to three months ahead.

Also includes a hint on how to get almost half price travel for Christmas.

[jenny_f]

Hi

Cheap train tickets - as everyone's already said book the journey sperately yourself, work so much cheaper.

Also if you have a young person's railcard I've found transpenine express really good. Normally the student fair Huddersfield to York (return is ) about £11.00 Transpenine Express student getaway fare, £5.60! Bargain and you get a reserved seat. Have to travel off peak and book 6pm the day before but it is half the usual student fare!
http://www.firstgroup.com/tpexpress/student_getaway.htm

[alexthomas]

Can anyone confirm or deny that this works?

I start a new job in Leeds on Monday, this would save me alot of money.

[Jonapet]

Can anyone confirm or deny that this works?

I start a new job in Leeds on Monday, this would save me alot of money.

Note - you have to travel off-peak. i.e. journeys starting after 9:30am mon-fri.

If that fits in with your job then you're lucky!

[kondormid]

What I really need, is some way of checking train routes, not just platform changes, anyone know where I can get this info?

[waster]

What I really need, is some way of checking train routes, not just platform changes, anyone know where I can get this info?

Depends whet you mean by train routes?

If you want a journey planner then National Rail (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/index.html) has a journey planner (see tab at top of page) that will give you options between your start and fnish points as well as fare options - sometimes two singles are cheaper than a return!!!. There is also a Train Companies and Maps tab that will give you the links to various timetables and maps of the networks.

There is also this German web site (http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?ld=212.56&newrequest=yes&) that will return more detailed information. It is in various languages just click the English tab on the home page. Surprisingly it often has more detail than the UK Rail sites.

Hope this is of assistance?

[Frontera2]

If you travel by train and regularly buy a season (weekly/ monthly) ticket, you could be wasting money. Season tickets include weekends, so if you are only travelling on weekdays you could be paying for eight journeys a month that you don't use. Consider buying a return ticket each day- the hassle is worth it: I saved £100 a month from Guildford to Basingstoke by spurning the season tickets.

As an employee of a rail company which is well known to both Basingstoke & Guildford, can I set the record straight on this.

Whilst Season Tickets are valid 7 days a week, you are NOT charged for weekends. Season Tickets are generally charged at a little under the same cost of 5 return tickets and more of a discount in some cases.

For annual season tickets, your ticket is valid for 364 days however the cost is the same as 280 day tickets.

John

[Spikey]

Any codes out there to get discounts on rail travel to scotland.... ie via scotrail, gner, virgin etc etc

TIA

Spikey

[Testee]

I have discovered an interesting anomaly in the pricing for standard return tickets and I'm sure there must be others......

A standard return to Liverpool Street in London from Southminster in Essex is £19.00 but a standard return to Croydon via Liverpool Street is £17.10.

A standard return to Liverpool Street in London from Rochford in Essex is £20.00 but a standard return to Croydon via Liverpool Street is £17.10.

However if you travel from Wickford which is closer to London this anomaly no longer works, you're better off with the ticket to Liverpool Street unless you want to go to Croydon in which case you should buy a ticket from Rochford or Southminster!!

Anyone else found something similar?

[sparkymark]

Travel from Norwich (or any Norfolk Branch line + Lowestoft) to Colchester,Chelmsford or Shenfield/ Southend etc. off peak same day return then DO NOT buy a Saver Ticket as it is cheaper to get One Day Anglia Plus ticket for £10.00 (unlimited travel Norfolk/ Suffolk and lines Cambridge to Norwich/Ipswich + Free First Bus travel in most large towns) and a seperate Cheap Day Return ticket Ipswich to your destination. All ticket offices will sell you a combination of tickets for 1 journey if you request it ( the only rule is that your train must stop at station where you change from ticket to the other but as all Norwich to London trains stop at Ipswich not an issue, and no you do not have to get off the train if you do not wish to !)

[burdski]

We've just booked 2 Virgin Value First Class tickets from birmingham to glasgow going 27/12 coming back 29/12 for £168 in total, much cheaper than flying (cheapest I found about £233 including taxes), and it doesn't take much longer when you consider checking in & waiting times at the airport, plus it gives us the added bonus of being able to move around - absolutely essential when travelling with a 4 month old baby!

The website for Virgin Value is www.virgintrainsfares.co.uk/Virgin_Value_Retailing/vv_init_home.asp

[sparkymark]

Renew your rail season tickets by New Years Day to avoid the price increases !

[timswf]

..has anyone found a way of ordering annual season tickets from thetrainline or others so you can get rpoints or similar? - (as well as renewing early, using an employer's interest free loan and using a cashback credit card) I checked the site but could find the answer... rgds tim

[Dan29]

Hi all

Need to get from Cardiff to Lincoln next week. Cheapest rail ticket I've found is £60, although booking separate tickets from Cardiff to Nottingham and then from Nottingham to Lincoln seems to only cost £30 even though they are the same trains! Is this correct/possible and it there a cheaper solution that anyone knows of?

Thanks
Dan

[wigginsmum]

I'm planning to go to Birmingham from London Thurs 5th Jan and coming back on the Saturday. Checked out the journeys/fares on National rail and it was cheaper to buy two singles 2 X £10 from Virgin than a Saver Return @ £36.20.

Jules

[waster]

Hi all

Need to get from Cardiff to Lincoln next week. Cheapest rail ticket I've found is £60, although booking separate tickets from Cardiff to Nottingham and then from Nottingham to Lincoln seems to only cost £30 even though they are the same trains! Is this correct/possible and it there a cheaper solution that anyone knows of?

Thanks
Dan

Not sure if there is a cheaper solution but your option is possible so long as the train stops at the connecting station (Nottingham?). You do not need to get off, but it must have stopped so that theoretically you could have made the “change” physically.

[Dan29]

Not sure if there is a cheaper solution but your option is possible so long as the train stops at the connecting station (Nottingham?). You do not need to get off, but it must have stopped so that theoretically you could have made the “change” physically.

Thanks. I think it is two different trains as there's a wait of about 20 mins. Just surprised that it costs half as much to book them separately as it does to book the same seats as one journey, but then I guess that's the whole point of this thread - so thanks to the OP for saving me £30. :)

[devesh254]

I want to travel from London to Manchester on the 31st of December (reach Manchester between 11:00am and 1:15pm).

I want to return on the same day from Manchester to London (leave Manchester after 6:30pm).

I don't mind travelling by coach or by train.

The cheapest I can find right now is to go from London to Manchester by Megabus for £7, and return by Virgin trains for £27.

It is the return leg that I am finding the hardest to book because there are no coaches after 6pm (latest is 6pm by National Express) and the trains are too expensive.

Any suggestions? Does anyone know when Virgin releases more tickets? Or do you think they have sold out for the times I require on the return leg?

Thanks in advance for your help! :)

P.s. I am a bit tight with the times as I am attending a football match which will be between 3:00pm and 5:00pm. Therefore I need to reach Manchester latest by 1:30pm and the earliest I can leave is 6:30pm.

[evesham1988la]

I can't find anything cheaper than £27 coming back - but bear in mind that this is First Class.

[devesh254]

its ok evesham...thanks for looking...

i booked a return ticket...total cost £27.80...return leg is first class...am going to get a young persons railcard so thats how i got the dicount...

seems like all the standard class tickets for the return leg had sold out! :|

[sparkymark]

virgin first class is fab - lap top power point, radio stations (take your headphones !)

[jenny_f]

I'm wanting to travel from York to Milton Keynes, not really bothered how!? Any one any suggestsions on the cheapest way?

Other option would be to go via london or stevenage for the £9.50 deal.

[evesham1988la]

virgin first class is fab - lap top power point, radio stations (take your headphones !)

that's what you get in standard class...

[evesham1988la]

Virgin Value York to Birmingham = £9
Virgin Value Birmingham to MK = £4

Total = £13

[jenny_f]

Virgin Value York to Birmingham = £9
Virgin Value Birmingham to MK = £4

Total = £13

Thanks for this, how did you find this out?

[evesham1988la]

Thanks for this, how did you find this out?

Easy, just buy two seperate tickets for the two stages of your journey.
York to Birmingham and Birmingham to Milton Keynes.
Click on the Singles Tab and then select the fare for Virgin Value. However, these are quota controlled and so are subject to availability. You have to travel on your selected trains, but they do reserve a seat for you.

[ccluedo]

hi, planning to travel by train from Inverness to London on Thurs 19th or 26th Jan returning the following Monday 23rd or 30th. Actually want to get to Watford but for no or minimal changes/waiting times I am advised I may be better to travel into Kings Cross.
Wondered if anyone knows of any deals/discounts or tips I should be looking out for?

