Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

zashar_2

Hoping you guys can help me save a bit.
I recently moved down to Peterborough from Fife and my partner is still up there. (for now) He comes down for a week every month and was wondering if any one has any tips to make the journey cheaper.
He travels from Cowdenbeath to Edinburgh. Then changes train at Edinburgh for Peterborough. Cheapest we've found is £82 return. He travels with a large dog and is mildly epileptic so the less changes the better.
Hope you can help.

yorkie2

zashar wrote: »

Hoping you guys can help me save a bit.
I recently moved down to Peterborough from Fife and my partner is still up there. (for now) He comes down for a week every month and was wondering if any one has any tips to make the journey cheaper.
He travels from Cowdenbeath to Edinburgh. Then changes train at Edinburgh for Peterborough. Cheapest we've found is £82 return. He travels with a large dog and is mildly epileptic so the less changes the better.
Hope you can help.

All I can say is book as far in advance as possible and book on the East Coast website (for 10% off), tickets go on sale up to 12 weeks in advance. £82 isn't a return fare, that's probably a £36 Advance single one-way and a £46 Advance single back the other way. To get it cheaper you need to book at a quieter time (e.g. late evening possibly) and/or on a quieter day of the week and/or book further in advance.

If you want to split the journey into a combination of tickets, but don't want to change trains, it's unlikely to save any money (on an Advance) but you can try... simply click on the timetable of the train (the EC website lets you do this) to see where (and at what time) the train calls, and then do separate searches for the relevant locations. This, of course, takes a lot of effort and does not often save much money, if any, when you are dealing with Advance tickets. But it can sometimes. For example I got Edinburgh-York reduced in price slightly by swapping tickets at Alnmouth. Not all trains call there, alternatives include Berwick, Newcastle, York.

Livingthedream

geordieracer wrote: »

You know there are £1 cheap megatrain fares from Edinburgh to birmingham and vice versa only one train in each direction and only one ticket avail at that price but thats cheap

That is cheap, IIRC you can do the same for Glasgow to Birmingham but again IIRC you can only go south on that route, no cheaper return fares. But again lots of cheap fares from the South West to London and Liverpool to London

Here's the website always worth checking out.

zashar_2

Many thanks Yorkie2 Yes it is 2 x singles. I will spend some time checking out what you suggest.

lufcgirl

Has anyone got any advice on a cheaper journey from Durham to Manchester Piccadilly on 23rd July?

All I'm getting is standard singles. I already bought a return from Manchester to Durham for the next day for £13.00 but now my plans have changed and I need to travel there too.

Livingthedream

lufcgirl wrote: »

Has anyone got any advice on a cheaper journey from Durham to Manchester Piccadilly on 23rd July?

All I'm getting is standard singles. I already bought a return from Manchester to Durham for the next day for £13.00 but now my plans have changed and I need to travel there too.

Slightly confused, I take that is an advance ticket from Manchester to Durham.

But according to the East Coast Website there's still advance singles available;

Cheapest being Durham to Manchester Pic 23rd July dep 06:12 arr 08:51 Advance s £19

lufcgirl

Thank you! I'm wanting to travel a little later though, around 9.30 or so, so I'll check that!

Livingthedream

lufcgirl wrote: »

Thank you! I'm wanting to travel a little later though, around 9.30 or so, so I'll check that!

Just had a quick look and there's a bit gap around the time you want to travel;
07:49 £22.50 then the next train 13:31 £22.50

You could try splitting day singles at; York, Leeds and Huddersfield might save you something? but best advice is could you travel a bit earlier or later, to catch one of those 2 trains mentioned?

lufcgirl

I'm going to Southport so ideally I'd like to be there around one or two-ish.

The trains from Manchester Piccadilly to Southport are at 22 minutes past the hour and a day return there is only £10.10 so I'll buy that seperate. I'll have a good search of the splitting. I tried Leeds but it didn't seem to be any cheaper. I'll keep messing around with it and see if I come up with anything.

Thank you for your help!

Result! Found for £22.50 by splitting at York!

rich_shot2003

I am after fares from macclesfield to berwick leaving around 9am on Aug 19th and back Aug 22nd leaving about 11am for 2 adults and 3 kids with family railcard.

The fares I get is about £130 spilting at Manchester and Newcastle both ways.

Hope there is something a bit cheaper.