Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

SandC

You should wait until 12 weeks before as that is when the cheaper tickets start to come out. If you try National Rail Enquiries they won't allow you to look it up for July just yet.

Rydeboyz

Yes I realise that, thanks, but assumed July wouldn't differ much from May (the prices I was working with).

Livingthedream

Rydeboyz wrote: »

What I'd like to know is - is there any way to book a return ticket from Manchester to Swindon which allows me to go via London but over 4 days? Any help would be very much appreciated on this journey!

Try Splitting the journey up and getting cheap advance single tickets for your dates of travel but remember to book early and give yourself plenty of time to get acrosss London to catch your Manchester/Swindon train - prices random date in May

Manchester Pic to London Euston from £10.60 (2x &YP)
London Euston to Swindon from £13.90 (2x &YP)

Swindon to London Euston from £13.90 (2x &YP)
London Euston to Manchester Pic from £10.60 (2x &YP)

But with Sunday travel they sometimes don't release the advance ticket until quite late, use this website to help watch First Great Western and Virgin;

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/booking_horizons.html

Rydeboyz

That's extremely helpful! Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I'll keep my eye out for those advance singles in April then. :cool:

dzug1

Rydeboyz wrote: »

Yes I realise that, thanks, but assumed July wouldn't differ much from May (the prices I was working with).

Even May is not fully released yet - depends on what dates you were working with

gner_ex

Rydeboyz wrote: »

What I'd like to know is - is there any way to book a return ticket from Manchester to Swindon which allows me to go via London but over 4 days? Any help would be very much appreciated on this journey!

Yes - there are two saver return fares from Manchester to Swindon. not London £66.50, and +London £97.70. Remember this is a period return fare (return within one calendar month). See my next message re break of journey.

gner_ex

kgall wrote: »

Hi,

Can anybody tell me how "break of journey" works in practice? Essentially I often travel from station A to station C using standard off peak monthly returns. Ideally I would sometimes like to stop off at station B (which is called at on route) during my return journey.

I had a quick look on the National Rail website and it says that breaks of journey are allowed with my type of ticket. However are there any restrictions to this i.e. maximum amount of time that the break can be for? Also on a practical level if my ticket has been stamped upon leaving station A will the conductor who sees it again after I rejoin at station B think it invalid?

Thanks,
K

The rules changed last year (they became even better for the passenger). The following does NOT apply to advance purchase tickets - it only applies to flexible tickets.

Take a look at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/system/galleries/download/misc/NRCOC.pdf in particular clauses 11, 13, 16, 17 and 30.

OUTWARD JOURNEY
Generally break of journey IS allowed, though there are exceptions on certain Anglo scottish services (I had heard these were due to be lifted, so check). Note that the final leg of your outward journey must be commenced by midnight of the first day.

In essence, you can break your journey at any station that is on the line of a permitted route for your ticket. These are sometimes quite bizarre. For example a valid route for London-Leeds could be via Cheshunt, Cambridge, Ely, Peterborough, Lincoln, Doncaster and York - and you could break at each if you wanted to.

Normally, your outward journey must be completed the day stated on your ticket, however there is to be a change to Anytime Returns (this is the full price ticket formerly known as an open return) where from 16th March for a trial period of six months, the outward journey can be the date on the ticket or the four days after that.

As long as you have commenced your journey on this date (prior to 23:59), then you can carry on your journey as much into the next day as you need to (for example the 23:30 Kings Cross-Leeds doesn't arrive until 02:37). In circumstances where you cannot complete your journey that day, you can break your journey to stay in overnight accommodation. An example would be if you arrived at Kings Cross at 21:00 tonight with an off-peak return for Edinburgh. As the last through train was the 19:00 from Kings Cross, you can get a different train, and stay anywhere en route (for example Stevenage, Leeds, York or Newcastle) - though your journey has to be completed _i think_ by 12:00 the following day (or is it started by 12:00?).

RETURN JOURNEY
A return ticket is valid for one calender month. If the date on the outward part is 13th March, the date on the return part will be 12th April.
Lets say you have a ticket from London Waterloo to Weymouth. You've done your outward journey on 1st March, then on 2nd March you decide that you want to spend 28 days at Clapham Junction (!!) then travel Clapham Jct-Waterloo on day 31 (31st March). This is perfectly permissible. You must board the final leg of your journey (Clapham-Waterloo) before midnight on that final day (i.e. the 23:59 from Clapham, arrive Waterloo 00:11).

Does this go some way to answer your question?

hstudent

gner_ex wrote: »

RETURN JOURNEY
A return ticket is valid for one calender month. If the date on the outward part is 13th March, the date on the return part will be 12th April.
Lets say you have a ticket from London Waterloo to Weymouth. You've done your outward journey on 1st March, then on 2nd March you decide that you want to spend 28 days at Clapham Junction (!!) then travel Clapham Jct-Waterloo on day 31 (31st March). This is perfectly permissible. You must board the final leg of your journey (Clapham-Waterloo) before midnight on that final day (i.e. the 23:59 from Clapham, arrive Waterloo 00:11).

Does this go some way to answer your question?

Be careful with breaking your return journey over different days. Your ticket quite often gets date stamped and if you are travelling over different days you could be accused of fare evasion, even if you aren't.

Say for example your return journey was London to Manchester. What's to stop you doing it the day after Manchester to London and then 7 days later buying a single ticket for Manchester to Macclesfield and use your London ticket again for Macclesfield to Manchester? Answer: nothing apart from it'll be suspicous if your ticket is date stamped from last week.

shark435

Hi All

Im trying to get from durham to brimingham over easter. the best I have manages is 42, and a little cheaper If I split the journey at york. Does anyone know of a way to get a cheaper ticket. Thanks

Livingthedream

shark435 wrote: »

Hi All

Im trying to get from durham to brimingham over easter. the best I have manages is 42, and a little cheaper If I split the journey at york. Does anyone know of a way to get a cheaper ticket. Thanks

Skark435 can you tell us what day and around what time you want to travel, but had a quick look and for Friday 10th you can get a ticket for £32 without spliting.