Thanks in advance :)

[evesham1988la]

Bear in mind that this journey takes at least 8hrs by train. So I would reccommend flying with EasyJet taking just over an hour - www.easyjet.com

to Gatwick: out 19/1, rtn 23/1 ~ £34rtn (inc. tax)
to Luton: out 19/1, rtn 23/1 ~ £39rtn (inc. tax)

to Gatwick: out 26/1, rtn 30/1 ~ £49rtn (inc. tax)
to Luton : out 26/1, rtn 30/1 ~ £34rtn (inc. tax)

Then you have to get from the airport to Watford Junction.
From Gatwick Airport to Watford Junction (direct) it costs £19.70 Saver Rtn.
From Luton Airport Parkway to Watford Junction (changing at St.Albans) costs £12.60 Standard Open Rtn.



By train though, it costs more than the flights above at £24.50 each way (Inverness to London Kings Cross) when booking on the GNER (www.gner.co.uk) website and click on the SINGLES Tab - for these journeys below. And of course it takes longer too.

19/1: Dep 0755, Arr 1559 (direct)
- or - Dep 1052, Arr 1926 (change at Edinburgh)
23/1: Dep 0615, Arr 1516 (change at Edinburgh)
- or - Dep 1100, Arr 1935 (change at Haymarket & Dunblane).

Going out on the 26/1, you can travel to London at 0755 for only £14.50 and back at 1100 on the 30/1 for £24.50.

Then you need to be able to get to Watford Junction from Kings Cross - taking the tube to Euston and then Silverlink or Virgin to Watford Junction costing overall £8 each way.

In conclusion, I would reccommend flying with EasyJet to, preferably, Luton and then go onto Watford as it is cheaper and quicker.

[ccluedo]

wow evesham tnx a lot for all your efforts on my behalf :)
I live a fair bit south of Inverness but the Inverness trains stop 2 mins from my home. I did originally think of flying but the extra travel time to the airport (1 hour+ each way) not to mention the cost of car parking at the airport whilst I am away soon eliminated a lot of the advantages.
I think I may now go by sleeper (Bargain Berths Promotion) for a total cost of £48 and my friends will collect me at Euston.
Many thanks once again!

[DustyC]

You might be right if you only travel during off-peak hours, i.e. with the outward journey on a train scheduled to depart after 9.30am when you will be able to get a Cheap Day Return instead of a Standard Day Return ticket.

A 7-Day season ticket is usually priced at 4 times the price of a Standard Day Return ticket, so you will still save money even if you only travel Monday to Friday.

A one-month season ticket is priced at 3.84 times the price of a 7-Day season ticket with an annual (12-Month) season ticket priced at 40 times the 7-Day ticket which give even bigger discounts.



This isn't strictly always true. my fare, Portchester to Basingstoke each day costs £11:30.
The weekly fare is £55.XX (can't remember exact).
The monthly fare is still no saving. If I am away from work for just 2 days in that month the cost of monthly and daily tickets is the same.

Is it possible to reduce the fares on short (1hr) journeys such as this that are within the same area and county?
If so then how do you find out about doing it? Surely nbot ask the return fare to ever stop in between and work it out from there!

Also does the 2 ticket saving trick still apply to return tickets?

Some great info supplied here though, thanks.

[mmej]

Train stages - Hanwell to Reading is £18 return. Hanwell to Slough then Slough to Reading is £13.

[clarkey1000]

Hi, can anyone help me,

I'm looking to go to Bristol from Preston on 3rd Feb (after 2ish) returning on 5th Feb (anytime - not too early!) I have a HM Forces railcard.

I have managed to find a single ticket for £10 for Preston to Bristol but the single fares on the way back are £32. I've looked on another weekend towards the end of Feb and it's the same then.

Are there just no cheap tickets available for return on a Sunday or are they released much nearer the time?

Can anyone suggest anyway I can do the whole journey for under £40!!

Thanks. :)
Jo

[pompeyrich]

Hi Clarkey1000, if you dont mind spending nearly 5 hours getting there, the best I could find after a quickish search of National Rail site is £16:40 by this method:- Bristol to Cheltenham at £5:50 single, then another ticket from Cheltenham to Preston at £10:90. The Cheltenham to Preston bit involves changes at Birmingham and Stafford. So depends if you want cheap or quick cant seem to find both !!
This was leaving bristol at 14:28 and getting to preston at 19:07.
The whole pricing thing is a nightmare, I have just found it is cheaper to buy a ticket from Portsmouth to Birmingham via Bristol than straight from Bristol to Birmingham..crazy.

[Lipsticklady]

please does anyone have a prom code for trains? i need to go from stockport-wakefield next thursday!

thanks!

[sockospice]

Hi, can anyone help me,

I'm looking to go to Bristol from Preston on 3rd Feb (after 2ish) returning on 5th Feb (anytime - not too early!) I have a HM Forces railcard.

I have managed to find a single ticket for £10 for Preston to Bristol but the single fares on the way back are £32. I've looked on another weekend towards the end of Feb and it's the same then.

Are there just no cheap tickets available for return on a Sunday or are they released much nearer the time?

Can anyone suggest anyway I can do the whole journey for under £40!!

Thanks. :)
Jo

It's not that there are no cheap tickets on Sundays, but availability depends on two things usually:
1) is there any engineering work going on? Often, if there is, tickets are not released until nearer the time, when Network Rail can confirm to the TOC what trains they can run and at what times.
2) Sunday is probably the busiest travelling day of the week. Normally, cheap tickets are released a couple of months in advance, and sell out very quickly. However, there are some cheap tickets released closer to the time, so if you want to risk waiting for them, you can.

[sockospice]

Also, due to the current industrial action being carried out by Virgin Cross Country train managers every sunday, the maximum walk on fare for cross country services will be £20 on sundays only. There's an article about it in tonight's manchester evening news

[funnylittlewoman]

I received an email from MidlandMainline re £6 singles to London but - surprise surprise - I can't actually find any. I'm looking for 2 adult return tickets Wellingborough to St Pancras out 13/2/06 return 14/2/06. Cheapest on web is £62 each! Do these £6 tickets actually exist?

Ta.

[pompeyrich]

I received an email from MidlandMainline re £6 singles to London but - surprise surprise - I can't actually find any. I'm looking for 2 adult return tickets Wellingborough to St Pancras out 13/2/06 return 14/2/06. Cheapest on web is £62 each! Do these £6 tickets actually exist?

Ta.



Are you using nationalrail.co.uk for these prices? If so just above the £62 fare option there is a link marked "singles from £12", click this to find the £12 fares (£6 each). There aren't many trains with tickets at this price but plenty at £8 each. If you scroll down it shows the return leg too, again not many £6 ones but loads at £10. These fares probably wont be available for early morning trains to London. Hope this helps.

[evesham1988la]

re: Wellingborough to St. Pancras

Make sure you click on the Singles Tab to get the £6 tickets. However, there doesn't seem to be too many of these as they are sold out but there are a few for £8 & £10 each way.

Out 13/2

£8~ 11:06, 11:36, 12:06, 12:36, 13:06, 13:36, 14:36 etc.
£8.50~ 05:29, 06:00, 10:36, 14:06
£10~ 09:06, 09:36
£12 ~ 08:12 & 08:40

Rtn 14/2

£6~ 22:00 & 22:25 ONLY.
£8~ All between 09:30 & 13:30 at xx:00 and xx:30 (and at 21:00)
£8.50~ 19:55, 20:00
£10~ 14:30, 17:55
£12 ~ 14:00

And there you go - plenty of cheap tickets!!!
It also should be noted that you can go between Sheffield and London for only £6 on this ticket type - and even better.. if you have a railcard this would only be £3.95 each way. Considering the distance, this would have to be the best value rail ticket in Britain.

[funnylittlewoman]

Thanks very much. I get it now. :j

[clarkey1000]

Right, I may be being stupid but I'm a bit confused and thought someone here may be able to help!!

On the Virgin website regarding the fares on the days when the industrial action is planned it says
"The ‘Virgin Voyager WalkUp’ fare is available as a Standard class single ticket only on the Virgin CrossCountry network - a flat fare of £20 for an adult and £10 for a child with the usual railcard discounts also apply."

and a bit later it says
"It can be bought in advance of travel from booking offices, the Virgin Trains call centre, the Virgin Trains website, Trainline.com, or Rail appointed Travel agents. The usual railcard discounts are available."

