Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

nutty1

hi , i'm going from wigan to cleethorpes. only beginning of july. which will be best tickets to get, straight though or split ones. its for 4 adults. and how far in advance can you get advance tickets please

shark435

Hi Livingthedream

Thanks so much for giving up your time! 32 pounds sounds great.:j Far better than anything I could find. I didnt have a fixed date - whenever is cheap in early april. I would like to leave on a thurday and come back on monday but I am flexible. What are generaly the cheaper days and times to travel?

Thanks again!

dzug1

kathrynt wrote: »

hi , i'm going from wigan to cleethorpes. only beginning of july. which will be best tickets to get, straight though or split ones. its for 4 adults. and how far in advance can you get advance tickets please

Advance tickets come on sale in theory 12 weeks before the date of travel but it's rare for this to actually happen - more like 8 a lot of the time.

For your journey a local ticket to Manchester and cheap advance singles Manchester - Cleethorpes looks like the answer. The latter start at £8.50 each

A walkon return is £36.60 each off peak (from Manchester). If at 12 weeks this is all you are offered, then the cheap tickets are not released

Livingthedream

shark435 wrote: »

Hi Livingthedream

Thanks so much for giving up your time! 32 pounds sounds great.:j Far better than anything I could find. I didnt have a fixed date - whenever is cheap in early april. I would like to leave on a thurday and come back on monday but I am flexible. What are generaly the cheaper days and times to travel?

Thanks again!

The £32 was one way so a return would be £64, however, some of the dates are sold out over the Easter weekend. But they are available on the Thrusday (9th) and Friday (10th) to Birmingham and Tuesday (14th) back to Durham.

I can get the price down to £28 (£56 return) by spliting at Manchester Piccidilly or £27.50 (£55 return) at York but again travelling on Easter Monday is proving to be expensive.

lexilex

I'm trying to find train tickets for my mum and dad, going from Hull to Leeds on 16th June. I thought by booking early we would get best prices, but the cheapest I can find is £17 each. Normally I can get £5 tickets. Am I better waiting?

dzug1

lexilex wrote: »

I'm trying to find train tickets for my mum and dad, going from Hull to Leeds on 16th June. I thought by booking early we would get best prices, but the cheapest I can find is £17 each. Normally I can get £5 tickets. Am I better waiting?

Yes wait for the cheap tickets to be released. A couple of weeks maybe

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

manda1205

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but any help is much appreciated.
We're going to London next weekend from Norwich, we bought advance tickets with The Sun offer a few months back. On the saturday we should travel at 11.30, with 3 changes on the route. Now on the national express timetable it says the times are 10.57 and 11.57 and the changes are different. So Im guessing because of weekend engineering they've changed the times, is this ok for us, do we just get on either train at either time and hope for the best? Trains are so bloomin confusin dont want to get on and end up being told we've got to pay. TIA for any help.

-Ad-

Just saved a cool +£1000 today.

Moved home to the parents house out of London and my annual zone 1-3 travelcard ran out last week, plus have been paying £345pcm for the train into London also.

Total projected for this year = 345x12 + 1208 = £5348.

Decided to buy an annual travelcard to St Pancras instead for the year, saving me £50 on my monthly train costs. (£3600 + 1208 = £4808)

BUT, but got some advice on a rail forum and managed to purchase a ticket covering me from my home station to boundary Zone 6, inc zone 1-6 underground for £4260.

£548 saving on the best I used to think could be had, and equivalent to £1808 annual saving compared to my monthly buying at this time.

Much better than keeping than money in an e-savings account :beer: :T :beer:

aleksander

manda1205 wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but any help is much appreciated.
We're going to London next weekend from Norwich, we bought advance tickets with The Sun offer a few months back. On the saturday we should travel at 11.30, with 3 changes on the route. Now on the national express timetable it says the times are 10.57 and 11.57 and the changes are different. So Im guessing because of weekend engineering they've changed the times, is this ok for us, do we just get on either train at either time and hope for the best? Trains are so bloomin confusin dont want to get on and end up being told we've got to pay. TIA for any help.

Don't worry! The 11:30 is still running, so you should travel on this service. What I think has happened is that the online timetable has recommended travelling via Cambridge, because of the engineering works between Colchester and Billericay, but trains are still running as planned from Norwich to Colchester with a coach connection to Billericay to connect with trains to London.

manda1205

aleksander wrote: »

Don't worry! The 11:30 is still running, so you should travel on this service. What I think has happened is that the online timetable has recommended travelling via Cambridge, because of the engineering works between Colchester and Billericay, but trains are still running as planned from Norwich to Colchester with a coach connection to Billericay to connect with trains to London.

Oh thank you so much:beer: , was gonna ring them next week just to confirm times, cos didnt want to get there and miss trains etc. Trains are so confusing especially at the weekends, glad we're coming back on a monday.