Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

gner_ex

Abbie wrote: »

I know I'm a bit early but I'm looking for a return (leaving Friday morning, coming back Sunday afternoon) for the end of July from Chester to Ludlow. Looking at other dates now available, I can't find anything under £28.50 return. Is this right? To go on the same train to Shrewsbury (a couple of stops earlier) is only £14.40 return (ie half price!). Has anyone come across this before or got any suggestions?

Thank you.

Yup your prices are correct. I agree with you that it seems wrong, but there is no obvious explanation. Then again, it is 70 miles each way.

munsterforever

i'm after going to penzance from dublin on one of these rail and sail tickets-does anyone know if i would be allowed to take the euston train from holyhead (change at chester but direct on return) and then get the tube to paddington and go to penzance that way? or will they make me go to brum and change there and plymouth.

If you are allowed to go via london i would take the sleeper from paddington and pay the extra charge for the berth-would that be ok? does anyone know?

dzug1

Dannyd123 wrote: »

is it cheaper in most cases to stop a station early and get the bus

To generalise - no, it will never be cheaper to do this.

There may be the odd exception, but it's very much an exception

howskint?

Can anyone help please? Wanting to travel from Derby to London on 4th July, returning on 5th July. Don't mind what time trains we catch - going down for a concert. What would be the cheapest way of doing this? Would we be better booking direct at the train station or booking on line?
Thanks in advance
howskint?

Livingthedream

howskint? wrote: »

Can anyone help please? Wanting to travel from Derby to London on 4th July, returning on 5th July. Don't mind what time trains we catch - going down for a concert. What would be the cheapest way of doing this? Would we be better booking direct at the train station or booking on line?
Thanks in advance
howskint?

Your a bit early at the moment, the 12 week rule for advance tickets doesn't always happen, it depends on the train company, and East Midland trains, who do the direct service to Lonodon are always late with releasing theirs. Use this website to help you find out when the cheap advance tickets are released;

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

wapow

Could someone please explain when the FGW Promotion code kicks in?

It says i have to follow the link in the email. When i do this and check the train times, the prices are bumped up! Im not sure when the discount kicks in either.

Anyone booked with the promotion code? How does it work please explain.

And do FGW charge a booking fee?

Thanks

Bogof_Babe

Another "could someone please explain...", as there are several experts who are helpful on this thread.

There seem to be no train services between Shrewsbury and Hereford on 28th June, only replacement buses. There is no planned maintenance work listed in the National Rail website. I just wondered what is going on.

dzug1

wapow wrote: »

Could someone please explain when the FGW Promotion code kicks in?

It says i have to follow the link in the email. When i do this and check the train times, the prices are bumped up! Im not sure when the discount kicks in either.

Anyone booked with the promotion code? How does it work please explain.

And do FGW charge a booking fee?

Thanks

It's deducted when you come to the payment screen.

They do not charge a booking fee unless you ask for eg special delivery

dzug1

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

Another "could someone please explain...", as there are several experts who are helpful on this thread.

There seem to be no train services between Shrewsbury and Hereford on 28th June, only replacement buses. There is no planned maintenance work listed in the National Rail website. I just wondered what is going on.

If there are replacement buses there is engineering work whether the National Rail website lists it or not

gner_ex

munsterforever wrote: »

i'm after going to penzance from dublin on one of these rail and sail tickets-does anyone know if i would be allowed to take the euston train from holyhead (change at chester but direct on return) and then get the tube to paddington and go to penzance that way? or will they make me go to brum and change there and plymouth.

If you are allowed to go via london i would take the sleeper from paddington and pay the extra charge for the berth-would that be ok? does anyone know?

This is what I like - a query I cannot answer - mainly because I'm not sure how to issue these on the machine. This is a query where popping down to your local station (CIE or national rail) finding an old school chap whose been there for more than 2 minutes and getting proper help is required. I can find various destinations for Dublin on my system - but they appear to give only advance fares to Penzance (some are amazingly cheap - £30 single!). Nothing said about routing though.

To try and give you some meaningful information, I've looked at Holyhead-Penzance tickets: there is an any permitted saver return at £146.90 - this ticket is priced by Arriva cross country. Now given that you'd have to go through the west midlands whichever way you went, it isn't that much shorter going via Bristol to going via London. Lets look at the routeing guide: the routeing point for Holyhead is Shotton, and for Penzance is Plymouth. Routes between Shotton and Plymouth are numerous:

[SIZE=-2]BC+CE[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]BC+CE+SW[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]BC+MW+SW[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]BC+MW+WE[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]BC+MW+WR[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]BD[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]BD+CH[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]CC+CE[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]CC+CE+SW[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]CE+BC+CH[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]CH+BC+CE+SW[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]LC+MW+SW[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]LC+MW+WE[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]LC+MW+WR[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]MW+SW[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]MW+WE[/SIZE] [SIZE=-2]MW+WR[/SIZE]
The short answer to your question is that based on a quick look, the nearest to Paddington you can go is Reading. The sleeper picks up from there. To do what you want to do, the combination LC+WE or LC+WR would need to be on the list, but they're not (but remember that this information only applies to Holyhead to Penzance).

If you can get someone at a ticket office to give you the Dublin-Penzance information, they should be able to book you seat and berth reservations throughout - if they give you a reservation into Euston and another from Paddington then that automatically covers you from any suggestion that your route is invalid.