Now why is it that with a railcard I do not get a discount on this £20 when I try and buy it on both Trainline.com & Virgintrains.com. The journey ticket prices are usually £25 so I'm wondering if this is why the £20 isn't reduced any further.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Also - am I right in assuming that I can buy this ticket on the day of travel and it will still cost the same?

Cheers :)

[wendybendy25]

wanting to travel from eastbourne to glasgow in april by train but seems its going to cost alot anyone help, get me cheap fares!! plzzzzzzz :j

[sarahluv]

wanting to travel from eastbourne to glasgow in april by train but seems its going to cost alot anyone help, get me cheap fares!! plzzzzzzz :j

the cheap fares won't be on sale yet. check the virgin/gner sites for info on when the cheap fares for april will be released.

[exil]

Season tickets

Have just bought one.

The price is about the same as 180 return trips, so obviously it's better value
if you don't work at a university or school and get long vacations like lucky old me.

If you work 5 days a week, and get 25 days leave and bank hols you will
save something like 20%, or £300 a year if your fare is £6 return.

[davisneil]

I work off-peak so instead of Watford TC to all zones, i buy Watford Junction cheap day return £7.10 and then 2 singles on oyster £1 there 70p back which is £8.80 per day. I work weekends so also I bought network rail card for £20 giving me tickets at weekend for £4.35 cheap day return (6.05 incl. oyster)
29.70 per week
128.70 per month
1544.40 per year
A season ticket costs 2350 which is 196 per month.
Not a bad saving im sure youll agree.
:money:

[cannyscot]

TICKETS TO PLACES PAST OR BEFORE YOUR DESTANATION

particularly to evesham1988la
as you seem to have train fares sussed.

My sister found it cheaper to get a gner ticket from Glasgow to London which passes through Edinburgh rather than straight to Edinburgh but has been told she can't just go from Edinburgh or she will be fined? and now I have disovered that by buying a ticket from Glasgow to Crewe rather than Wigan it is considerabley cheaper on the train I want.

Are these things not allowable? or finable? because I'd like to use the cheaper ticket to Crewe and just get off at Wigan.

[evesham1988la]

TICKETS TO PLACES PAST OR BEFORE YOUR DESTANATION

particularly to evesham1988la
as you seem to have train fares sussed.

My sister found it cheaper to get a gner ticket from Glasgow to London which passes through Edinburgh rather than straight to Edinburgh but has been told she can't just go from Edinburgh or she will be fined? and now I have disovered that by buying a ticket from Glasgow to Crewe rather than Wigan it is considerabley cheaper on the train I want.

Are these things not allowable? or finable? because I'd like to use the cheaper ticket to Crewe and just get off at Wigan.

Well obviously you can't travel to a place past your destination on your ticket, however apparently you can't make a break (get off) before completing your journey - i.e. getting a ticket past your destination as it is cheaper.

However, I don't think it is finable unless they have electronic (or human) barriers at that station. This is similar to what people have been discussing on the MegaTrain thread where you can travel for a £1 between London and Portsmouth/Southampton ONLY. What if you want to get off at someone like Havant? It doesn't seem fair.

[jenny_f]

Anyone know an even cheaper way to get from York to Stevenage? than the GNER £19 return?

I'm a student so any saving helps!!!

Thanks in advance

[buglawton]

Having missed out on the Daily Mail Vouchers, is there a cheap way for a couple to do Reading -> Birmingham International return on Wednesday?

It looks as though we will be driving at this rate (est cost £50 inc petrol and mileage wear for the 200 mile round trip).

[AP]

TICKETS TO PLACES PAST OR BEFORE YOUR DESTANATION

particularly to evesham1988la
as you seem to have train fares sussed.

My sister found it cheaper to get a gner ticket from Glasgow to London which passes through Edinburgh rather than straight to Edinburgh but has been told she can't just go from Edinburgh or she will be fined? and now I have disovered that by buying a ticket from Glasgow to Crewe rather than Wigan it is considerabley cheaper on the train I want.

Are these things not allowable? or finable? because I'd like to use the cheaper ticket to Crewe and just get off at Wigan.

The following is taken from the National Rail Conditions of Carriage:

"15. Breaking or ending a journey at intermediate stations

You have the right to break and resume a journey covered by your ticket (in either direction in the case of a return ticket) at any intermediate station, as long as your ticket is valid for the trains you want to use. You may also end your journey before the destination shown on your ticket at any such intermediate station. However, these rights may not apply to certain tickets. If so, the relevant Train Companies will state this in their notices and other publications.

If you break or resume your journey when you are not entitled to do so, you will be liable to pay the difference between the price of your ticket and the price of the cheapest ticket(s) available for immediate travel that would have entitled you to break or resume your journey on the service(s) you have used.

If you end your journey at an intermediate station when you are not entitled to do so, you will have to pay the difference between the price of your ticket and the price of the cheapest ticket available for immediate travel that would have entitled you to end your journey at that station on the service you have used.

Please note that a ticket which entitles you to travel on the London Underground does not entitle you to break and resume your journey at any of its stations unless it is a season ticket or a Travelcard."


Anyone from the South Yorkshire area might be interested to note the following:

Sheffield to Doncaster

Standard Day Single £3.30
Cheap Day Return £3.60
Standard Day Return £5.30

However, if you ask for a ticket from DORE to Doncaster, a Standard Day Single is only £2.10! Dore is a station further away from Sheffield and you have to change trains at Sheffield. So buying two single tickets to and from Dore instead of from Sheffield cost just £4.20 instead of £5.30.

And if you have to get a bus to/from station at either end, buy a South Yorkshire Day TravelMaster instead which costs £4.95 which is valid on all buses and trams as well.

[SAP_Saver]

I was disgusted to find that if I bought a ticket from Birmingham to Leicester for a week it costs £57, however if I buy a ticket from Birmingham to Narborough (£29), then Narborough to Leicester (£17) for a week it costs £46, a saving of £11 just for getting an extra ticket!

[alchemista]

I think you're on to something. Now we need to know where these hidden discount routes exist!

[SAP_Saver]

I have a feeling that with most City-City routes you can cut it up into two tickets it is better to ask the conductors on the trains rather than the ticket office.

[mrsmoneyspender]

anyone know if there's a cheap train from newcastle to london kings cross
this week any day for my 16 year old son
the cheapest on gner is £25.50 and £33.50 one way(making that£59 return) or walk on price £91.50
if we buy a rail ticket it's 20.00and brings the fare for return to 60.35
we never use the train so any suggestions please
mrs ms

[markwwilson]

Hi,

I will be travelling permanently from Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire to Sheffield in South Yorkshire via Leeds.

I have just moved into the area.

Does anybody know of any railcards to save me money as its currently £12.35 a day in travel costs, there must be a cheaper way than that

Thanks

Mark

[AP]

Hi,

I will be travelling permanently from Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire to Sheffield in South Yorkshire via Leeds.

I have just moved into the area.

Does anybody know of any railcards to save me money as its currently £12.35 a day in travel costs, there must be a cheaper way than that

Thanks

Mark

You can buy a West Yorkshire Metro Card Zone 1-5 for £87.50 per month plus a South Yorkshire RailMaster for £51.40 per month and use them together for your journey. (The South Yorkshire RailMaster must be bought from a rail ticket office in South Yorkshire.) You also need a photocard.

As these two tickets are both zonal tickets, so when taken together, satisfy condition 17a of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage and the train you travel on does NOT have to stop at a boundary station when you change from one ticket to the other, e.g. Virgin Trains or the limited stop service of Northern Rail from Leeds to Sheffield via Barnsley.

These two tickets cost £138.90 per month together which is just about cutting your daily travel cost by a half for 22 or 23 working days in a month.

I suggest you get yourself familiarise with the National Rail Conditions of Carriage on:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/system/galleries/download/misc/NRCOC.pdf

in particular condition 17 as you could get some unwanted hassle from the train managers of Virgin Trains when using these two tickets together.

I have been commuting between Sheffield and Wakefield Westgate between 2001 and 2005 and I had a letter from Virgin Trains customer services department confirming that I am allowed to using these two tickets on their service and carry this with me every day just in case anyone queries their validity. I also have a copy of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage (which you can get free of charge from any rail ticket office) with me at all times.

[KatieF]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips/savings on travelling between manchester and london, and also manchester and peterborough. I usually by saver returns for convenience, but I am sure they are getting more expensive! And the cost is just mounting up..

[Spikey]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips/savings on travelling between manchester and london, and also manchester and peterborough. I usually by saver returns for convenience, but I am sure they are getting more expensive! And the cost is just mounting up..

try this site....

6pounds 1way possible if booked in advance.

http://www.midlandmainline.com/

[clarkey1000]

Have you considered the bus?

