Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

sockospice

You might be interested to know that as of 12th June, Virgin will no longer be offering compensation on any 'value' advance purchase tickets (unless the circumstances are exceptional, ie several hours late). At the moment you can apply for compensation if the train is delayed by 30 mins.

rolpaula

I always go to the desk and ask about all variations of tickets along my route just ask about prices to different destinations on your route and along your route instead of the one journey .......cheap day returns and period returns can work out much cheaper than paying for a ticket to a specific destination in one go.......booking in advance normally saves a packet........hope that helps........on One trains in the East best deal is day ranger.......... travel anywhere in the region at one price

GJS_3

Mids_Costcutter wrote:

A number of people have asked how to go about breaking a rail journey up into shorter legs and thereby reduce the total cost of a fare from A to B.

In my experience this works best for day returns by seeking journey legs where a cheap day return or standard day return fare is available. The ticket clerk at my local station suggested that as a rule of thumb these fares are available on journeys up to 30 - 40 miles, though this depends on the train operator. So try to break a journey up into legs of this length buying separate return tickets (cheap day or standard day returns) for each leg.

An example travelling from Birmingham International to Leeds for the day:

A saver return costs £38.20 (subject to time restrictions and usually doesn't allow travel before 09.00) and an open return £59 (choose any train you like). However the journey could be broken down as follows:

Birmingham International to Derby: £12.10 standard day return
Derby to Sheffield: £7.40 cheap day return
Sheffield to Leeds: £8.80 standard day return

This results in a total fare of £28.30 saving £9.90 on the saver or a £30.70 saving on the standard open return.

Similarly the fare for a Birmingham Oxford day return can be signifcantly reduced by buying separate Birmingham Banbury and Banbury Oxford returns.

For journeys to London though this trick doesn't seem to work - a different fare structure? I'd be interested to hear the experience of others on this.

Mids

It worked FROM London on a recent Saturday journey to Brum. Value tickets to Coventry are less popular it seems than Brum so with a Value ticket to Coventry and a single ticket from Coventry to Brum I could travel on the same train at a considerably lower fare ...

GJS

saver_sam

If you are in the Southern Railways area (mainly the south coast between Hastings & southampton) they do a ticket called 'DaySave'. However, Southern DaySave is only available for offpeak travel, can only be booked online, and must be purchased a minimum of 7 days before travel.

Southern DaySave costs just £10 per adult, or in a group (valid for up to four passengers who must travel together) DaySave costs just £20.

Accompanied children travel for only £1 each (maxiumum 4 children per paying adult or group ticket).

This is a good saving for us on the coast as it costs around £18 each to get to Victoria Station off peak. Even adding on a tube ticket when getting to London still makes it much cheaper.

See http://www.southernrailway.com/book_online/book_online.shtml and click DaySave for more details

Sam

woody505

Hi ppl,
I want to travel between inverness and leeds and was on the national rail site earlier finding the cheapest price for me. I dont want to travel till the 24th august which is enough time to take advantage of the 14 day in advance booking but there was no little circle to click in. Does this mean they've sold out or you cant buy the 14 day advance online and that i need to visit a train station?

Jonapet

woody505 wrote:

Hi ppl,
I want to travel between inverness and leeds and was on the national rail site earlier finding the cheapest price for me. I dont want to travel till the 24th august which is enough time to take advantage of the 14 day in advance booking but there was no little circle to click in. Does this mean they've sold out or you cant buy the 14 day advance online and that i need to visit a train station?

I've written before on this thread warning people not to book tickets online if you're hoping for a bargain (although the GNER website is sometimes an exception when they have particular online offers).

Websites like trainline don't have the availability for the value fares. Your best bet is to go into a station. Sometimes, due to inertia in preparing emergency timetables for engineering works, it can take a while for the value fares to become available. If you're travelling on a weekday, however, you will find it easier.

There are more value fares available outside of peak travelling times.

My advice is, if you don't know the system, always buy your ticket at a station. They've got the full range of tickets, and sometimes the staff can give you helpful advice about the best combination of tickets to buy.

I've also had Chester-le-track recommended to me - 0191 387 1387- they apparently have expertise in working out the best way to make a particular journey. They don't charge extra for this, unless you are creating work for them by making speculative enquiries.

Jonapet

Oh, and for international rail travel, I've been told that Ffestiniog travel is excellent at sorting out the journey for you http://www.festtravel.co.uk/opening_page.htm

Elver_2

I use a combination of train and London underground. Zones 1 - 4. Are there nay ways to reduce a weekly cost of £30.40? I do not have a car until October, so I tend to use the trains and buses on weekends too!

Jonapet

There are generally three common ways of buying a season ticket - a week, a month, or a year. If you know about these, then scroll down to the *****s - for a strategy to get the savings of an annual season ticket, but only buying "monthly" season tickets.

Each of them offers savings. Typically a weekly season ticket is equivalent to about 3.5 day's travel. So if you are making the same journey at least 4 times in a week, then there is a saving to be had.

If a weekly season ticket costs £20 (£2.86 per day), then the multiplication rate for a month is 3.84. So a monthly season ticket would cost £76.80 (£2.56 per day).

Although there is a daily saving from a weekly to a monthly season ticket, the rate then goes up uniformly up until ten and a half months. The multiplication rate is then 40 for any period from then up until one year. 20*40= £800 (£2.19 per day). Compare this to £960 for 48 weekly season tickets (assuming 4 weeks holiday)

Clearly the biggest saving is to buy an annual season ticket.

**********************
HOWEVER, there's an interesting bit which fewer people know about. You don't have to buy a monthly season ticket. You can buy a season ticket for a month and one day, a month and two days - all the way up to 11 months and 30 days if you are so inclined.

This allows you to buy monthly season tickets but skip one weekend a month by buying a couple of extra days. If you know you have two week's holididay planned, you can buy a month plus the days up until your holiday.

e.g. I shall be buying a new season ticket on monday 12th Sept. Normally a month would take me up to the 11th Oct (a tuesday). Instead, I shall extend it until the 14th Oct (a friday), which means I miss out the weekend, and buy my next one on the monday.

One weekend a month equals 24 days a year - more than three weeks. An annual season ticket effectively offers six free weeks over the cost of 12 monthly season tickets. So I've only got to find three more weeks to bring the cost of my "monthly" season tickets down to the rough cost of an annual season ticket. Not too difficult as long as I'm aware of when I will be taking my leave.

The big advantage this is no initial outlay for an annual season ticket - more interest on my bank balance and increased cash flow.


Other tips - if you are not going to be using the whole period of the season ticket you've bought, it's well worth looking into a refund. The admin fee is £10, so if you have a few days or weeks left on it, then it is worth asking.

If you prefer the convenience of buying an annual season ticket, consider buying it just before fares go up (typically in dec/january). This means you get to travel next year at this year's prices.

Jonapet

Elver wrote:

I use a combination of train and London underground. Zones 1 - 4. Are there nay ways to reduce a weekly cost of £30.40? I do not have a car until October, so I tend to use the trains and buses on weekends too!

Elver - I don't live in London but I think you can get period travelcards on a similar basis to season tickets - see my post above.