Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

W12Steve

A full price return from Ipswich to London is £60. Two AnyTime singles from Colchester to London are £45.40 and two full price singles from Ipswich to Colchester are £11.20. A total of £56.60.

And all but one train a day in each direction stops at Colchester I think.

But when I went on nationalrail today. The cheapest fair I was offered peak time from Ipswich to London was £60 whereas by splitting at Colchester I got it for £51.90.

Not a bad saving.

dzug1

Slicker777 wrote: »

So in this case is it sort of implied that I should change at Watford Junction?



But nationalrail.co.uk gives the the times for it (to Euston and by Overground via Kensington Olympia to Clapham Junction) and that route tends to be quicker given the Southern service from Watford is only every hour.

I did try giving nationalrail a call to clarify but the chap on the other end just gave me the ticket prices but not an answer!

I see what you mean now - and am surprised, gobsmacked even. That route does seem to be valid. I'd dismissed it out of hand as it involved backtracking, which is normally a big no-no.

It does also seem to offer a loophole walk on fare from Coventry to Euston on Virgin - the fare is less than to Euston alone. As it's not an advance fare, travelling short/BoJ shouldn't be a problem.

dzug1

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

Hi and welcome to the site.

Have a look on qjump - I've found a single ticket leaving Brighton at 10.49 on Sat March 28th for £34.50. Qjump charge a 50p fee for paying by debit card, and another 50p for collecting your ticket from a station (or £1 for first class post). Don't know if this is any good for you. Did you want a return?

That £34.50 fare is available on several trains that Saturday - the 1149 and 1249 as well as the 1049. And later in the day there's a £23 fare as well.

Buy on http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/ (probably others as well) and avoid raileasy's fee

AirlieBird

Distant_Cousin wrote: »

Hi All

I was very surprised to find no advance fares to go from Brighton to Clitheroe on a weekend at the end of March - on thetrainline.com there were no advance at all, very strange. Can't justify £90 walk-on fare with still a month to go.

Can't believe there are no advance fares left?!?

There's still some left. Use the excellent new online system at Southern Railway where you won't be charged a booking fee.

adamtrainman

The route Kensington ticket implies Not London Terminals which includes Euston, Kings X, St Pancras, Victoria, Waterloo, Paddington, Charing X plus others.

I can see what your saying about coming into Euston and back out and still travelling via Kensington Olympia its a difficult one is that because to the average Joe on the street theres nothing wrong with that because your doing as your told and travelling via Kensington. Just background railway knowledge tells me its wrong. To be honest i cant see you getting pulled for it but theres always a chance.

iamconfused_2

Hi, I need a ticket from London to Blackpool, leaving on Fri April 3rd and coming back Sunday April 5th. qjump are quoting two singles as the cheapest, £33.50 each, £67 in total. Has anybody got any other ideas?
Thanks very much

dzug1

iamconfused wrote: »

Hi, I need a ticket from London to Blackpool, leaving on Fri April 3rd and coming back Sunday April 5th. qjump are quoting two singles as the cheapest, £33.50 each, £67 in total. Has anybody got any other ideas?
Thanks very much

You can avoid qjump's fees by buying the same tickets on any rail company website.

As those are advance purchase singles, you are unlikely to get it any cheaper by splitting though have a look at Manchester (which will be a longer journey)

John89001

Slicker777 wrote: »

Got a ticket (Conventry - Gatwick) that says under "Route" - Kensington Olympia, but when I look the route up on Nationalrail it also comes up with the train times from Cov to Euston and then using the London Overground via Clapham Junction to Gatwick.

Very interesting. Thanks for pointing this out.

"Doubling back" is not normally allowed, and this is defined as passing through the same station more than once.

But the computer systems seem to have decided that there is no station you would pass through more than once on this journey and, having looked at this carefully, I think that is right.

The route would be from Coventry to Euston on the fast lines, then from Euston to Willesden Junction on the "electric" lines, then from Willesden Junction to Gatwick via Kensington Olympia. (I know that all 6 lines out of Euston have been electrified since the 1970s, but the slowest pair of lines still retain that title.)

Now Willesden Junction station is not on the West Coast Main Line - it is several hundred metres to the east. Of the three intermediate stations, none have platforms on the fast lines, so I think it is correct to say that there is no station that one passes through more than once.

If this is correct then all tickets (except perhaps some Advance tickets) routed Kensington Olympia are valid via Euston in this way - a significant discovery.

John

Bogof_Babe

dzug1 wrote: »

You can avoid qjump's fees by buying the same tickets on any rail company website.

As those are advance purchase singles, you are unlikely to get it any cheaper by splitting though have a look at Manchester (which will be a longer journey)

When I was searching for my Southport to Hereford trip I checked a few sites, and none of them had any £11 tickets except for qjump. I was quite surprised at that and have no idea how it works. Incidentally I got the same seat that I often get for the Manchester Piccadilly to Hereford leg of the journey, and I usually get it when booking via National Express, so they obviously don't allocate certain seats to certain agencies.

On non-allocated parts of the journey, where seat reservations are not possible because they are local commuter trains, is it okay to get off the train along the route, and get back on a later one to complete the journey? I don't see how they would know any different. This would be handy as if I go via Liverpool instead of Manchester I could hop off and visit mum on my way up, rather than making a separate trip the next day.

aleksander

A similar idea to that mentioned above regarding Coventry to Gatwick is that by buying tickets from London to Bedford which allow travel via Milton Keynes Central. It can save you £2 on an all train operating company Off Peak Day Return (£20 instead of £18). Not a big saving, but it's there. For First Class travellers, it can save much more though. Instead of a £64.20 1st Anytime Day Return, it is £28 1st Off Peak Day Return and £54.40 1st Anytime Day Return.

A much bigger saving though, from Ipswich, Stowmarket and Diss to London.
Buy a ticket Ipswich to Cambridge, which allows travel via London Liverpool Street (not Kings Cross). Just get off at London Liverpool Street, which should allow a split of journey.
£32 Off Peak Return/£60 Anytime Return
compared to
£12.90 Off Peak Day Return/£16 Anytime Day Return Ipswich-Cambridge