Between Manchester and London there are some really cheap National Express tickets available (somewhere in the region of £2 a ticket) but I think they might need booking in advance - you're not losing much if your plans change though and you can't use the ticket.

[KatieF]

Which journey and is that weekday or weekend?

Edit: Also forgot to mention I have a YP railcard

[KatieF]

clarkey1000, while I might be tempted for a long journey to either pboro or manchester, I am often only going for a weekend, and since me and coaches don't get along, 5+ hours each way doesnt really suit me. I've never seen them that cheap though..might be worth keeping an eye on :) Thanks anyway!

[Spikey]

KatieF have you tried Midland Mainline?

[clarkey1000]

Yeah the journeys are about 5 hours. Haven't done it myself but can't imagine it's a huge amount of fun!

I just put in an example journey in May and got a ticket price of £1 for a Friday evening :T so pretty good if you're broke or can't find a good price for the train.

[KatieF]

Im not broke just yet, just steadily making my way towards it! Just discovered i can get a central trains advance 1 return for £25.10 to Pboro, which is £10 cheaper than my usual :D thats a good easter present lol. Mind you I'm sure last year I used to get saver returns for about 3,4 pounds cheaper than I can now, anyone else think this?

No joy on going to london yet though, all seem to be around £30 which is pricey for a weekend :( need to go to southend for a bit while im there as well which is another tenner

[jdandi]

If using a Credit Card and if you can help it, try booking on the Rail providers site rather than on trainline to avoid the CC charge.
Leicester to Leatherhead on Midland Mainline 36quid on Trainline.com 37.50.

Also if you are looking for a journey which uses multiple providers always check the deals offered by both camps.
Leicester to Cardiff - Central Trains and Virgin and GWR, found the cheaper deal on the Virgin site saving me 14gbp.
although on this occassion I forgot to check the trainline.com which is also a must!
:beer: :j :money: ;) :cool: :rolleyes: :rotfl: :T :A :p :money: NO MORE!

[KatieF]

I managed to get to pboro for 16.50 return (central) and london for 10+15.20 (virgin) just by trying each and every day and randomly some cheaper tickets turned up!!! So happy! Saved about £30 there!

[dellwear]

This is a great (and until now) somewhat undiscovered site that will provide you with the cheapest train ticket, even if that's a split ticket.

It works like the screen scraping flight checkers (I think).

http://www.ma.ic.ac.uk/~finn/Train/

Wonder if Martin and the gang would be interested in helping the creator promote the site?

Saying that I'm not sure how well it will cope if it is just querying thetrainline's database! I'm sure they'll not like all the additional traffic.

[jenny_f]

Amazing!

I've always wanted a site like this! I use trains a lot and often don't know the best/cheapest route to take.

Thanks!

[Spikey]

The Cheaper Train Fare Finder is currently closed for maintainance

Argggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Spikey]

How come when you try to find a cheap train ticket .......you can't online.... but when I have been on the trains............half the seats were empty......?

[Spikey]

This is a great (and until now) somewhat undiscovered site that will provide you with the cheapest train ticket, even if that's a split ticket.

It works like the screen scraping flight checkers (I think).

http://www.ma.ic.ac.uk/~finn/Train/

Wonder if Martin and the gang would be interested in helping the creator promote the site?

Saying that I'm not sure how well it will cope if it is just querying thetrainline's database! I'm sure they'll not like all the additional traffic.

Would help if it was up and runnning...................

[sawanderer]

The Cheaper Train Fare Finder is currently closed for maintainance

Argggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

It was working fine earlier this moring... maybe it's the power of the MSE list again, maybe it's blown their bandwidth to smithereens?

:money: Martin :money: ... please investigate, this is an amazing little application from what I saw of it earlier!

[sawanderer]

As suspected... the webpage now shows this message...


The Cheaper Train Fare Finder is currently closed due to crippling amounts of traffic

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello! If you came here from a link on Google Groups then thanks for coming for a look!

Unfortunately, due to a massive increase in traffic since 9/3/6, I've had to close it for a short while so that I don't overload our poor departmental web server.

Please bookmark my page and comeback later if you haven't had a chance to use it yet.

If you have used this site before and you found it useful, please send me an email, particularly if it saved you any money, or you know of a saving that it didn't find.

Meanwhile, try this site for a cheaper fare: http://www.the-pev.co.uk/trains/tickets/

[dellwear]

It was working fine earlier this moring... maybe it's the power of the MSE list again, maybe it's blown their bandwidth to smithereens?

:money: Martin :money: ... please investigate, this is an amazing little application from what I saw of it earlier!

I emailed the team to see if they would be interested in helping the creator with it. Not too sure if they can do anything but would be good if they could host the tool like they do with the flight/call checkers. not had a reply yet, but I guess it is the weekend - we all got to party sometime!

[robolint]

I regulary travel from paignton to Southbury (north london) to see my g.f

I found that just by travelling via waterloo and just booking a few days b4 i have been saving quite a bit

Heres the fares so u can see

Saver Return with Y/P - £43.65 - Via London Paddington
Super Saver Return with Y/P - £34.30 - Via London Paddington
Super Adv Return with Y/P - £32.35 - Via London Paddington
Super Adv Return with Y/P - £23.23 - Via London Waterloo

Saving of £21.42!! Mite take a little longer but def worth it

Anyone any ideas on getting that even lower?? Any help wud be amazing!

[Jina]

I need to commute from Wakefield to Sheffield everyday and the season ticket is £140. I was told it's cheaper to break the journey. Anyone knows what my cheapest option is? I know there's a south yorkshire railmaster ticket that allows you to travel in south yorkshire anytime and any station but I dunno whether I can combine it to travel to west yorkshire.

[daleuk]

Hey all,

Im trying to get from Sheffield to London and returning on a different day ( a week later ). The singles quote me £6 from Sheffield but returning they are full price...

My dates of travel are 23rd May returning on 1st June (off peak is ok, times flexible).

[daleuk]

Ive just had another look on midland mainline, its seems I can get the £6 fare to London, but I can get the £6 to sheffield, but the trains I can get are very limited.

Thanks!

[AP]

I need to commute from Wakefield to Sheffield everyday and the season ticket is £140. I was told it's cheaper to break the journey. Anyone knows what my cheapest option is? I know there's a south yorkshire railmaster ticket that allows you to travel in south yorkshire anytime and any station but I dunno whether I can combine it to travel to west yorkshire.

Please see my earlier post under 'Guest' on page 1 of this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=18454&page=1&pp=10

I suggest that you get a written confirmation from Virgin Trains like I did that this combination of ticket is valid and carry this letter with just in case any train manager queries about their validity. You should also carry a copy of the National Conditions of Carriage with you all the time to explain to them the provision under Condition 17(c), as the South Yorkshire RailMaster or TravelMaster ticket is not classed as a season ticket for the purpose of that section.

(P.S. I made my last post in July 2004 and prices of various tickets mentioned have all gone up since then)

[vanoonoo]

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=168264

hi folks - I moved a great post see the link above - any contributions gratefully received I am sure :)

[brendac]

My husband was booking on Virgin for train tickets and found he would be charged for using his credit card in addition to the train fare. So he went to the Midland mainline website and they don't charge a fee for Credit card use. He got the same ticket but without the charge (£2.50 I think). SO don't use Virgin, they will rip you off for using your card!
Pass this on.

[monkey writer]

hello, does anyone know the cheapest way to get from Folkestone in Kent to London terminals? Any weird combo of tickets that might work? Cheers!

[ccluedo]

Hi, looking for return journey (7-10 days) from Exeter to Inverness. Departure date flexible'ish in next 2 weeks. Any help finding cheapest travel appreciated - thx

[alistairmcdowall]

Hi! There's alot of great information on this thread is great - I wish I could comprehend most of it. Both my girlfriend and I will shortly be starting work in London. We live in Hitchin at the moment, and both of us are unlikely to be travelling outside of Z1-2 in London. We both also hold student cards for the next few months. Can anyone tell me the cheapest method of getting a season ticket from Hitchin into London and back?
Cheers!
AM

[Voyager2002]

This link does what it says:
http://www.halfpricetraintickets.co.uk/

Only for services operated by South West Trains; only valid for day return tickets; excludes travel at peak times; and the promotion finishes on 11 June.

However, it is likely to be useful to lots of people.

[tazo101]

Anybody any ideas how i can get cheap tickets for this trip, those websites are useless!!!!!!

[sarahluv]

Anybody any ideas how i can get cheap tickets for this trip, those websites are useless!!!!!!

dates/times?

