Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

kayl

wealdroam wrote: »

Wait a week or two for the cheaper prices.

I thought that the cheapest prices would be now, as it is 12 weeks till travel??

miller

kayl wrote: »

I thought that the cheapest prices would be now, as it is 12 weeks till travel??

That is the absolute earliest. You can check here:
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/booking_horizons.html

Virgin Trains have not released their tickets for those dates yet.

East Coast have (if you specify via Edinburgh you can look at their prices).

Savlona

Hi, hope someone can help me out. I'm looking to visit family in Colchester over the August bank holiday, traveling from Birmingham with a 4 and a 2 year old. I'm wondering what the best way to do it is - coach or train - and whether I can avoid a London interchange. I have flexibility on dates and times - thinking of traveling up on the 22nd or 23rd and back on the 29th or 30th and don't want to spend a fortune. I'd appreciate any tips.

Livingthedream

Savlona wrote: »

Hi, hope someone can help me out. I'm looking to visit family in Colchester over the August bank holiday, traveling from Birmingham with a 4 and a 2 year old. I'm wondering what the best way to do it is - coach or train - and whether I can avoid a London interchange. I have flexibility on dates and times - thinking of traveling up on the 22nd or 23rd and back on the 29th or 30th and don't want to spend a fortune. I'd appreciate any tips.

It might be worth getting a Family and Friends Railcard if you plan to do some more rail travel in the future. Use it to buy a child ticket for your 4yr as it will give a good saving on the adult fares, search this forum or google, there might be a discount code about.

Avoiding London, use an online ticket search engine ie East Coast Trains and do a search Birmingham stns to Colchester and in the 'more options' add 'avoid London'

22nd Aug dep 13:10 arr 15:54 change Watford Jcn,Willesden Jcn & Stratford Advance single £18.10 2x adult 1x child with Family & Friend Railcard.
29th Aug dep 18:43 arr 23:16 same changes as above £18.10 2x adult 1x child with Family & Friend Railcard. There is earlier trains at £24.95

So possible for £36.20 + cost of railcard or £48 without as the 4yr & 2yr travel for free. Advance tickets so must travel on booked trains.

bcfc1710

Looking at Bristol to Manchester Pic on Saturday 20th October.

Will any Group 3 saver tickets be released?

dzug1

bcfc1710 wrote: »

Looking at Bristol to Manchester Pic on Saturday 20th October.

Will any Group 3 saver tickets be released?

Groupsave 3 tickets are not quota controlled and can be bought at any time. They are not discounted for advance booking. However, they are not offered, ever, by Cross Country who run that route - so the answer is no

Normal advance tickets for that date have been released. If there are none at the time you want it's worth looking at split ticketing - Cheltenham and Birmingham or Wolverhampton are the place to look at. Maybe Stoke as well

miller

dzug1 wrote: »

Groupsave 3 tickets are not quota controlled and can be bought at any time. They are not discounted for advance booking. However, they are not offered, ever, by Cross Country who run that route - so the answer is no

The "traditional" (3 or 4 travel for the price of 2) GroupSave ticket is not available on CrossCountry as you say.

[STRIKE]The National Rail site does mention a CrossCountry "Small Group product" (available for groups of 3-9 people).
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/railcards-discounts/group-discounts.html
I have scoured the CrossCountry website for further details without success.[/STRIKE]

In any case I'd think splitting would yield better results as you suggest.

dzug1

miller wrote: »

The "traditional" (3 or 4 travel for the price of 2) GroupSave ticket is not available on CrossCountry as you say.

The National Rail site does mention a CrossCountry "Small Group product" (available for groups of 3-9 people).
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/railcards-discounts/group-discounts.html
I have scoured the CrossCountry website for further details without success.

In any case I'd think splitting would yield better results as you suggest.

The only reference I can find on XC's site is for groups of 9 or more - maybe the National Rail page is out of date

miller

dzug1 wrote: »

The only reference I can find on XC's site is for groups of 9 or more - maybe the National Rail page is out of date

It seems that is the case. The wayback machine shows the reference was removed sometime between 31 Aug - 29 Dec 2010.

Livingthedream

bcfc1710 wrote: »

Looking at Bristol to Manchester Pic on Saturday 20th October.

Will any Group 3 saver tickets be released?

As well as the options that dzug's has given you could try Newport (SWales) for either a split as Arriva Trains Wales do group discounts on their day tickets.

Or if you want cheap advance tickets then use the 'more options' or 'advanced options' and put 'via Newport Gwent/S Wales' this will knock about a fiver off each single advance ticket from Bristol to Manchester compared to going direct. However, Arriva haven't released their advance tickets for 20th Oct yet maybe next week, Friday????