Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

epm-84

_gl wrote: »

I can recommend East Coast (co.uk) for bookings, just used them myself & they don't charge for 1st class delivery (or booking fees) and have a much better ticket search engine than most (all?) of the others - it's much easier to see which ticket prices are available on a given day.

London Midland, Chiltern Railways and Southeastern use the same booking engine as East Coast. They don't all post out tickets from where you'd expect though. East Coast and Chiltern post out tickets from London, London Midland and Southeastern from Newcastle, so if you live in the North then London Midland are the better bet (as they don't have an 0870 number to phone if your tickets don't arrive unlike Southeastern.)

wealdroam

epm-84 wrote: »

London Midland, Chiltern Railways and Southeastern use the same booking engine as East Coast.

...as do Southern.

thesimplethings_2

My husband needs to travel to Bath on Friday 30th July sometime after 6pm and return on Monday morning to get into London before 8.30am.

I've looked on the trainline and got a £19.50 outward leaving London at 19.30 but a hideously expensive £30.50 return arriving in London at 08.14.

He doesn't have a railcard as he has an annual network railcard from Peterborough to London and that is the only journey he usually needs to make.

Any tips on how to get the journey way below the current £50 hugely appreciated.:o

lynnemcf

Can anyone help me with my journey? I need to travel from Coventry to Saltburn ANY DATE 20-30 July or 1-20 August (very flexible on dates) and return 4-5 days later than outward journey. I used trainline and could only find £34.50 singles, could not find any £22 singles. It is for me and my friend, we do not qualify for any railcard

KeithP

thesimplethings wrote: »

My husband needs to travel to Bath on Friday 30th July sometime after 6pm and return on Monday morning to get into London before 8.30am.

I've looked on the trainline and got a £19.50 outward leaving London at 19.30 but a hideously expensive £30.50 return arriving in London at 08.14.

He doesn't have a railcard as he has an annual network railcard from Peterborough to London and that is the only journey he usually needs to make.

Any tips on how to get the journey way below the current £50 hugely appreciated.:o

Unfortunately, arriving in London before 08:30 is peak time and I imagine there will be nothing cheaper.
You will have seen that if you can arrive in London after 10am the fare drops to less than half that.

Could try splitting at Swindon, Didcot or Reading, but I don't hold out much hope.

miller

stocksy6 wrote: »

Anybody help with a journey from Long eaton to exmouth departing 19th August after 0900 and returning probably Monday 23rd August after midday time. Best I have managed so far after extensive research is 87 quid. Bit disappointed really as spent ages researching and found nothing cheaper. Its about a fiver cheaper if I purchase a rail card (i'm 25) plus I'm travelling with my little boy (he's 4) so he goes for nothing!!

Despite this one being done and dusted and I doubt the price can be beaten... top tip for people coming from Nottingham/Derby towards the South. Look for departures from East Midlands Parkway.

thesimplethings_2

Thanks KeithP for your help. He now only has to make the outbound journey London to Bath which is priced at £19.50 for a 19.30 departure. Does anyone know which is the cheapest place to book?

Many thanks

KeithP

thesimplethings wrote: »

Thanks KeithP for your help. He now only has to make the outbound journey London to Bath which is priced at £19.50 for a 19.30 departure. Does anyone know which is the cheapest place to book?

Many thanks

By from any train operating company... maybe Southern Railway.

Avoid the fees of thetrainline and raileasy.

You can buy at the same price from any staffed train station... but be quick, these cheap tickets tend to disappear.

dzug1

thesimplethings wrote: »

Thanks KeithP for your help. He now only has to make the outbound journey London to Bath which is priced at £19.50 for a 19.30 departure. Does anyone know which is the cheapest place to book?

Many thanks

Any rail site that doesn't charge a booking fee or postage. The fare is the same on them all.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/ is as good as any

kayl

I wonder whether anyone can help me in planning a train journey from Glasgow to London - 2 adults, 1 child, with a Family and Friebds railcard. I am planning to go on Monday 18th October, and come back onThursday 21st. I know that I can't advance book for a couple of weeks, but was playing about online on the basis of the same journey 3 weeks earlier to see the costs. I was horrififed to see that the chepest return fare is approx £160. I'm sure I must be doing something wrong as the same journey for 2 adults and 3 kids 3 years ago was half that. Surely fares can't have gone up by that much??