[steve222]

why is there no cheap tickes availabe at virgin no apex no single save nothing
tyring to book from holyhead to bognar regis holyhead to minehead nothing phones virgin and nobody noes

[steve222]

anybody here

[evesham1988la]

For Holyhead to Minehead the last stretch of the journey is a bus connection from Taunton to Minehead. On www.thetrainline.co.uk if you enter Holyhead to Taunton you can get Virgin Advance Singles for only £18. This compares with the standard single from Holyhead to Minehead at £85.

For Bognor Regis a direct train to London Euston costs from £15.50. Then cross London using the tube to Victoria for a train to Bognor Regis. For this last portion of the journey it is cheaper to buy a Southern DaySave Pass for £10 rather than a standard ticket (£18.70) - which also allows unlimited travel on the Southern network for that day (+ additional children - 1GBP).
- This can only be bought at www.southernrailway.com
*In the South-East, 4 people travel for the price of 2 so the Southern DaySave is only £20 for 4 people.

[evesham1988la]

Anybody any ideas how i can get cheap tickets for this trip, those websites are useless!!!!!!

The quickest way to Bradford from Luton would be via London Kings Cross. This would involve Luton to Kings Cross Thameslink (First Capital Connect), Kings Cross to Leeds (GNER) and Leeds to Bradford.

You can get cheap advanced fares on the longest stretch of the journey - from London to Leeds > £9.50 each way.
www.gner.co.uk

However, cheap advance fares are not avaliable for the connections either end so:
Luton - London - £10 (£11.30rtn)
& Leeds - Bradford - £2.40rtn

[evesham1988la]

I regulary travel from paignton to Southbury (north london) to see my g.f

I found that just by travelling via waterloo and just booking a few days b4 i have been saving quite a bit

Heres the fares so u can see

Saver Return with Y/P - £43.65 - Via London Paddington
Super Saver Return with Y/P - £34.30 - Via London Paddington
Super Adv Return with Y/P - £32.35 - Via London Paddington
Super Adv Return with Y/P - £23.23 - Via London Waterloo

Saving of £21.42!! Mite take a little longer but def worth it

Anyone any ideas on getting that even lower?? Any help wud be amazing!

The Paignton to Waterloo train passes through Yeovil, so now you can get cheap Megatrain tickets for a £1 from Waterloo to Yeovil and buy a standard £12.30 Saver Rtn from Paignton to Yeovil w/ your YP RailCard. Total Cost = £14.30!



Edit: Alternatively until May 31st, First Great Western have a promotion similar to Virgin's Advance Fares where a single between Paignton and Paddington is only £7.50. Total Cost = £15rtn (and its quicker too!)
www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk

[malcolmwilliamson]

I have just been looking at the price of a single ticket from Plymouth to Carlisle on 18th June.

I have used the online booking sites of 1) thetrainline 2) virgin and 3) GNER.
All three lead to the identical journey which involves a break at Birmingham New Street. They also list the same tickets for that route but differ in the cheapest available for my particular journey;
quotes are:
1)and2)standard open single at £103
3)value advance single at £37

All the more puzzling is that this is a Virgin route and involves using two Virgin Trains. Do companies get block allocations of cheap tickets from other operators?
The moral seems to be to shop around!

[malcolmwilliamson]

I've just discovered this (http://virgintrains.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/virgintrains.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1104&p_created=1136902628&p_sid=Qe6QGD5i&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MTcxJnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz04OSZwX3B2PSZ wX2N2PTEuODk7Mi51MCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1) on the virgintrains site.
If you click on ticket availability.htm it opens a page listing the earliest dates for which cheap Advance Purchase Tickets can be bought.
The list covers all the major TOCs and will prove useful to anyone seeking to book a cheap trip in advance.

[andybee1]

Hi

I am posting a little warning regarding combining a South Yorkshire Zone Travel Master Ticket with a Moorthorpe-Leeds Rail Only pass for travel between Sheffield and Leeds (which I have been doing so successfully for the past few months since seeing a post on this site about cheap rail travel)

Some of the Train Managers are enforcing the section in the terms and conditions of the pass that state that it is only valid between Sheffield and Moorthorpe if the train actually stops there. One 'Customer Service' manager ,who seems to spend his day jumping between trains making it his sole task in life to enforce this, has a copy of the Terms and conditions on him and according to SYPTE (and I have contacted them myself to confirm this) their terms and conditions override anything stated in the Rail Passenger Conditions of Carriage which seem to suggest that such ticket combinations are valid. The result of all this is that you are stung for an open single between Sheffield and Wakefield of £6.60.

I contacted the Rail Passengers Council about this issue and they said the following:

'National Rail Conditions of Carriage 17 states that you may use a combination of tickets provided that they cover the entire journey and one of the following applies:-

1) The train stops at changeover station
2) Tickets are zonal
3) One is a season ticket and one is not.

Historically, RPC felt that the combination of tickets you mention should be acceptable for the journey. However, Virgin made the decision to refuse to accept the tickets on their long distance trains. RPC referred Virgin to the SRA under Section 77 and Virgin were ordered to accept the combination of tickets.

Subsequently, Virgin persuaded South Yorkshire to change the conditions of use .'

BTW:

Northern Trains still seem happy to accept the combination, even when traveling via Barnsley and on one of the 'Express' services.

[gcpc1]

Hi Folks,

I wonder if anyone can help me. I regularly travel on business by train between Bristol Parkway and London (Paddington.) First Great Western is the sole operator on this route. Nine times out of ten I have to catch trains during 'Peak Time' (7:30am to 9:30am) and pay the 'Standard Open Return' fare of £112.

My question is: does anyone know of how I can save any money on this route? I use www.thetrainline.com to book my tickets as far in advance of my journey as possible but there are very rarely any discounts for Peak Time travel. For example, today I looked for a ticket for travel during August but there are no discounts during the time I have to travel. I use the Discount Code 'NOMOREDIY' to save myself a few £ but no amount of any significance. First Great Western provide no discounts in terms of Railcards, etc.

Any info/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[moonrakerz]

If you're tied to the times you mention I'm afraid Great Western have got you just where they want you !

We found that we can make significant savings by using a different route into Paddington. Instead of going from Chippenham (trains from Bristol TM), we go from Pewsey (West Country trains), the off peak tickets seem to be available on earlier services. This is offset by a reduced service to Pewsey, but if you can be flexible on times you're OK.
BUT, if you are going from Parkway - I think your only alternative is the M4 and I wouldn't recommend that !

[evesham1988la]

Hi Folks,

I wonder if anyone can help me. I regularly travel on business by train between Bristol Parkway and London (Paddington.) First Great Western is the sole operator on this route. Nine times out of ten I have to catch trains during 'Peak Time' (7:30am to 9:30am) and pay the 'Standard Open Return' fare of £112.

My question is: does anyone know of how I can save any money on this route? I use www.thetrainline.com to book my tickets as far in advance of my journey as possible but there are very rarely any discounts for Peak Time travel. For example, today I looked for a ticket for travel during August but there are no discounts during the time I have to travel. I use the Discount Code 'NOMOREDIY' to save myself a few £ but no amount of any significance. First Great Western provide no discounts in terms of Railcards, etc.

Any info/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

If you have no other alternative you could buy the following combination tickets:

1) Bristol Parkway to Swindon - £13 Saver RTN
2) Swindon to London Padington - £79 Open Return or buy as two singles at £39.50 and use the NOMOREDIY code to save an extra £6 as you are buying two seperate tickets on this sector = £73
Overall Cost - £86
Saving - £26

Edit: And if you really want to maximise the NOMOREDIY discount you could buy:
1) Bristol Parkway to Swindon - £13 Saver RTN (No Discount)
2) Swindon to Reading
- 2 Singles @ £21.50 each - 2x £3 discount = £37rtn
3) Reading to London Paddngton - £25rtn - £3 discount = £22rtn

Overall Cost = £72
Saving = £40

[AP]

Hi

I am posting a little warning regarding combining a South Yorkshire Zone Travel Master Ticket with a Moorthorpe-Leeds Rail Only pass for travel between Sheffield and Leeds ...

I am glad that I no longer have to commute between Sheffield and Wakefield since June 2005 last year.

I suggest everyone switches to the South Yorkshire RAILMASTER ticket instead as there is at present no leaflet or literature about whether it can be used in conjunction with a season ticket between Moorthorpe and Wakefield/Leeds and satisfy condition 17(c) of NRCC.

