Manchester to London Train

Ian_iD

Hello, has anyone found a cheap way of getting to London from Manchester by the train, leaving on Friday (not sure if this makes a difference). Perhaps booking from different stations or something. I have been quite a few times in the last couple of months and it always costs me around £66 usually booking a couple of weeks ahead. I am sure it used to be a lot cheaper than this?

Thank you for any info.

the_annoyed_customer

Ian_iD wrote: »

Hello, has anyone found a cheap way of getting to London from Manchester by the train, leaving on Friday (not sure if this makes a difference). Perhaps booking from different stations or something. I have been quite a few times in the last couple of months and it always costs me around £66 usually booking a couple of weeks ahead. I am sure it used to be a lot cheaper than this?

Thank you for any info.

Just go on to virgin trains' website and where it says about cheap tickets to locations e.g. London to Manchester £11 on the main page click underneath this on 'see our best fare find.' Then select Manchester (defult Piccadilly) and London (defult Euston) select friday in the date field and click on the one way box and press 'find best value fares' and we get from 4am to 2pm one way for £28 saving about £38. But if you go from 7pm until midnight its even cheaper just costing £22:rotfl:

dzug1

Ian_iD wrote: »

Hello, has anyone found a cheap way of getting to London from Manchester by the train, leaving on Friday (not sure if this makes a difference). Perhaps booking from different stations or something. I have been quite a few times in the last couple of months and it always costs me around £66 usually booking a couple of weeks ahead. I am sure it used to be a lot cheaper than this?

Thank you for any info.

If you are booking a couple of weeks ahead and getting a £66 fare something is wrong - that's the walk on (off peak) fare. So either you are choosing very popular trains or asking for the wrong thing

harveybobbles

Thin I paid about 40 quid last year. That was travelling late afternoon.
Booked about 3 days in advance via virgin website and collected ticket from the machine in the station.

frdsmth9

Everyone knows book early and you can get cheaper fares, yet often these disappear quicker than empty seats on a commuter trip. Therefore to ensure a bargain, the key moment is buying 12 weeks in advance. This is because, contractually Network Rail must have the timetable set 12 weeks in advance; therefore this is commonly – though not definitely – when tickets are released.

dzug1

frdsmth9 wrote: »

Everyone knows book early and you can get cheaper fares, yet often these disappear quicker than empty seats on a commuter trip. Therefore to ensure a bargain, the key moment is buying 12 weeks in advance. This is because, contractually Network Rail must have the timetable set 12 weeks in advance; therefore this is commonly – though not definitely – when tickets are released.

And also to know what you are doing. If you look 12 weeks ahead and there are no cheap fares (quite common, in fact I'd say normal, though things have been a little better recently) WAIT. Don't rush in and buy a full price ticket - you'll be able to do that on the day if the worst comes to the worst

Ian_iD

the_annoyed_customer wrote: »

Just go on to virgin trains' website and where it says about cheap tickets to locations e.g. London to Manchester £11 on the main page click underneath this on 'see our best fare find.' Then select Manchester (defult Piccadilly) and London (defult Euston) select friday in the date field and click on the one way box and press 'find best value fares' and we get from 4am to 2pm one way for £28 saving about £38. But if you go from 7pm until midnight its even cheaper just costing £22:rotfl:

Thanks, used this method and managed to find £33 fair. Maybe its because I usually go on Friday thats is often expensive and maybe the cheap seats are all sold. Its always very busy. Thanks for all other replies.