Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

evesham1988la

jenny_f wrote:

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 - https://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 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

AP wrote:

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

clarkey1000 wrote:

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.