This ticket is briefly mentioned in the appendix of the National Fares Manual (I think it is volume 6 for the northern region) and this is what the SYPTE website says about this ticket:

http://www.sypte.co.uk/tickets/rail.html

'RailMaster is available monthly and is valid for unlimited travel between all rail stations in South Yorkshire.

RailMaster costs £51.40 and is available from all manned rail stations in the county. RailMasters are available only with photocards - you will need to take along a passport-sized photograph.'

So if everyone uses the RailMaster ticket instead, then the 'Customer Service Manager' who (probably has nothing else better to do other than) 'spend his day jumping between trains making it his sole task in life to enforce this' will find his copy of the Terms and conditions of TravelMaster irrelevant as the RailMaster is a different ticket altogether!

BTW, getting a Cheap Day Return ticket to/from DORE is actually cheaper that one to/from Sheffield, even though Dore is one station further away from Sheffield and you have to change trains at Sheffield.

Sheffield - Wakefield £6.25 Cheap Day Return
Dore - Wakefield £5.70 Cheap Day Return!

Sheffield - Doncaster £3.30 Standard Day Single, £3.60 Cheap Day Return, £5.30 Standard Day Return
Dore - Doncaster £2.10 Standard Day Single, £3.60 Cheap Day Return, £5.20 Standard Day Return

[canidothat]

£12 Rail Fares
Don't know if anyone has found this yet but I have just bought £12 rail tickets from Swansea to London one way on First Great Western. Don't know what other stations they are from but I'm positive they aren't just from here.
They aren't advertised on the website, you can't buy them from your local train station but if you ring 08457 000 125 (think it's a foreign callcentre) ask for the £12 tickets specifically and hang on for ages, you'll get your tickets but don't dare upset them as they'll shout at you! I needed 2 sets of tickets for June and July and got them. You need to press button 2 then button 4 but if you just ignore the button 4 you'll be put through quicker (I did anyway!) The first lot took 5 hours hanging on then redialling, the second 3 mins! Good luck! I chose the 8am to London and the return was for 19.45pm If you want to return at 6pm, you have to pay £17.50-not £12 You don't have to come back the same day. I'm staying for a few days.

[malcolmwilliamson]

Does anyone know why the megatrain site has been down for the past 2 days?
I've booked a £1 London-Bournemouth for 7/7 but need to book the return for 10/7.
Hope they haven't gone bust!

[evesham1988la]

Does anyone know why the megatrain site has been down for the past 2 days?
I've booked a £1 London-Bournemouth for 7/7 but need to book the return for 10/7.
Hope they haven't gone bust!

It's working OK for me. 10/7 - All seats £1 at 08:59, 09:59 and 19:59.

[malcolmwilliamson]

Ta evesham. I've just booked a return at 19.59.

[alchemista]

Supposedly there is a link for 3 pounds off train tickets as mentioned on this ebay auction. Does anyone know the info on it so we don't have to pay for the information?

ebay auction for 3 pounds off (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6633358769)

[evesham1988la]

Supposedly there is a link for 3 pounds off train tickets as mentioned on this ebay auction. Does anyone know the info on it so we don't have to pay for the information?

ebay auction for 3 pounds off (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6633358769)

Yup... the code is "NOMOREDIY" for £3 off indivudal tickets priced at £20 or more.

[Spikey]

Yup... the code is "NOMOREDIY" for £3 off indivudal tickets priced at £20 or more.

which rail network is this for?

TIA

Spikey

[anthony morrow]

hi,
i'm looking for info on rail/road travel between paris and frankfurt
thanks.

[Spikey]

bump ................................

[evesham1988la]

which rail network is this for?

TIA

Spikey

It's for all rail tickets booked at thetrainline.com - although I don't know if this applies to railcards etc.

[Mandles]

does anyone know the cheapest way to travel from hove to london victoria please.. at 5-6am all this week?

[rico2005]

Any promotion codes for manchester-london I want to go on the 8th of June (thursday around evening time) other way would be megabus... I found some 10 pound single tickets but everytime it goes through it says error...even though I can still select it. After that I go through to the hotels and insurance page. I press submit and I get...

Sorry - we have been unable to succesfully validate your journey for one of the following reasons:


The train is fully booked.

The compulsory reservation required is unavailable.

The connection to the National Reservation System is unavailable.

The train may be closed for reservations.



Any tips?

Ricardo

[evesham1988la]

Any promotion codes for manchester-london I want to go on the 8th of June (thursday around evening time) other way would be megabus... I found some 10 pound single tickets but everytime it goes through it says error...even though I can still select it. After that I go through to the hotels and insurance page. I press submit and I get...



Any tips?

Ricardo

National Rail Enquiries is working at the moment...
The latest time on Thursday with a Value Advance Fare from Manchester to London tomorrow is at 14.15 at £18 (or £11.90 if you have a RailCard). Alternatively, MegaBus is £7 leaving Manchester at 18.15

[monkey writer]

for some reason it is cheaper to travel from Folkestone to London than vice versa. And so it goes.

[hilary1]

Anyone know the cheapest train ticket from Stoke to London 15th July. Need to be there by 8am. thanks

[pompeyrich]

Anyone know the cheapest train ticket from Stoke to London 15th July. Need to be there by 8am. thanks

Apparently, according to national rail enquiries, you need to leave Stoke the night before and spend 6 hours on Wolverhampton station to arrive by 8a.m. !!
To get there for 8:15 is showing as £46 single, if you can arrive at 8:48 it drops to £12:50 single.

[evesham1988la]

...or with the presumption that you will need to come back the same day or up to 1 month later and can't find any decent value fares returning you could (& flexibility) you could always buy a 'Saver' Return' at £47 and use the £5 off code ("5OFFJUNE") to make it £42.

[lmcg123cat]

Can anyone help me find the cheapest way of having a day out in London during the school holidays for myself and my 10 year old niece. We will be travelling from Newcastle. thank you in advance.

[Mister_E]

Hi,

I need to get to Glasgow this weekend for 15:00 on either saturday or sunday. Cheapest according to trainline.com is 93quid!

Can anyone help?

[Mister_E]

Hi,

I need to get to Glasgow this weekend for 15:00 on either saturday or sunday. Cheapest according to trainline.com is 93quid!

Can anyone help?

Managed to book for tomorrow, leaving London at 7am for 35quid! Took some searching around!

[evesham1988la]

Can anyone help me find the cheapest way of having a day out in London during the school holidays for myself and my 10 year old niece. We will be travelling from Newcastle. thank you in advance..

Book in advance at www.gner.co.uk - and buy two singles.
According to ticket availability, on a Saturday (e.g. 05/08) it seems that the cheapest tickets are available on the majority of trains:

e.g. outbound at 06:00 06:35 07:00 07:30 07:54 & 08.53
& returning at 16:00 17:00 17:40 18:00 19:00 & 19:30

£40.00 (1 adult and 1 child).

[evesham1988la]

Hi Folks,

I wonder if anyone can help me. I regularly travel on business by train between Bristol Parkway and London (Paddington.) First Great Western is the sole operator on this route. Nine times out of ten I have to catch trains during 'Peak Time' (7:30am to 9:30am) and pay the 'Standard Open Return' fare of £112.

My question is: does anyone know of how I can save any money on this route? I use www.thetrainline.com to book my tickets as far in advance of my journey as possible but there are very rarely any discounts for Peak Time travel. For example, today I looked for a ticket for travel during August but there are no discounts during the time I have to travel. I use the Discount Code 'NOMOREDIY' to save myself a few £ but no amount of any significance. First Great Western provide no discounts in terms of Railcards, etc.

Any info/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.


If you have no other alternative you could buy the following combination tickets:

1) Bristol Parkway to Swindon - £13 Saver RTN (No Discount)
2) Swindon to Reading
- 2 Singles @ £21.50 each - 2x £3 discount = £37rtn
3) Reading to London Paddngton - £25rtn - £3 discount = £22rtn

Overall Cost = £72
Saving = £40[/i]

Of course now with the £5 discount code the new overall cost becomes £66 saving £46, showing that you can actually save loads on peak journeys into London if you know how!

[melzak123]

I'd really appreciate any help that anyone can give please. We are two students (don't have student railcards though) travelling to Exeter from London on Tuesday and the fares are about 100 pounds! We need to get there between 9 and 9.45 and then leave Exeter after 1600. Would really appreciate it if someone could point out any cheap fares. Many thanks.

[pompeyrich]

I'd really appreciate any help that anyone can give please. We are two students (don't have student railcards though) travelling to Exeter from London on Tuesday and the fares are about 100 pounds! We need to get there between 9 and 9.45 and then leave Exeter after 1600. Would really appreciate it if someone could point out any cheap fares. Many thanks.

