Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

Livingthedream

fairydust wrote: »

Hey all, I wonder if any of you can help me? I'm looking to travel from Swindon to Bristol on the 31st Jan... I had a look before Christmas and it was advertised at £24. To Bristol?!! I thought that was too expensive (I've paid less than half of that to go to Cardiff and back!) but now I look and it's £29 - I can't believe it's so expensive?! I'm hoping someone will tell me I've got it wrong...

Edit - I've been looking around online and I've found a company called 'raileasy' who can offer me these tickets for £14.50 - has anyone dealt with this company before?

fairydust, you can get an Off Peak Day Single for £12.10 (valid for travel after 09:30) and this is using Virgin Trains website but any train company website with do. Raileasy and the Trainline will charge you booking and postage fees, train companies don't so therefore a cheaper way.

https://www.buytickets.virgintrains.co.uk/JourneyRequest.aspx

PS. this is a walk on fare so the price don't change and you can easily just go to your local station and get it on the day of travel. Off Peak day returns are only 10p more expensive

Steeveb

Hi,
I hope someone can help me out here. I need to travel down to London Euston on Friday 20th feb 09 to arrive before midday and then to return the following day departing around 6 - 7 pm. I'll be travelling with my wife & 2 kids so was going to apply for a family railcard. Looking at the cheapest option on Virgin trains, I can source the tickets for £52.80 ( I presume this is per person with no discounts for the kids?).
Does anyone have any other suggestions / promotion codes / offers for this journey?
I'm sure I saw somewhere that a national newspaper was doing return tickets to London for £5 in Feb, but can't seem to see it anywhere now - doh !
Thanks in advance for your help

Livingthedream

Just had a look and the £52.80 is for 2 Advance Singles, 1 from Liverpol LS to London Eus and other London Eus to Liverpool LS, for 2 adults and 2 children with family railcard. That is the cheapest direct ticket you will get.

But will have a look to see if I can get it cheaper for you :T

Just had another look and I can get you and your family to London and back for £37.40 but this train arrives into London at 13:49 earliest and is a slower train

Liverpool LS to London Eus 10:04 Super Off Peak Return £37.40 (London Midland trains only and for Travel after 09:30)
London Euston to Liverpool LS 16:46 Super Off Peak Return £0 (London Midland trains only)

Ask for that type of ticket at a station or go to advance option on the national rail website and select 'London midland' in the 'show me journeys from the following operators' option

Steeveb

Hi,

Thanks for looking into that, I didn't realise London Midland provided this route ! The only issue I can see is the journey time is pretty long - over double that of Virgin, but at that price it may still be worthwhile.
Thanks for your help !

suenbern

Livingthedream wrote: »

Those £8 quid Advance ticket don't last long, had a quick check on Virgin trains and theres some still available;
Manchester Pic to London Eus 10:35 £8 advance single
London Eus to Manchester Pic 18:55 £8 advance single

https://www.buytickets.virgintrains.co.uk/JourneyRequest.aspx

The Preston to Manchester ticketsare walk on fares and can be bought anytime

:beer: Thanks again - I've just been on the website - think the £8 fares have gone but have found £45 for 3 of us (assume that's single) so it's still a lot cheaper.

Sue

fairydust

Livingthedream wrote: »

fairydust, you can get an Off Peak Day Single for £12.10 (valid for travel after 09:30) and this is using Virgin Trains website but any train company website with do. Raileasy and the Trainline will charge you booking and postage fees, train companies don't so therefore a cheaper way.

https://www.buytickets.virgintrains.co.uk/JourneyRequest.aspx

PS. this is a walk on fare so the price don't change and you can easily just go to your local station and get it on the day of travel. Off Peak day returns are only 10p more expensive

Thanks for the reply Do you mean get two walk on singles (@ £12.10 each way?) making the total £24.20?

How much do raileasy charge for booking and P&P then? Is it more than a tenner?!

And after reading the posts above it's so unfair we have to pay more for two of us to go thirty or so miles when it's so cheap from for three people from London to Manchester!!

Livingthedream

fairydust wrote: »

Thanks for the reply Do you mean get two walk on singles (@ £12.10 each way?) making the total £24.20?

How much do raileasy charge for booking and P&P then? Is it more than a tenner?!

And after reading the posts above it's so unfair we have to pay more for two of us to go thirty or so miles when it's so cheap from for three people from London to Manchester!!

Answers to your Q's
1. No the Off Peak Day Return is outward and return within the same day for £12.20 if you are staying longer then get an Off peak Return for £14.50 (again only valid after 09:30)
2.Raileasy, charges a £1 booking fee on every purchase over £10 (£2 if it's under a tenner), plus a 50p debit card fee and 2.5% for credit cards.
3. Long distance rail travel (London to Manchester) has another ticket type called 'Advance' these are a lot cheaper but have heavy restrictions but can sell out very quick and can only be bought up to 1800 the day before. Once there sold out you can only get expensive walk on fares :eek:

Rumman

Livingthedream wrote: »

Try this, takes you via Manchester/change train there, it will be longer time wise but it is cheaper;

Doncaster to Manchester Pic 22nd 05:40 Single £16.40
Manchester Pic to London Euston 22nd 07:35 Advance Single £28

Total £44.40

Hope it helps?
Advance tickets so get them early and you must travel on the booked train

Thanks for that appreciate it, booked it the couple days ago.

sadiejp

sadiejp wrote: »

need to travel form melton mowbray to london, 23rd jan iseally around lunch time but anytime ok and return on the 25th again anytime, whats the cheapest way to get ther coming up at 50 pound return on trainline,

Well just to say i have sourced my travel for fri to london, getting national express coach a bit longer journey time, but with the funfare rate via the daily mirror promo got it for a grand total of 6 pound return, quite a saving, and to top this i managed to get a room on the staff rate at Hilton for 16.00 per night inc breakfast........my first real moneysaving

nobletf

I have been visiting the Virgin website to get the ticket deal recommended but they are only advertising tickets up until 6th February. I am travelling on 19th Feb returning 21st Feb. Will they extend the date soon for tickets to be sold for those dates or will i have to get a normal ticket?