Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

yorkie2

evespikey wrote: »

would appreciate any help getting a cheap return ticket with young person's railcard from
sheffield- london on mon 21st nov
need to arrive london anytime between 9-9.45
getting back (after 5) isn't expensive, but the journey there is the problem!
Would appreciate any tips x

Sheffield - Stockport
Anytime Return. (Valid on any train. Return within 1 month on any train)
Price is £13.80 with Railcard discount

Stockport - London (Euston)
Off Peak Return. (Valid outward on any train with a 16-25 Railcard. Valid return on any train within 1 month with a 16-25 Railcard)
Price is £45.85 with Railcard discount

Example journey:

Sheffield 0611
Stockport 0653

Stockport 0707
London Euston 0858

(If you miss this train, the next one is 0723, arriving 0923)

If you need to be in London by 0930, I would aim to get there half an hour before, just to cover yourself in the event of delays. The trains will probably run on time, but something like cable theft or a suicide can happen occasionally. The benefit of the Anytime ticket to Stockport and the Off Peak ticket from Stockport to London is that you are not tied to a particular train so if you are delayed in traffic getting to the station you are not penalised. Advance fares do not offer this flexibility.

However if you do want to reduce the fare further, read on...

The £13.80 Anytime Return between Sheffield & Stockport gives you total flexbility but you could save money by using Advance fares using the half price Advance fares offer: http://www.tpexpress.co.uk/train-tickets/student-discounts/ (No need to be a student, a 16-25 Railcard is all that is required), fares are available for £3.20 each way (total: £6.40) including the 0611 mentioned earlier which is a bargain for peak time travel! Note that Advance fares have no value if you miss the first train and a new ticket would need to be purchased as they are quota controlled with mandatory reservations.

Hopefully the above will be helpful, if you want more advice like this I recommend a specialist Fares, Tickets & Routeing forum This should save you around £60 as an Anytime Return from Sheffield to London (St Pancras) is £119.45!

john_charles_2

Good morning, I would be VERY grateful for some help. I want to go from Cardiff Central to Stoke on Trent on Saturday Dec 3rd, coming back the next day (4th Dec).

I would like to arrive in Stoke anytime before 6pm on the Staurday, and would like to depart for Cardiff anytime after 12ish the nest day. At the moment fares are £48, if anyone could find some cheaper fares I would be, as I said earlier, VERY grateful.

Thanks in advance.:):):)


Edit.

I dont have any Railcards.

dzug1

The fare you have found involves (unless you've mistyped it) advance single tickets, and as such is probably (though not certainly) the cheapest available.

Try splitting at Crewe

Or at Cheltenham and Brum

john_charles_2

dzug1 wrote: »

The fare you have found involves (unless you've mistyped it) advance single tickets, and as such is probably (though not certainly) the cheapest available.

Try splitting at Crewe

Or at Cheltenham and Brum

Sorry, it's £24.50 each way. Thanks for that, will have a look now!!!

IanD

dzug1 wrote: »

The fare you have found involves (unless you've mistyped it) advance single tickets, and as such is probably (though not certainly) the cheapest available.

Try splitting at Crewe

Or at Cheltenham and Brum

Definitely cheaper via Crewe.

£13 advance single Cardiff - Crewe, £5.80 Single Crewe-Stoke
EG
Cardiff 08:50
Crewe 11:25
Crewe 11:33/12:07
Stoke 11:54/12:31

Same prices on the return for only 1 service:
Stoke 18:31
Crewe 19:01
Crewe 19:13
Cardiff 22:06

If that's not convenient, go for your £24.50 advance via Birmingham for the return trip.

john_charles_2

IanD wrote: »

Definitely cheaper via Crewe.

£13 advance single Cardiff - Crewe, £5.80 Single Crewe-Stoke
EG
Cardiff 08:50
Crewe 11:25
Crewe 11:33/12:07
Stoke 11:54/12:31

Same prices on the return for only 1 service:
Stoke 18:31
Crewe 19:01
Crewe 19:13
Cardiff 22:06

If that's not convenient, go for your £24.50 advance via Birmingham for the return trip.

Ian, you are a legend. Thank you very much.

kavernchan

Hello,

I will be travelling from Oxford to Liverpool on 14/1. Need to arrive by about 1330 and will be able to leave starting at about 1745.

I have been trying to split my tickets @ Manchester, Birmingham and London. Is there anywhere worthwhile to try as well ? I don't mind the journey to be a bit longer than usual if it's cheaper :j.

Thanks in advance !

IanD

kavernchan wrote: »

Hello,

I will be travelling from Oxford to Liverpool on 14/1. Need to arrive by about 1330 and will be able to leave starting at about 1745.

I have been trying to split my tickets @ Manchester, Birmingham and London. Is there anywhere worthwhile to try as well ? I don't mind the journey to be a bit longer than usual if it's cheaper :j.

Thanks in advance !

Looks like the advance fares for that weekend for the Birmingham to Liverpool section have not been released yet. London Midland advance fares are only currently available until 07/01 (see http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/booking_horizons.html).

If you try to book for the Saturday before (ie 07/01) then fares are available from £19 each way which is a £20 saving on the current through fare for 14/01.

LM's search engine suggests you coud get this as low as £11.50 when the cheap fares are released but IME you would be extremely lucky to find this.

Splitting at Birmingham (again on 07/01 rather than 14/01) you could, when I looked, get the return leg down to £16 by catching a Virgin Train (17:48 and 18:48) and changing at Stafford to get to Birmingham and then changing again.

I think LM should release their cheaper fares sometime this week, maybe Thursday afternoon but I could be mistaken on this.

dzug1

The other thing you could try (to get from Oxford to Birmingham) is splitting at Banbury or Leamington.

Going via London is rather extreme - it's an Awful Long Way Round. The X5 bus to Milton Keynes might be a possibility instead though I suspect it might not fit your times

kavernchan

A huge thank you to IanD and dzug1 for your quick responses.

One quick question again, I am just wondering if the advance tickets have limited seats or not ?

Thanks and your help is appreciated !