Is that £100 each or total? Best I could find for 2 was London Bristol £39, Bristol to Exeter £21, then Megatrain Exeter-London £24 total £84 or £42 each.
First 2 fares from national rail.co.uk return from Megatrain.com. These need to be booked in advance.

Maybe Evesham will be along, he really is number 1 at this fare finding thing :T

[evesham1988la]

Is that £100 each or total? Best I could find for 2 was London Bristol £39, Bristol to Exeter £21, then Megatrain Exeter-London £24 total £84 or £42 each.
First 2 fares from national rail.co.uk return from Megatrain.com. These need to be booked in advance.

Maybe Evesham will be along, he really is number 1 at this fare finding thing :T


No need for be to step in... I absoultely agree with you on this one!
It's a shame the London to Bristol sector is 50p more - that way you could of had a £5 discount...

[kroads]

What is the cheapest way to work out the best deal, its a minefield. I need to travel from Norwich to Torquay on Tuesday, 22nd August, return the next day.. Can someone help me work these out.. Many thanks. Ps Any hints on cheap fares, much appreciated..

[Spikey]

bWhat is the cheapest way to work out the best deal, its a minefield. I need to travel from Norwich to Torquay on Tuesday, 22nd August, return the next day.. Can someone help me work these out.. Many thanks. Ps Any hints on cheap fares, much appreciated..

found www.virgintrainsfares.co.uk (http://www.virgintrainsfares.co.uk) the best in price at times..... worth a try..

HTH

Ps. also try http://www.chester-le-track.co.uk/

[slonik]

If you have some kind of a season ticket for the London underground (weekly/monthly/whatever), you can shave off a couple of quid off your train tickets out of London. You have to buy the tickets at the counter (machines don't have this option). When ordering ask for a ticket from "boundary zone two" (if you have a zone 1-2 card, or from whatever zone you are covered up to) to wherever you are travelling. That should be then printed in the "from" section of your outbound ticket - ie "boundary zone 2" -This seems to work on destinations in the South East - ones covered by the Network rail card, but may not work for journeys to other parts of the country. The station staff I asked weren't sure of the exact rules. But basically it saves around £1-2 off the ticket price, and you can still use your rail card or whatever. NB they will ask to see your season ticket at the counter. Hope that makes sense!

[pompeyrich]

What is the cheapest way to work out the best deal, its a minefield. I need to travel from Norwich to Torquay on Tuesday, 22nd August, return the next day.. Can someone help me work these out.. Many thanks. Ps Any hints on cheap fares, much appreciated..

You are right, it is a minefield, it depends on what your priorities are, flexibility = expense. If you want a fully flexible fare from Norwich to Torquay it is showing as £92 return. A flexible fare Norwich- London Paddington is £42 return inc tube, London to Torquay is best done as 2 singles at £12:50 each but you HAVE to travel on the train you book, this brings the fare down to £67. One railway are advertising singles to London for £5 but I cant find them on line, maybe best to ask at your local station, if you could get those it would work out at £35 +£6 for the tube. It really is just a case of playing with the route at a site like national rail.co.uk or the trainline and seeing what comes up.
A silly one I found was Portsmouth- Birmingham via Bristol was cheaper than Bristol- Birmingham but who in Bristol would think to try that to save money?:confused:

[kroads]

Cheers Pompey

I'm trying to get to Torquay for the Carling Cup, just waiting for the fixtures now. Do you go to pompey games on train?

[Spikey]

Got an email yesterday from GNER offering 10% off ...anyone else get this?

[pompeyrich]

Cheers Pompey

I'm trying to get to Torquay for the Carling Cup, just waiting for the fixtures now. Do you go to pompey games on train?

You must be a "proper fan" Norwich-Torquay on a tuesday night :T

Used to drive but with good forward planning it works out cheaper and more relaxing by train, take my 2 lads so get the family railcard discounts. Only problem is Sky moving k/o times willy nilly. Norwich works well by train, nice pubs, ground near station, Morrisons for supplies on the way home,got it for £25 for the 3 of us a couple of seasons ago, 2-2, Charlton, ex s****s, equalised right at the end.
Sorry if a bit off-topic but planning ahead and family railcard mentioned !!

[kroads]

Cheers Pompey

Yes bit of a "proper fan" never been to Torquay though will be my 83rd ground I think. I use a wheelchair as will so bit of a challenge. Trains are a pain to organise since privatisation, so many companies, so many different fares. Leeds away 1st game!

[jenny_f]

Anyone know the cheapest way to get from Huddersfield to Stevenage (with the possible option of going to Letchworth).

What I currently do is - Leeds>Stevenage on £19 return, or GNER's cheapest
And just buy on open return for Huddersfield >Leeds

Anyone got any better ideas?

Transpenine express do really good student deals so if getting to Stevenage would be cheaper from their most southerly station this is an option

cheers for any help guys

xx

[Abbie]

Hello. I need to get from Chester to Newcastle by train on 23 September, and back on 24 September. The cheapest fare I can find is £62. Has anyone got any tips on how I can get something cheaper / where I can break my journey to get it any cheaper?

Many thanks.

Abbie

[evesham1988la]

Hello. I need to get from Chester to Newcastle by train on 23 September, and back on 24 September. The cheapest fare I can find is £62. Has anyone got any tips on how I can get something cheaper / where I can break my journey to get it any cheaper?

Many thanks.

Abbie

If your have or are eligible for a Young Person's RailCard - TransPennine Express who operate on the route between Manchester Piccadilly and Newcastle offer extra special discounts meaning a return fare for £18.70.

http://www.tpexpress.co.uk/mytpe/students.asp

A Saver return between Chester and Manchester Piccadilly would be £7.60

Total Cost: £26.30

However, if you are over 25 I will have a look at the alternatives.

[Abbie]

If your have or are eligible for a Young Person's RailCard - TransPennine Express who operate on the route between Manchester Piccadilly and Newcastle offer extra special discounts meaning a return fare for £18.70.

http://www.tpexpress.co.uk/mytpe/students.asp

A Saver return between Chester and Manchester Piccadilly would be £7.60

Total Cost: £26.30

However, if you are over 25 I will have a look at the alternatives.

That's a great saving! Unfortunately I'm not young enough though. Anything else you could suggest would be appreciated...

Abbie

[sarahluv]

abbie>the advance fares don't go onsale until 10 weeks before the date of travel. so hang on for a bit!

[pansalar]

The only apparently available walk-up fare for London - Kettering day return travelling out in evening peak is £57.00 standard return.

However, then I discovered that cheap day returns are available on the same trains for the shorter journeys. So CDR London - Bedford = £16.00 + CDR Bedford - Kettering = £8.40 = £24.40. This is also cheaper than the London - Kettering Saver return at £32.70. About half the Kettering trains (about 1 an hour) call at Bedford en route. The remainder call at Luton en route where the same trick is possible but the combined fare is about £3 more. Most of the return services serve Bedford.

If you wanted to return on another day after 9.30 you could still save money by doing it twice and throwing away the return portions, although you would probably get cheap day singles to save the odd 10p on each ticket.

[kroads]

On Saturday, 5th August is the cheapest way 4 singles Norwich to Peterborough - Peterborough to Leeds or with 'one' doing £5 singles from Norwich to London and return. Could it be cheaper to do London to Leeds singles with Virgin maybe? Any help would be great

[pompeyrich]

On Saturday, 5th August is the cheapest way 4 singles Norwich to Peterborough - Peterborough to Leeds or with 'one' doing £5 singles from Norwich to London and return. Could it be cheaper to do London to Leeds singles with Virgin maybe? Any help would be great

Hi again Kroads, wont be long now:j , looks like Peterborough is the best bet, the 08:57dep arr Leeds 10:37, or if you prefer a lay in, d 11:56-13:36a are available for £9:50 at the moment, dont reckon you will get much better than that and will save the need to cross London.

[kroads]

Hello Keith here the norwich fan needs some help booking my train journey from Norwich to Leeds..

Got reservation from Norwich to Peterborough
Peterborough to Doncaster
Doncaster to Leeds

Return

Leeds to Peterborough
Peterborough to Leeds

Virgin Care did the booking 6 people including two wheelchairs passengers came to £31.75 each. This was more than I expected. What do you reckon?

