Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

tashmatthews

Thankyou for your help and advice

Am going to sound thick now, how did you get £54 up for one way?

What trainline company is that with?

Also does it cost to buy a railcard?

I normally drive everywhere so not up with all the train prices tickets etc

Thankyou

tashmatthews

I have been onto Southwesttrains and FGW

I can get single ticket to London St Pancras for £34.35 with a family and friends railcard costing £20.80

To get home it is at the moment costing £90.60 for us all with the railcard! Do I book now incase cheaper tickets do not go on sale?

I therefore save £50 at the current price with the railcard!

What to do what to do!!

KeithP

tashmatthews wrote: »

Thankyou for your help and advice

Am going to sound thick now, how did you get £54 up for one way?

As I said, from East Coast Trains website.
Go there and enter your trip details... just put 'London', not full station name. Including number of passengers.
Click 'search'.
Click on the first box in the left 'fares' pane which says '£54 to £427.50' on it.
Go to the 'services' pane below that and scroll through it to find several trains at £54.00.
Some go via Taunton to Paddington, and others via Yeovil to Waterloo.

tashmatthews wrote: »

What trainline company is that with?

Those to Paddington are First Great Western.
Those to Waterloo are South West Trains.

tashmatthews wrote: »

Also does it cost to buy a railcard?

Yes. See John89001's post above for a discount on that too.

KeithP

tashmatthews wrote: »

I have been onto Southwesttrains and FGW

I can get single ticket to London St Pancras for £34.35 with a family and friends railcard costing £20.80

To get home it is at the moment costing £90.60 for us all with the railcard! Do I book now incase cheaper tickets do not go on sale?

I therefore save £50 at the current price with the railcard!

What to do what to do!!

Don't know where you get those fares from.
But if you can get a Single for three adults and three children from Exeter to St.Pancras at £20.80, that is amazingly cheap.

Spend £20 on a railcard to save £50 sounds like the way to go.

tashmatthews

KeithP wrote: »

Don't know where you get those fares from.
But if you can get a Single for three adults and three children from Exeter to St.Pancras at £20.80, that is amazingly cheap.

Spend £20 on a railcard to save £50 sounds like the way to go.

Sorry I dont think I have wrote it clear

The railcard is £20.80 and the tickets £34 and so much pence

So it kinda works out the same if I dont have a railcard it costs £54 if I do and spend £20 it gives me a discount, so either way it still works out the same!!

lol

Thankyou, still havent booked as am unsure as to what to do about the Return Leg!!!???

KeithP

tashmatthews wrote: »

Sorry I dont think I have wrote it clear

The railcard is £20.80 and the tickets £34 and so much pence

So it kinda works out the same if I dont have a railcard it costs £54 if I do and spend £20 it gives me a discount, so either way it still works out the same!!

lol

Thankyou, still havent booked as am unsure as to what to do about the Return Leg!!!???

Ok, I now understand.

So spend £20.80 and get a discount of £23.40. Don't need to think to hard about that, do you?

As we've found, the cheapest tickets are not yet available for the return leg. The cheapest 'walk-up' fare on the Sunday is £82.95 for a Super Off Peak Single... that's for all of you, with Railcard.
So, if you buy the outward tickets through First Great Western for the 16:00 Exeter St.Davids now, they will cost you £27.45.

Then keep looking for cheap tickets for the return leg. If none appear before you travel, the worst that can happen is you have to buy a Super Off Peak Single for £82.75. That still gives you a total trip price of 131.00 inc. Railcard.
That's a massive saving on your £200+.

Pretty certain some cheap tickets will appear though... maybe after Christmas even.

BTW. Do you need to go to St.Pancras? If not, just specify 'London' in the destination box... otherwise you are paying for the tube too.

So.... get the railcard and the outward tickets now.

tashmatthews

Thankyou Keith

I purchased my outward journeys today to Paddington for £27.45

I contact FGW who told me that the cheap single tickets for the return journey have not gone on sale yet but will do anytime soon

So I am ready and waiting, lol

Thanks again much appreciated

KeithP

tashmatthews wrote: »

Thankyou Keith

I purchased my outward journeys today to Paddington for £27.45

I contact FGW who told me that the cheap single tickets for the return journey have not gone on sale yet but will do anytime soon

So I am ready and waiting, lol

Thanks again much appreciated

Don't forget the railcard. Buy before 18 Dec using John89001's post above for discount.

Chrisjb_2

KeithP wrote: »

You may be able to save another 10% by buying through FGW when the time comes.

PLease note that the extra 10% off on the FGW website is being withdrawn on 2 January, with their Advance Fares being reduced to compensate.

Their trial failed to achieve what they'd hoped, so have withdrawn it.

barloo69

Any help please !!! Muchly appreciated. Ive tried in vain looking at this and that site to no avail thus problem still causing headache.

I need to get from Brighton to Northampton tomorrow. I am not particular about time just as long as I get there by 1800ish.

I have managed to get the fare down to £40.20 and this is splitting the journey as follows:- London Euston to Rugby £7 and Rugby to Northampton £5.20. So thats the northern part of the journey sorted for a reasonable cost of £12.

Its just the southern leg which no matter which permutation I try I cannot get down in price.

Any advise greatly appreciated.