Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

carolwat

Hi

I need to travel from Carlisle to Birmingham New Street on a Friday in July and return on a Sunday. I have looked into all this split ticketing stuff but have no idea where I would need to split and I have tried to get prices from one station to another along the way but its just confusing me. Can anyone tell me what is my best way to get the cheapest fare please.

Thanks

showtunesgirl

carolwat wrote: »

Hi

I need to travel from Carlisle to Birmingham New Street on a Friday in July and return on a Sunday. I have looked into all this split ticketing stuff but have no idea where I would need to split and I have tried to get prices from one station to another along the way but its just confusing me. Can anyone tell me what is my best way to get the cheapest fare please.

Thanks

Here you go: http://splityourticket.co.uk/routes/Birmingham-to-Carlisle-Route.aspx

KeithP

carolwat wrote: »

Hi

I need to travel from Carlisle to Birmingham New Street on a Friday in July and return on a Sunday. I have looked into all this split ticketing stuff but have no idea where I would need to split and I have tried to get prices from one station to another along the way but its just confusing me. Can anyone tell me what is my best way to get the cheapest fare please.

Thanks

If you want to understand Split ticketting better, have a look at the video in the cheap train ticket article.

Without splitting, I can see an outward Advance Single on 23 July for £26.00. there is a returning Advance Single on the Sunday at £14.00.

You haven't told us what you have found so far, and of course, I don't know your dates, so check somewhere like East Coast Trains for suitability.

Splitting at Preston or Lancaster may help if cheap through Advance Singles are not suitable.

KeithP

showtunesgirl wrote: »

Here you go: http://splityourticket.co.uk/routes/Birmingham-to-Carlisle-Route.aspx

ShowTunesGirl, do you happen to know whether that tool can consider Advance Singles?

It doesn't appear to allow the input of the date of travel, so I guess not.

If not, it does appear to be of somewhat limited use. :beer:

epm-84

I've just found this site which gives advice on how to get the cheapest tickets and gives some examples of where you can save money by spilting tickets and the like, it's not a very big site but what is there seems good and a few things I don't think Martin Lewis has picked up on:
http://www.besttrainfares.info/

hopefulfooluk

epm-84 wrote: »

I've just found this site which gives advice on how to get the cheapest tickets and gives some examples of where you can save money by spilting tickets and the like, it's not a very big site but what is there seems good and a few things I don't think Martin Lewis has picked up on:
http://www.besttrainfares.info/

Pretty useless site really as the link on the main page doesn't work.

Also it keeps going on about spilt tickets - I'm not sure what those are! Have they got coffee stains on them?

epm-84

hopefulfooluk wrote: »

Pretty useless site really as the link on the main page doesn't work.

Also it keeps going on about spilt tickets - I'm not sure what those are! Have they got coffee stains on them?

I didn't notice any links which didn't work.

I imagine most people using this thread know what spilt ticketing is as Martin Lewis keeps going on about it and a lot of the replies in this thread refer to spilt ticketing.

Martin Lewis' information on spilt tickets is:

This is the big trick everyone should know. Instead of buying tickets for the whole journey, buying tickets for its constituent parts separately can bizarrely slash the price – even though you're travelling on exactly the same train.

It’s perfectly allowed within the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, and has been confirmed by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). The only rule is that the train must call at the stations you've bought tickets for.

and the information besttrainfares.info gives is:

It is perfectly legal to have two or more tickets for your journey. However, in order for this to be legal the train must call at any destination shown on your ticket. For example, you can buy a Manchester to Milton Keynes ticket and a Milton Keynes to London ticket opposed to a Manchester to London ticket but in this case only one in three trains between Manchester and London call at Milton Keynes which means that if you spilt your tickets in this way you must board a train that calls at Milton Keynes and not goes through the station.

It is well worth noting that any rail ticket office can sell you any rail ticket. For instance, a ticket office in Bath can sell you a Warrington to Liverpool ticket. However, as many ticket offices are understaffed it may well be to your advantage to buy your spilt tickets in advance, whether it be online or from the ticket office, to avoid problems on the day.

Numerous example journeys where you can save money by splitting tickets are detailed in the Example Savings section.

wealdroam

epm-84 wrote: »

I imagine most people using this thread know what spilt ticketing is as Martin Lewis keeps going on about it and a lot of the replies in this thread refer to spilt ticketing.

Martin Lewis' information on spilt tickets...

I think you'l find that this website and that which Martin Lewis "keeps going on about" is...
SPLIT Tickets not SPILT tickets.

Away with you now and correct your website, in this respect at least.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

epm-84

wealdroam wrote: »

I think you'l find that this website and that which Martin Lewis "keeps going on about" is...
SPLIT Tickets not SPILT tickets.

Away with you now and correct your website, in this respect at least.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Oh so is it funny that I'm dyslexic and couldn't notice the difference between split and spilt in hopefulfooluk's post.

It's not my site but I do know who own's it and I've emailed him saying that it's wrong. Maybe it would have been more constructive for you to do that considering there's a contact link on the homepage than to have a go at me.

hopefulfooluk

epm-84 wrote: »

It's not my site but I do know who own's it and I've emailed him saying that it's wrong. Maybe it would have been more constructive for you to do that considering there's a contact link on the homepage than to have a go at me.

Funny how your screenname starts with epm and the website is registered to someone with the initials EM...!

Constructive input - if you add a .html extension to the link on the front page it will work okay.

Also consider putting whois privacy on your domain name because at present your whole name and address is on there.

I hope that's some good constructive criticism!