Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

Livingthedream

kayl wrote: »

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??

Just had a quick look on the East Coast Website, with some random dates (27th and 29th Sept) and you can do the journey for £39.40* return 2x adults 1x child f&f railcard

*x2 advance singles with East Coast Online discount , via Edinburgh takes bit longer

Boohoo

I am after a cheap fare for my dad who is 69 years old from Leagrave to Chatham on Thursday 18 August and going back on Sunday 22 August.
I can travel at any time and when i looked last week they were £36 but i was told by a mate that you can get them cheaper. He doesnt have any railcards but he is also thinking of going to Plymouth in October/November so may have to think about a railcard.
Thank you.

miller

Boohoo wrote: »

I am after a cheap fare for my dad who is 69 years old from Leagrave to Chatham on Thursday 18 August and going back on Sunday 22 August.
I can travel at any time and when i looked last week they were £36 but i was told by a mate that you can get them cheaper. He doesnt have any railcards but he is also thinking of going to Plymouth in October/November so may have to think about a railcard.
Thank you.

The railcard will cost £26 and you would save £12.25 on this jouney, but would almost certainly get back the entire cost of it on the Plymouth trip.

There are no advance fares on this route as far as I can see.

Westvleteren

Hi, hope someone can help.

I would like to travel from Aberdeen to Plymouth anytime between 26 of sept and mid Oct. I am really flexible with times etc. The cheapest I can find is £191 return. I understand that it may work out cheaper to break the journey down.

Thanks in advance.

kt

Livingthedream

kt26 wrote: »

Hi, hope someone can help.

I would like to travel from Aberdeen to Plymouth anytime between 26 of sept and mid Oct. I am really flexible with times etc. The cheapest I can find is £191 return. I understand that it may work out cheaper to break the journey down.

Thanks in advance.

kt

Your just a little bit early for the direct advance tickets but when there released you should be able to do the journey for £99, but these tickets are rare, you could sign up to Cross Country ticket alert to be emailed when their released.

If you want to split the journey down then look at the following;

London
Edinburgh, Birmingham NS
Glasgow Queens/Central (walk/bus), Birmingham NS

You could also add Manchester Piccadilly to the Edinburgh/Glasgow/Birmingham New Street options

If you get advance single tickets then give yourself plenty of time to make each connection, especially if you split at London and have to get across London using the underground.

Westvleteren

Thanks for that, it was really helpful.

Is it cheaper to break the journey at bigger train stations?

Kt

Livingthedream

kt26 wrote: »

Is it cheaper to break the journey at bigger train stations?

Kt

Most of the time I would say yes, as that's normally where the train companies change who prices that part of the route ie Aberdeen to Plymouth (direct not London) would be price by Crosscountry but Plymouth to Birmingham would be Crosscountry, Birmingham to Glasgow would be Virgin and Glasgow to Aberdeen would be Scotrail. All confusing but can be used in the passengers favour.

There is exceptions to the rules, all you got to do is read this thread or other threads relating to 'split ticketing' in this part of the forum to find them.

miller

kt26 wrote: »

Thanks for that, it was really helpful.

Is it cheaper to break the journey at bigger train stations?

Kt

I managed to (tediously) find on SWT towards exeter splitting at Pinhoe was cheaper, which must be a fairly tiddly station.

However, not all trains stop there. So caution is required. The larger stations tend not to have that problem.

Vin2300

Hi, can anyone help me please?

I want to travel from Newcastle to Aberdeen on 7 Aug, returning on 9 Aug. Unfortunately i cant be all that flexible with times. I need to arrive in Aberdeen between say 1400 and 1700 on the 7th, and i need to leave Aberdeen between 1200 and 1500 on the 9th.

There are three adults going - the cheapest return comes to a total of £257. I have spent hours trying to split it every way possible, but cant beat that price. Thought i had done it by splitting at Berwick, but it turned out the tickets were for over 55s only!

Id be very grateful if anyone has any suggestions.

Livingthedream

Vin2300 wrote: »

Hi, can anyone help me please?

I want to travel from Newcastle to Aberdeen on 7 Aug, returning on 9 Aug. Unfortunately i cant be all that flexible with times. I need to arrive in Aberdeen between say 1400 and 1700 on the 7th, and i need to leave Aberdeen between 1200 and 1500 on the 9th.

There are three adults going - the cheapest return comes to a total of £257. I have spent hours trying to split it every way possible, but cant beat that price. Thought i had done it by splitting at Berwick, but it turned out the tickets were for over 55s only!

Id be very grateful if anyone has any suggestions.

Havn't look at advance tickets but try and split at Edinburgh Waverly;

Newcastle to Edinburgh Waverly £132 Super Off Peak return 3x adults
Edinburgh Waverly to Aberdeen £42.20 Friends Fare 3x adluts

Total: £174.20 return

The Friends fare is only available via Scotrail website and you can only travel on Scotrail services you also need to buy these at least 2 days in advance of date of travel

You could get further saving by getting advance single from Newcastle to Edinburgh