Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

gner_ex

sm1 wrote: »

Many thanks dzug but i cudnt get any thro/season tickets information at nationalrail.co.uk for Ilford - Basingstoke. I have moved to London a few months back and dont have much idea about tickets.

Is there a way to have a season ticket from ilford - basingstoke which is also valid on LU thro the route?

There is, absolutely. What you can do (this works for many locations outside London) is get a "Basingstoke travelcard". This works like a normal travelcard (zones 1 to 6) but also allows travel from the boundary to Basingstoke. This is daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. You can use this ticket on any train, tube or bus within London zones 1 to 6.

The monthly price for this is £362.50, annual £3776. You should be able to buy this ticket at any station, but if you have problems at Ilford then Waterloo station can sell this - you will need a passport sized photo.

You could get a seperate zone 1-4 travelcard, and then a ticket from Wimbledon (the zone 4 boundary station) to Basingstoke. Travelcard is £132.90 (monthly) and Wimbledon to Basingstoke is £255.80 (monthly), so more expensive than above (but still cheaper than what you were proposing to do).

The reason you can't get an Ilford to Basingstoke ticket is because they want you to purchase the ticket I described.

gner_ex

jacqs27 wrote: »

Hi everyone first time ive used this and not a very frequent rail traveller so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I may be starting a job in Milton Keynes on Monday, I live in Liverpool by the way. I am probably looking at staying there monday to thursday and comming home on friday. It is reasonably flexible the start and finish times (as long as i hit my weekly targets), but based around 9-5. So for example i could get there 10ish on monday and leave 4ish on Friday.

Have been looking at Virgin to try and price it as cheap as possible (at least till i've worked my month in hand) but the prices fluctuate a lot. Obviously more expensive the closer to peak time.

I wouldnt mind taking a night train going down there but would like the friday one to be as quick as possible. So any suggestions would be appreciated. (Sorry for the long post though i'd give as much info as possible).

One more thing it comes up with £58 for an open return ticket with a specified train down there. Does that mean i have to take that one and can get any train to return even the fast ones.

Cheers in advance

No, an open return is a fully flexible ticket, you can go on any train in either direction. If you book this ticket the day before, you'll get a free reservation, but don't have to use it.

Going south, looks like you'll have to change on route (leave Liverpool at 05:44 travel to Watford ** then arrive MK at 08:37), , but going North there is one direct train (leaving MK at 15:48) the open return fare I can find is £153 - how did you find the £58 ticket please?

If you were to travel down Sunday evening (dep Liverpool 19:56, arrive MK 22:34, direct train) and leave Milton Keynes on the 15:17 at the latest (change Crewe, arrive Liverpool 17:26) then you could avoid the morning and evening peak restrictions and get a saver return which is £49.

I expect that once you've been there a couple of weeks they will realise that you can work on the train very easily, and won't mind being flexible with you.

** - changing at Watford is what is recommended online, however because this is doubling back on yourself, you would need a ticket that allows you to travel to Watford, which would be more expensive.

What I would do instead is leave Liverpool 05:44, change Crewe, arrive Crewe 06:20, leave Crewe on 06:37 to Northampton (which continues to London) arriving at MK 08:57. The latter train is a London Midland train (but they are very comfortable).

sm1

Thanx dzug, gner_ex

What you are telling me that i should ask for a monthly travel card at, lets say Waterloo which would be valid till basingstoke and also valid on all buses, tubes and trams throu zones 1-6. Is there a website to order it?

nutty1

i want tickets for wigan to exmouth 12 july returning 19 july 4 adults 2 child. any cheap ways please

dzug

sm1 wrote: »

Thanx dzug, gner_ex

What you are telling me that i should ask for a monthly travel card at, lets say Waterloo which would be valid till basingstoke and also valid on all buses, tubes and trams throu zones 1-6. Is there a website to order it?

Yes and no.

If you go to the season ticket section of for example First Great Western

https://www.fgwtickets.co.uk/season/st_home.asp?sitecode=FGW&T2ID=803_2008417163028

you can buy a ticket. But in order to do so you need to put in the number of your photocard, which you can only get at a station. So you'll have to visit a station first. Once you have one, you can renew online with no problems.

And you need to put in Basingstoke TO London to get it. (To price it just put in any old number for your photocard)

dzug

kathrynt wrote: »

i want tickets for wigan to exmouth 12 july returning 19 july 4 adults 2 child. any cheap ways please

A saver return will cost you about £224 total, plus £24 for a family railcard. You can buy this on the day. The only advantage of booking in advance is you get seat reservations - hopefully together.

You should be able to do it for half that price (again, plus the railcard) with advance purchase singles, possibly less. These are not on sale yet - the earliest they will come on sale is 12 weeks ahead, more likely 8 weeks.

nutty1

dzug wrote: »

A saver return will cost you about £224 total, plus £24 for a family railcard. You can buy this on the day. The only advantage of booking in advance is you get seat reservations - hopefully together.

You should be able to do it for half that price (again, plus the railcard) with advance purchase singles, possibly less. These are not on sale yet - the earliest they will come on sale is 12 weeks ahead, more likely 8 weeks.

we're are you getting 224 from when i priced it it was 309

jacqs27

thanks very much gner_ex, very helpfull. Havent got confirmation of start day yet, but have copied you post for my reference when i do.

Cheers

dzug

kathrynt wrote: »

we're are you getting 224 from when i priced it it was 309

mmm I'm getting that now (and advance singles between £48.30 and £105.70 each way).

Sorry don't know what went wrong - glitch on the website or maybe I put a wrong station in. Apologies.

nutty1

is the advance single for us all or per person