Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

dzug

If you can meet its rather stringent off peak restrictions, you can get a return for £15 with Chiltern from Marylebone, changing to Virgin at Leamington. It's a walk on fare so you don't need to book. To find validity, put High Wycombe in the via box on the website.

Alternatively, going by Silverlink to Northampton and Central from there is cheaper than Virgin for walkup fares.

VV tickets are available now for both dates.

tjretro

I'm trying to find the cheapest way to get to Bristol Parkway from Gloucester, most of the time getting to Bristol before 9am. As it is before 10:15 I can't use my railcard. It just seemed that £195 for a month ticket was a bit steep for a 35min journey!! :mad:

MikeAngove

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can please help. I'm looking to travel from gloucester to darlington on Friday 6th AM until Monday 9th PM. I'm unable to find any offers at this short notice. Can anyone recommend anything please?

MikeA

dzug

tjretro wrote: »

I'm trying to find the cheapest way to get to Bristol Parkway from Gloucester, most of the time getting to Bristol before 9am. As it is before 10:15 I can't use my railcard. It just seemed that £195 for a month ticket was a bit steep for a 35min journey!! :mad:

Price a standard day return and see how many journeys you'd need to make to make the season pay.

If you travel on a Virgin train, I believe you CAN use your rail card. Only trouble is I don't think there's many Virgin trains call at Gloucester these days so you'd probably have to get to Cheltenham first which would negate any saving.

dzug

MikeAngove wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can please help. I'm looking to travel from gloucester to darlington on Friday 6th AM until Monday 9th PM. I'm unable to find any offers at this short notice. Can anyone recommend anything please?

MikeA

You're going to need to do your own legwork, but try splitting the rail journey at one or more of Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield, Leeds and York. You may find there's special offers still there for part of the journey, or you may find that the full fares add up to less than the through fare. No guarantees though.

Or try National Express - £56 return.

Humhum

if we move to Cambridge, one of us will have to commute back to London (New Barnet station) 5 days a week for the foreseeable future (but not forever, hopefully). That's First Capital Connect - whose website discloses no season ticket prices unless you have a photocard number.

Anyone knowing what a monthly season card would cost?

scudder_2

I travel Birmingham to Euston regularly and book in advance. Virgin Trains have changed their web layout and are not showing the cheapest tickets for my
journey. I can 'phone Virgin and get the cheap fare - too inconvenient.

Yesterday I saved £45.50 by using the Trainline on one return and on 3 other return tickets I saved £26 on each set representing a saving of 3 x £26.00 and 1 x £45.50 a total of £123.50. Although there is a total £2.00 C Card Charge.

I have complained to Virgin Trains, who responded.... "Our website offers the most-economical fares available for your journey travelling with Virgin Trains. They are divided into four easy to understand ticket categories,....However, you should know that there may be just a few occasions when other tickets are available that are not included here....."

Roland

scudder wrote: »

I travel Birmingham to Euston regularly and book in advance. Virgin Trains have changed their web layout and are not showing the cheapest tickets for my
journey. I can 'phone Virgin and get the cheap fare - too inconvenient.

Yesterday I saved £45.50 by using the Trainline on one return and on 3 other return tickets I saved £26 on each set representing a saving of 3 x £26.00 and 1 x £45.50 a total of £123.50. Although there is a total £2.00 C Card Charge.

I have complained to Virgin Trains, who responded.... "Our website offers the most-economical fares available for your journey travelling with Virgin Trains. They are divided into four easy to understand ticket categories,....However, you should know that there may be just a few occasions when other tickets are available that are not included here....."

My advice is to avoid thetrainline. Their credit card charges make them more expensive than the ticket ordering sites offered by the train operators. Most of these do not surcharge credit card customers.

http://nationalrail.co.uk/tocs_maps/tocs/

I personally use the GNER website, I can order tickets for any rail journey in the UK and collect through FastTicket machines. These ticket sites, including thetrainline, are all basically the same and are partially owned by Virgin Trains.

TimothyEBaldwin

If going from A to B and C check if a ticket from A to B is valid via C, or a ticket from A to C is valid via B; the result may be surprising. For example Selby to York is valid via Leeds and Selby to Huddlesfield is valid via York. Another option may be a ticket to D valid via B and C, in this case your train must stop at D.

Remember a break of journey is not permitted with Saver Singles or the outward portion of a Saver Return, and the outward portion of a ticket must be used in one day if possible.

malcolmwilliamson

kittycatface wrote: »

https://www.printtraintickets.com/one/
£6 single Cambridge - London Liverpool St if you book and print out online. Times avail are restricted but there are generally 3 times avail for each day.

It will take approx 1/2 hr longer than the Kings Cross line but works out about 1/2 price

If anyone is on the One train network its worth a look - but am not sure if they do anything except camb-london for this cheap.

I haven't used https://www.printtraintickets.com/one but my own research on the National Rail site showed me that you can get a one way ticket from London (Liv St) all the way up to Norwich and beyond to places as distant as Cromer and Gt Yarmouth for just £6. The return journey can also be £6.
(These journeys are all more expensive from Kings X using FCC for at least the first leg.)
From my experience it seems that you usually have to book at least 2 weeks ahead to get these prices.

Great value and all credit to One.