Cheap Rail Tickets To St Pancras For Eurostar Connections

paulswife

Thankyou so much you have saved me a fortune-rail tickets from banbury to st pancras were at least £50 each-phoned Eurostar today and booked return ticket for £15.00!!!...am so pleased.

Beenie

I'm confused. When I clicked on the Eurostar website to try through ticketing from Chelmsford- Paris, it only allowed me to book from St Pancras.
I also tried the National Express East Anglia site and that said the destination (Paris) was not valid!

Mids_Costcutter

TimothyEBaldwin wrote: »

That doesn't work either for York to London, just the domestic fares again.

You can enter 'London International' as a station in the Journey Planner on the National Rail web site and obtain fare quotes. However for a York to London journey fares were the same price (I checked for a journey travelling out on 6 April and returning 7 April). The important difference is that you would be protected by international conditions of carriageway: if your train to London is delayed then you may travel on the next available Eurostar service and vice versa.

tangojulie

Excellent - thank you - as you said, they couldn't have been more helpful

salthegal

Brilliant, extremely helpful and 'just the ticket'!

gner_ex

dzug1 wrote: »

It doesn't work from all stations - I can get a ticket to London International from my local station, but it's the same price as a normal ticket to London plus tube fare so is no real help

But worth knowing nevertheless

Dzug - it is a help if there are peak restrictions on your journey - i.e. you travel out on MML or ECML, your Eurostar is booked to arrive at 14:00 but is actually two hours late. If you have a standard off-peak ticket, you have evening peak restrictions until (for example) 19:01- but with the CIV ticket you can travel at this time if the delay is caused by a delay to your international service - if you had a standard London Terminals you would have to wait until 19:01. Similarly if you were expected to arrive at Harwich at (for example) midnight but your boat was five hours late, putting you in the morning peak, you could travel then with the CIV ticket rather than having to wait until 09:30.

There are also Harwich, Southampton, Stratford (fares not yet loaded), Ebbsfleet (fares not yet loaded), and Ashford INTL destinations - possibly others also.

dzug1

gner_ex wrote: »

Dzug - it is a help if there are peak restrictions on your journey - i.e. you travel out on MML or ECML, your Eurostar is booked to arrive at 14:00 but is actually two hours late. If you have a standard off-peak ticket, you have evening peak restrictions until (for example) 19:01- but with the CIV ticket you can travel at this time if the delay is caused by a delay to your international service - if you had a standard London Terminals you would have to wait until 19:01. Similarly if you were expected to arrive at Harwich at (for example) midnight but your boat was five hours late, putting you in the morning peak, you could travel then with the CIV ticket rather than having to wait until 09:30.

There are also Harwich, Southampton, Stratford (fares not yet loaded), Ebbsfleet (fares not yet loaded), and Ashford INTL destinations - possibly others also.

With the 'CIV' ticket, yes, but I've since discovered that the fare I found is actually for London 'International' - it has peak and off peak variations. A previous poster pointed out the difference.

gner_ex

Mids_Costcutter wrote: »

You can enter 'London International' as a station in the Journey Planner on the National Rail web site and obtain fare quotes. However for a York to London journey fares were the same price (I checked for a journey travelling out on 6 April and returning 7 April). The important difference is that you would be protected by international conditions of carriageway: if your train to London is delayed then you may travel on the next available Eurostar service and vice versa.

Yes - the fare would be the same. It is the CONDITIONS that are different.

For lines that lead into Kings Cross or St. Panc from the north, the fare is the same as the London Terminals.

For lines that lead into (for example) Paddington, the fare is the London terminals fare plus the extra for the underground journey. Example - Didcot to Paddington is £22.50 (saver return), Didcot to zone U1 (any central London tube station) is £28.50 and Didcot to London International (LNE) is £28.50.

Difference is basically £3 each way which is the norrmal national rail add-on amount to go cross London.... I hear people shouting that Oyster is cheaper.....

magnificolm

Just booked CIV tickets today, having bought Eurostar tickets separately.

Probably everyone in this thread who's moaned about prices being identical has been caught by the same system, whichever seller they used. In my case, the form on the Seat 61 website goes to Raileasy. If you specify London International there, you'll only be offered the normal fare, although it will be a CIV ticket.

Instead, either include your UK journeys when you buy your Eurostar ticket, or if that's not possible phone their UK ticket desk at 01233 617913 afterwards, as Claire originally suggested. You'll need your Eurostar booking reference (current format is XXX / XXXXXX) so they can look it up to confirm you can have a CIV ticket.

If you get the ticket desk answer-phone, it's OK to leave your name and number: even at lunchtime they got back to me well within an hour. And you avoid Call Centre Rage.

I don't know how many staff they have, but if you get through to Bob, he's really helpful and efficient. (If he ever needs a reference, he can give this URL!). Tickets are posted first class, on the same day unless you miss the last post.

The ticket is likely to be a lot cheaper than your standard fare to London. £8 per person per journey from Reading, including the tube: about half the Raileasy quote.

PS. Bob says that if you are delayed on a journey covered by a CIV ticket GET SOMETHING IN WRITING FROM A MEMBER OF THE CARRIER'S STAFF. This implies that Eurostar aren't duty bound to put you on the next available seat, as per the CIV conditions, if you just turn up and say your UK train was late - understandably they need proof.