Cheers Keith

[kaybees]

i'm looking to get to london for the day on the 19th July (its las min i know),
its for 2 adults with yp railcards but can both get them if it means big savings!
The cheapest i've found is £124 for the both of us. don't mind what the trains times are/how many changes. but wait to be in london for a while.
Thanks in advance

[pompeyrich]

i'm looking to get to london for the day on the 19th July (its las min i know),
its for 2 adults with yp railcards but can both get them if it means big savings!
The cheapest i've found is £124 for the both of us. don't mind what the trains times are/how many changes. but wait to be in london for a while.
Thanks in advance

You could do it for about £68, Carlisle-London, London-Manchester then Megatrain Man-Car but you would get less than 4 hours in London so probably not much good.

You could also have a night in London and come back the next day for about £60 using 2 singles Megatrain Car-Man then 2 singles Man-Lon and put the savings towards a hotel room for the night.

[kaybees]

thanks for that, didn't know about megatrain!

[jenny_f]

Hi

We're going to Edinburgh, not sure when but in august some time for the festival!

Wanting to know the cheapest way to get there. So far I've figured out train is cheaper than coach (national express) or plane. Two of us travelling from Huddersfield with young persons railcard.

The best I've found so far is
Hudds > Manchester on Student getaway fare with transpenine express - just under a fiver
Manchester > Edinburgh with mega train think it worked out at £12.25 - I know this could vary.

Does anyone know if there is another combination of tickets that could work out cheaper - do any other rail companies have similar student fares to transpenine?

cheers in advance

[devesh254]

Hey there...could someone please help me with the following:

3 adults, 1 with a Young Persons Railcard and 1 with a Diasbled Adults Railcard, Travelling on August 12 morning (arriving no later than 1pm) from London to Manchester.

The same people then returning on August 12 evening (departing no earlier than 8.30pm) from Manchester to London.

Don't mind travelling by train or coach.

I am having a very hard time finding cheap fares for this route, so all and any help will be much appreciated!

Thanks :-)

[doodle_bug]

I was thinking of having a long w/end in St Ives in August and although I could quite easily drive down there I fancy giving the train a try. I live in S!!!!horpe so at trainline I typed in S!!!!horpe to St Ives I think the cheapest return is £126 ish could be cheaper depending on travel times, not sure on that. On the price list it said single from £22 tried typing in all kinds of times and dates but it never got anywhere near £22 best I think was £103 However, I broke the journey down from Scun to Donny to sheffield to birmingham to exeter to St Ives and in total one way it came to £38.40. using july dates. Haven't priced up the return yet, the only thing that bothers me is that some of the connections are tight, if I missed a connection would I have to buy another ticket? If I was to go by train am I thinking along the right lines to get it cheaper?

[devesh254]

can someone please help me with my manchester trip 2 posts above^

i have also just noticed that there are no virgin special fares for saturday...are there any discount codes for qjump or trainline?

thx

[pompeyrich]

Out of date offer removed

[nab2807]

I'm currently commuting from West Croydon (Zone 5) to Epsom (just outside London zones). Because I also use the bus, my ticket costs about £75 for a monthly but excluding the bus it costs £67.20? I have a Young Persons Railcard as well as a student photocard but none of these entitle me to any discounts. Would anyone have any advice on how I could reduce my monthly expense?

Many thanks

P.S A daily return costs £5 so its not worth purchasing them daily

[jenny_f]

any advice on cheapest way to get from Huddersfield to Stevenage???

Travel this often - although not enough for a set monthly card or anything.

do have a young persons railcard though

cheers

[jenny_f]

me again!

cheapest way from huddersfield to Milton Keynes nest sunday (30/07) departing approx 17:15

cheers in advance

[evesham1988la]

30/07

18:29 Huddersfield to Liverpool Lime Street - £8.60 - Student Getaway Fare (cheaper to buy a return)
20:17 Liverpool Lime Street to Milton Keynes Central - £18.50 FIRST CLASS (thats the cheapest ticket available)

- with a YP RailCard

[Sha]

Wow, wish I'd found this thread beore, could have saved me a fortune! Thanks for all the links - have bookmarked quite a few.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any ways to save on Merseyrail fares? I travel from Birkdale to Liverpool Central, workdays at peak times. At the moment I'm paying daily. By the time I've taken into account holidays & meetings elsewhere (often short notice) I find I'd usually pay about the same if I bought a monthly rail only pass, if I have a day of sick I'd lose out! Considering getting an annual pass on a 6 months intrest free credit card (6 months struggling to pay it off, 6 months feeling rich!) but would love to hear any other ideas...

[chrib]

I will shortly be having to commute daily and for the foreseeable future between Vauxhall (central London) to Burnham-on-Crouch (Essex) at peak times. Does anyone already travel a similar route and/or know of ways of reducing the cost of this journey? Any advice (preferably via email) will be much appreciated. Thanks.

[colcheslad]

Hello all!
I would be extremely grateful if anybody could help me out of a pickle. I have tickets for the Creamfields festival near Liverpool which starts pm Sat 26th Aug and finished am Sun 27 Aug. Could anybody recommend the best way to get there, a return journey via train or coach from Ipswich to Liverpool? I would ideally want to arrive in Liverpool no later that 16:00 returning the next day at around 9:00am. The cheapest coach I could find (Megabus doesnt arrive until 21:00 so no good) is £94 rtn on National Express, and a whopping £110 each (2 of us going) on National Rail. If anybody could help me drive these costs down I really would be eternally in your debt!
Any help appreciated
Thanks
Chris

[martinbuckley]

Hello all!
I would be extremely grateful if anybody could help me out of a pickle. I have tickets for the Creamfields festival near Liverpool which starts pm Sat 26th Aug and finished am Sun 27 Aug. Could anybody recommend the best way to get there, a return journey via train or coach from Ipswich to Liverpool? I would ideally want to arrive in Liverpool no later that 16:00 returning the next day at around 9:00am. The cheapest coach I could find (Megabus doesnt arrive until 21:00 so no good) is £94 rtn on National Express, and a whopping £110 each (2 of us going) on National Rail. If anybody could help me drive these costs down I really would be eternally in your debt!
Any help appreciated
Thanks
Chris

TBH Chris, travelling over a Bank Holiday Weekend on the train will cost you an arm & a leg. I've looked on Virgin and Central Trains and there's nothing. You'll probably be better off driving up - even at £1 a litre it wont cost you £200 for a return trip!

Failing that, try driving some of the way and then catch the train, as sometimes shorter journeys are cheaper.

HTH

[starlite]

I think your main problem will be the route will involve traveling from ipswich to london, then london to liverpool and you can rarely get the discounted fares on such routes..
however if you book seperate journeys..
e.g I have just found ipswich - london for £9 return..then london liverpool £21.50 return on www.trainline.com
or maybe travel to say, a midlands city via train and nother up to liverpool, but again booked as seperate journeys you may find a better deal.

[colcheslad]

Thanks very much for all of your opinions, they have helped immensely. Driving isn't an option as its an all night event and I doubt I will be in either the right legal or physical condition to consider driving! However, the £30 rtn train fare seems like an idea, will have to check it out.
Thanks again for all your time
Chris

[BARGAINADDICT]

just would like to say thanks to the people who suggested breaking up journey and checking prices that way.:T ive been looking to travel from rhyl to preston sometime during school hols,would cost £42.75 return for myself and son.just checked seperate journey prices (ie rhyl- warrington & warrington- preston) works out at £30.75!! nearly £12 cheaper:j
so,thanks again and if anyone got any ideas to make journey even cheaper and love to hear them:beer:

[starlite]

Glad to help! The only other suggestions I can think of are to check other times close to when you want to depart as there can be a huge difference from one hour to the next..and also a family railcard is invaluable if you use trains regularly. There are sometimes discount codes floating around on here for the trainline website..i.e 10% off. hth.

[aurora borealis]

I need to travel between Cardiff and Liverpool on the 1st September, leaving before 10am (one way). The cheapest ticket I can find is £45 :eek:

Any better deals out there please?

[espresso]

I need to travel between Cardiff and Liverpool on the 1st September, leaving before 10am (one way). The cheapest ticket I can find is £45 :eek:

Any better deals out there please?

Apex single leaving at 07:50 arriving at 11:26 with one change at Crewe for £15.50 on Virgin Trains website.

HTH

[UltraCheap]

Hello,

I need to buy 2 return tickets from London to Brighton, to arrive in Brighton by 11-11:30 on a weekday.

Megabus only arrives at 12:30, which is a shame because their prices are great.

National Express will come to about £16, however the journey is over 2 hours each way because the bus stops at Gatwick for 35 minutes.

Megatrain doesn't go to Brighton.

Virgin Trains / Trainline are coming in at £27. It woud be the most ideal to take the train because it will get us there must faster, but the price is too high.

Any ideas on how to bring down the train price? Are there multiple tickets that I can buy that will come to less than £27?

Many thanks in advance!