Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

gcpc1

Hi Folks,

I wonder if anyone can help me. I regularly travel on business by train between Bristol Parkway and London (Paddington.) First Great Western is the sole operator on this route. Nine times out of ten I have to catch trains during 'Peak Time' (7:30am to 9:30am) and pay the 'Standard Open Return' fare of £112.

My question is: does anyone know of how I can save any money on this route? I use https://www.thetrainline.com to book my tickets as far in advance of my journey as possible but there are very rarely any discounts for Peak Time travel. For example, today I looked for a ticket for travel during August but there are no discounts during the time I have to travel. I use the Discount Code 'NOMOREDIY' to save myself a few £ but no amount of any significance. First Great Western provide no discounts in terms of Railcards, etc.

Any info/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

moonrakerz

If you're tied to the times you mention I'm afraid Great Western have got you just where they want you !

We found that we can make significant savings by using a different route into Paddington. Instead of going from Chippenham (trains from Bristol TM), we go from Pewsey (West Country trains), the off peak tickets seem to be available on earlier services. This is offset by a reduced service to Pewsey, but if you can be flexible on times you're OK.
BUT, if you are going from Parkway - I think your only alternative is the M4 and I wouldn't recommend that !

evesham1988la

gcpc1 wrote:

Hi Folks,

I wonder if anyone can help me. I regularly travel on business by train between Bristol Parkway and London (Paddington.) First Great Western is the sole operator on this route. Nine times out of ten I have to catch trains during 'Peak Time' (7:30am to 9:30am) and pay the 'Standard Open Return' fare of £112.

My question is: does anyone know of how I can save any money on this route? I use https://www.thetrainline.com to book my tickets as far in advance of my journey as possible but there are very rarely any discounts for Peak Time travel. For example, today I looked for a ticket for travel during August but there are no discounts during the time I have to travel. I use the Discount Code 'NOMOREDIY' to save myself a few £ but no amount of any significance. First Great Western provide no discounts in terms of Railcards, etc.

Any info/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

If you have no other alternative you could buy the following combination tickets:

1) Bristol Parkway to Swindon - £13 Saver RTN
2) Swindon to London Padington - £79 Open Return or buy as two singles at £39.50 and use the NOMOREDIY code to save an extra £6 as you are buying two seperate tickets on this sector = £73
Overall Cost - £86
Saving - £26

Edit: And if you really want to maximise the NOMOREDIY discount you could buy:
1) Bristol Parkway to Swindon - £13 Saver RTN (No Discount)
2) Swindon to Reading
- 2 Singles @ £21.50 each - 2x £3 discount = £37rtn
3) Reading to London Paddngton - £25rtn - £3 discount = £22rtn

Overall Cost = £72
Saving = £40

AP

andybee1 wrote:

Hi

I am posting a little warning regarding combining a South Yorkshire Zone Travel Master Ticket with a Moorthorpe-Leeds Rail Only pass for travel between Sheffield and Leeds ...

I am glad that I no longer have to commute between Sheffield and Wakefield since June 2005 last year.

I suggest everyone switches to the South Yorkshire RAILMASTER ticket instead as there is at present no leaflet or literature about whether it can be used in conjunction with a season ticket between Moorthorpe and Wakefield/Leeds and satisfy condition 17(c) of NRCC.

This ticket is briefly mentioned in the appendix of the National Fares Manual (I think it is volume 6 for the northern region) and this is what the SYPTE website says about this ticket:

http://www.sypte.co.uk/tickets/rail.html

'RailMaster is available monthly and is valid for unlimited travel between all rail stations in South Yorkshire.

RailMaster costs £51.40 and is available from all manned rail stations in the county. RailMasters are available only with photocards - you will need to take along a passport-sized photograph.'

So if everyone uses the RailMaster ticket instead, then the 'Customer Service Manager' who (probably has nothing else better to do other than) 'spend his day jumping between trains making it his sole task in life to enforce this' will find his copy of the Terms and conditions of TravelMaster irrelevant as the RailMaster is a different ticket altogether!

BTW, getting a Cheap Day Return ticket to/from DORE is actually cheaper that one to/from Sheffield, even though Dore is one station further away from Sheffield and you have to change trains at Sheffield.

Sheffield - Wakefield £6.25 Cheap Day Return
Dore - Wakefield £5.70 Cheap Day Return!

Sheffield - Doncaster £3.30 Standard Day Single, £3.60 Cheap Day Return, £5.30 Standard Day Return
Dore - Doncaster £2.10 Standard Day Single, £3.60 Cheap Day Return, £5.20 Standard Day Return

canidothat

£12 Rail Fares
Don't know if anyone has found this yet but I have just bought £12 rail tickets from Swansea to London one way on First Great Western. Don't know what other stations they are from but I'm positive they aren't just from here.
They aren't advertised on the website, you can't buy them from your local train station but if you ring 08457 000 125 (think it's a foreign callcentre) ask for the £12 tickets specifically and hang on for ages, you'll get your tickets but don't dare upset them as they'll shout at you! I needed 2 sets of tickets for June and July and got them. You need to press button 2 then button 4 but if you just ignore the button 4 you'll be put through quicker (I did anyway!) The first lot took 5 hours hanging on then redialling, the second 3 mins! Good luck! I chose the 8am to London and the return was for 19.45pm If you want to return at 6pm, you have to pay £17.50-not £12 You don't have to come back the same day. I'm staying for a few days.

malcolmwilliamson

Does anyone know why the megatrain site has been down for the past 2 days?
I've booked a £1 London-Bournemouth for 7/7 but need to book the return for 10/7.
Hope they haven't gone bust!

evesham1988la

malcolmwilliamson wrote:

Does anyone know why the megatrain site has been down for the past 2 days?
I've booked a £1 London-Bournemouth for 7/7 but need to book the return for 10/7.
Hope they haven't gone bust!

It's working OK for me. 10/7 - All seats £1 at 08:59, 09:59 and 19:59.

malcolmwilliamson

Ta evesham. I've just booked a return at 19.59.

alchemista

Supposedly there is a link for 3 pounds off train tickets as mentioned on this ebay auction. Does anyone know the info on it so we don't have to pay for the information?

ebay auction for 3 pounds off

evesham1988la

alchemista wrote:

Supposedly there is a link for 3 pounds off train tickets as mentioned on this ebay auction. Does anyone know the info on it so we don't have to pay for the information?

ebay auction for 3 pounds off

Yup... the code is "NOMOREDIY" for £3 off indivudal tickets priced at £20 or more.