Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

dzug1

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

I'm wondering now whether my journey (Hereford to Southport) doesn't count as it is not on the East Coast line, but National Express just act as booking agents for them.

Or maybe because I am only booking a one way journey?

This is driving me potty. I've wasted a whole afternoon on it . Just to save about £3.50 too .

The offer is only off National Express East Coast advance tickets - not off any other advance tickets National Express East Coast happen to sell.

Can't see anything to say that one way doesn't count

Bogof_Babe

dzug1 wrote: »

The offer is only off National Express East Coast advance tickets - not off any other advance tickets National Express East Coast happen to sell.

That explains it then. Pity it wasn't clear in the email. Or perhaps I am just thick. Thanks anyway, you've put me out of my misery.

Lol I actually genuinely just typed "miserly" instead of misery - says it all really :rotfl:.

Icemaiden

Hi, can anyone help,

Need to travel on 24th April returning 26th April from Leeds or bradford, could be Manchester at a push, to St Austell with me, 17yrs old & 7yr old. No rail cards but willing to buy.
Cheapest I've come up with is £123.00 with family railcard return, is this a good deal or does anyone know how I could get it cheaper;)

Thanks in advance

Ice
x

dzug1

Icemaiden wrote: »

Hi, can anyone help,

Need to travel on 24th April returning 26th April from Leeds or bradford, could be Manchester at a push, to St Austell with me, 17yrs old & 7yr old. No rail cards but willing to buy.
Cheapest I've come up with is £123.00 with family railcard return, is this a good deal or does anyone know how I could get it cheaper;)

Thanks in advance

Ice
x

For 3 (well 2½) travellers that's not a bad price.

It could be worth looking at travelling via and splitting tickets in London - assuming that's not what you are already doing.

mr_maniac

mr_maniac wrote: »

Right! it's been a while since I came back here, but since you've been so useful in the past, it's time to ask for your help again!!

Eastleigh to Durham, departing Monday 23rd March (anytime after 7am), returning Tuesday 24th March (after 2/3pm) - the cheapest fare I have found so far is £50.20 return using the National Express East Coast website (standard advance singles at £25.10 each), is it possible to get it any cheaper?

I have a 16-25 Railcard which I used to get that fare, but the fare is the same with no railcard if you're using the special discount they have running at the moment, since that also gives 1/3rd off rail fares.... I'm not expecting miracles, but any saving, if it were possible, would be appreciated!!!

Cheers everyone

mr_m

:beer: :-) Any help appreciated!!

mr_m

dzug1

mr_maniac wrote: »

:beer: :-) Any help appreciated!!

mr_m

If you have cheap advance singles for the complete journey then other than trying different times/dates you are not going to do any better. Just check that an off peak return isn't cheaper - it won't be very often.

mr_maniac

Just checked - comes out to over £80 for a "Super Off-Peak Return" so no contest really!

I noticed that the price of tickets from Eastleigh to York has gone up by quite a bit - if you remember from September/October last year when I asked for help getting cheap tickets for that trip, I managed to get a return (2 Advance singles) for just over £30, but now the same Advance tickets come to just over £40 - that's a bit of a sharp price rise, is it not? I know fare prices went up in January, but not by over 30% on advance fares surely?!

mr_m

sawanderer

dzug1 wrote: »

If you have cheap advance singles for the complete journey then other than trying different times/dates you are not going to do any better. Just check that an off peak return isn't cheaper - it won't be very often.

Go for the advance ticket whilst you still can!

Looking at the options of splitting your tickets/journey at places like Winchester, Basingstoke, Reading and Birmingham all come out at a total of over £55 return, and take longer.

The standard single ticket price from Eastleigh to London Waterloo is about £18 in itself, so considering for another £7 you can get all the way across London and up to Durham is pretty good going!

This train fare into London also makes the National Express COACH/BUS option (£30 London-Durham) more expensive than the advance ticket you've found.

Grabbit now!

mr_maniac

Darn - it's gone up to £57.75 today (outbound up to £32ish)!! remind me to be a bit quicker next time

I'll be making that trip more often in the future anyway

hstudent

I thought I'd share the following ways of saving money on rail journeys:

Norwich to Sheffield/Stockport/Manchester/Warrington/Widnes/Liverpool South Parkway/Liverpool
Megatrain.com offers £1 advance tickets on off-peak services between Sheffield and Norwich. However, the same train starts from or continues to Liverpool, so if, for example, you are travelling from Warrington to Norwich then you can buy a Warrington to Sheffield ticket in addition to the Megatrain advance ticket, save money and not worry about a missed connection.

Single or Return tickets to or from Greater Manchester stations* after 18:30
If you travel between two Greater Manchester stations* for an outward or single journey between 1830 and 2100 then you can get an evening return for half the price of an off-peak day return, which also means it's cheaper to buy an evening return than a single. You have until 0230 the following morning to make your return journey. (if applicable)
* All stations in Greater Manchester are covered but some stations in Cheshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire are also covered. See www.northernrail.org for full details of stations covered.

Manchester to Scotland
Most direct trains are operated by First Transpennine Express. However, there is one Manchester to Glasgow service in each direction per day run by Virgin Trains. Megatrain.com offers tickets starting at £1 single for the Virgin Trains service. However, it does involve leaving Manchester at about 4am. If you wish to travel to Edinburgh then you could travel via York and change trains, instead of via Preston on a direct train, spilting your ticket at York to save money.

Travelling to Newcastle via Stockport
If you are travelling to Newcastle and your journey involves travelling through Stockport then by default you would be given a route:Manchester ticket and be told to change at Manchester. However, if instead you ask for a cheaper route:Stockport ticket it means you are not permitted to travel in to Manchester, but must instead change at Stockport and Sheffield. That might sound like a longer journey with an extra connection and slightly longer route. However, it is usually quicker as 125mph trains are used between Sheffield and Newcastle, as opposed to the 100mph trains used between Manchester and Newcastle.

One example where this applies is Knutsford (Cheshire) to Newcastle.

Day Returns in the North of England
Some routes with fares set by Northern Rail have Day Return tickets available but no Off-Peak Day Return tickets available. If this is the case and you're travelling at an off-peak time then it may be cheaper to spilt your ticket or to buy a ticket beyond your destination. But if you do the latter it's important to note that you aren't allowed to cut short your journey with any type of advance ticket and could be charged extra or a penalty fare if trying to leave at an intermediate station.

One example where this applies is Knutsford (Cheshire) to Stalybridge (Greater Manchester.) The cheapest option is two tickets: one for Knutsford to Manchester and one for Manchester to Stalybridge, the next cheapest option is a Knutsford to Huddersfield ticket (Huddersfield being beyond Stalybridge on the same line) with the most expensive option being a through ticket from Knutsford to Stalybridge, for which Off-Peak Day Returns are not available

Free tram use in Manchester
If travelling locally to Manchester then you may find a ticket to Manchester STNS costs the same as one to Manchester CTLZ. But a ticket to Manchester CTLZ (CTLZ stands for Central Zone) allows you to use the Manchester Metrolink between Victoria and GMex, Piccadilly and Victoria and Piccadilly and GMex for free, which a ticket to Manchester STNS does not.