Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

dzug1

gner_ex wrote: »

Unless it is a ticket valid for break of journey.

Advance tickets (which OP was asking about) are never valid for break of journey

dzug1

Gray-Fox wrote: »

How can this be right though? I've bought discounted tickets for this journey the day before???

Depends how well they sell - for popular trains they sell out quickly, for unpopular ones (or obscure routes sometimes) they can well be available the day before.

I've not heard of them releasing extra cheap tickets at the last minute but it's always possible. Not reliable though.

streeting2006

The split ticket option does work and saves you a serious amount on the standard fare!

I travelled recently on a Saturday morning from Bagshot, Surrey to Bristol Parkway, this ticket if you try and book form a ticket office or online will come up as £41.00 single.

I paid £13.80 single. By working out where you will pick up the mainline train and buying a seperate ticket to that destination you can save money. i.e. I paid a £2.30 fare on the day of travel from Bagshot to Ascot. I had pre-booked the ascot to Parkway fare the night before for £10.50.

One catch if trying to book online can be that you need a station that you can do ticket collection from a machine- alternatively as no stations round me offer this service therefore unable to take advantage of the cheap fare you can call the train company direct.

South west trains faxed my booking over to Ascot for me to collect the following day and I still got the same deal.
You need to have a bit of flexibility to when you travel but there where other times that day ealrier and later that also offered savings if not the maximum one I found.

pifpofpaf

looking to do Manchester to Edinburgh evening of 20th Feb, returning on 22nd.. with a young persons.. cheapest found so far is 60, anything better around? cheers.

nyerun

Split ticketing works quite well on train


Shrewsbury- aber anytime £13.80
Wrx-shr- £5.80
Total £19.60

Wxm- aber £28.90

These use anytime fares, there are certain cheap fares on these trains, but not enough for all the students like me going back and too :-p

p.s these are adult fares, don’t forget 1/3 off on16-25 railcard


p.p.s USING X94 and X32 ARRIVA BUSES, THIS JOURNEY CAN BE DONE FOR £5, AND ONLY TAKES AROUND 30 MINUTES MORE!!!!!!!

anjelflower

Does anyone know the cheapest way to get from Cleethorpes to High Wycombe, I have tried using raileasy to have a look at different ways, but most still seem to be around £80.
I have had a look at various routes from Clee - doncaster -banbury - high wycombe
and Clee - london - high wycombe.
Any ideas please?

adamtrainman

anjelflower,
i'd probably say the Cleethorpes - Doncaster/Sheffield - Banbury - High Wycombe but try splitting the ticket into different sections like try
A single Cleethorpes - Doncaster using a Transpennine Express adv ticket
Single Doncaster - Banbury using a crosscountry adv ticket
And a single Banbury - Wycombe with Chiltern

Ive took 13th april as an example:-
09:28 Clee - Sheffield arr 11:08 £4 one way (TPE advanced purchase)
11:23 Sheffield - Banbury arr 13:18 £20 one way(Crosscountry advanced puchase)
13;13/14:07 Banbury - High Wycombe £9.20 one way(anytime single)/£17.40 Return (off-peak return) to come back within a month.

But on that day on them times you can get a through advanced purchase ticket for £31.50 one way.

As its been said before if your flexible with dates and times you can pick up a bargain

Billy-no-Money

Hi,
I've got it down to £63.40 return, don't know if that helps:

Cleethorpes-Birmingham New Street = £43.90 Off Peak Return
(Usually involves a change at Sheffield)
Then on a separate ticket:
Birmingham Moor Street-High Wycombe = £19.50 Super Off Peak Return

Total = £63.40

These fares are leaving Cleethorpes at about 9:30 on a Tuesday, arriving High Wycombe around 3pm. No advance booking needed.
The downside is that you have to walk from Birmingham New Street to Moor Street,but that's probably better than King's Cross to Marylebone!

The Super Off Peak ticket is more restrictive than the Off-Peak but by the time you get to Birmingham you'll be OK.

That's just a quick look - there may be better deals.

HTH


EDIT (thanks to Adamtrainman for correction): You should be able to buy the tickets I've described above, but stay on the train at Birmingham and change at Banbury instead. That saves walking between stations.
You should be able to buy the tickets at any staffed station or online, just be specific.

Billy-no-Money

If you're travelling from Blackpool (and presumably Poulton, St Annes etc) to places like Penrith, Carlisle and so on, don't buy a through ticket - split the journey at Preston.

Off peak Blackpool - Carlisle = £39.90

Or:
Blackpool - Preston = £6.80
Preston - Carlisle = £17.50

Total = £24.30
Saving: £15.60, or 39% for exactly the same trains!

This anomaly seems to have crept in with the new fare structures, and no doubt the same warning applies to lots of other through tickets from the Fylde.

adamtrainman

Just a note the Cleethorpes - High Wycombe direct ticket is routed via London so automatically becomes more expensive.

Just to correct Billy you can use the 19.50 Super Off Peak on any route via Banbury not just chiltern only