The Great 'Split Ticketing' Hunt

On journeys to London, consider splitting tickets at the network card boundary - see http://www.railcard.co.uk/clientfiles/File/map.pdf

Bear in mind that the train will need to stop at the boundary station (unless you have a season ticket for part of your route). If doing something like Grantham-London, you can buy Gratham-Huntingdon and Huntingdon-London - you can also buy an all in one travelcard - ask for Huntingdon to Zone R1256.

I'm a very experienced off-peak traveller on the rail network and I always try to find the cheapest possible tickets so hopefully I can share the wisdom of my experiences here! Here's a few....

First, any day return journey on the Birmingham-Oxford stretch should be split. Sometimes this works out even cheaper than advance tickets... it's just silly. Who decides these prices in the first place?! The stations are Birmingham New Street, Coventry (for half the trains), Leamington Spa, Banbury and Oxford (maybe this works through to Reading now too, especially since Ox-Reading tickets have recently been slashed in price). Almost any split ticket will save you money for a day return, just try a few. Here's two examples.

• Journey: Oxford to Leamington Spa, Day return
• Split tickets at: Banbury
• Standard Fare: £14.60 (off peak) or £25.40 (peak)
• Split ticket cost:£11.80 (off peak) or £17.60 (peak)
• Saving: £2.80 (off peak) or £7.80 (peak)

• Journey: Oxford to Coventry, Day return
• Split tickets at: Banbury & Leamington Spa (ie the only two stops inbetween the two!)
  
• Standard Fare: £27.40 (off peak) or £42 (peak)
• Split ticket cost: £16.20 (off peak) or £22 (peak)
• Saving: £11.20 (off peak) or £20 (peak)

Now if I am going back to visit family in Wales, i always, ALWAYS use this split. I don't even bother checking the "direct" fares any more.

• Journey: Oxford to Cardiff, Swansea, or anywhere in south wales for a day, a week, whatever
• Split tickets at: SWINDON!
• Standard Fare: for example, day return to Cardiff. £46 op, £124 anytime :eek:
• Split ticket cost: £25.50 (off peak) or £60.20 (peak)
• Saving: £20.50 (off peak) or £63.80 (peak)
• This split works for advance tickets too - the savings can be insane!

A few more hints... Oxford to anywhere in the south/south west of the UK, try splitting at Didcot Parkway.

Travelling on two different train companies and can't find an advance ticket? Try splitting at where you change from one train company to another! Examples from my experience - Oxford to Aberystwyth, split at Wolverhampton. South Wales to north-west England - split at Crewe.

Another odd one... if you are travelling to Stafford or Wolverhampton and travelling through the other one, try splitting. Even though they are next to each other it can save money. For example an advance ticket to Stafford once cost me more than an advance ticket to Wolverhampton plus a standard single on to Stafford! (staying on the same train)

Finally, ANY journey through Birmingham New Street is worth trying to split your ticket there. Although sometimes this involves a train change and you may miss your train leading to potential difficulties. If doing this I recommend leaving much more time than necessary. Example - saved £20 or so when booking a long journey by splitting ticket there, but instead of the 10 minute change the through-ticket suggested, we opted to book the next train which meant a 40 minute wait. Our first train was 38 minutes late and we *just* made it across the station for our connection! :cool:

Hope this helps.