Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

smithcvs

The current price for a Senior Railcard is £20. However, for local residents my Local Authority (Staffordshire Moorlands District Council) issues them for £9, with a proviso that you do not have a Bus Pass from them. It might be worth searching your local authority website to see if they do the same.:T

rosebyanyothername

hi I was just going to book tickets to birmingham for sunday 23rd dec when i thought i would ask if this is the cheapest i can get. We are going shopping and would like to save money for pressies!! I am single mum with railcard but will be traveling with two older sons both adult and two children under 15. It says 89.00 unless one of the older boys who is sixteen goes as a child! {and then it goes down to 71.00}
we are traveling from bristol temple meads and returning same day.
Should I try and split it? Any ideas gladly welcome.
thanks

pompeyrich

rosebyanyothername wrote: »

hi I was just going to book tickets to birmingham for sunday 23rd dec when i thought i would ask if this is the cheapest i can get. We are going shopping and would like to save money for pressies!! I am single mum with railcard but will be traveling with two older sons both adult and two children under 15. It says 89.00 unless one of the older boys who is sixteen goes as a child! {and then it goes down to 71.00}
we are traveling from bristol temple meads and returning same day.
Should I try and split it? Any ideas gladly welcome.
thanks

If the 16 year old has turned 16 since you bought the railcard, assuming it is a family railcard, then he can travel legally as a child. Try splitting at Cheltenham Spa for Bristol-CS at £13:25 return total, for 2 ads +3 children. Then CS-Birmingham at £28:35 total for you all £41:60.

rosebyanyothername

pompeyrich wrote: »

If the 16 year old has turned 16 since you bought the railcard, assuming it is a family railcard, then he can travel legally as a child. Try splitting at Cheltenham Spa for Bristol-CS at £13:25 return total, for 2 ads +3 children. Then CS-Birmingham at £28:35 total for you all £41:60.

oh thanks so i can purchase these all online?
thanks so much that means extra thirty quid for shopping!
merry xmas:j

pompeyrich

rosebyanyothername wrote: »

oh thanks so i can purchase these all online?
thanks so much that means extra thirty quid for shopping!
merry xmas:j

Yes on-line, HERE and select pick up from the fast ticket machine at Bristol TM, you will have to book both bits seperately but can pick them all up at Bristol, or just buy them at the station on the day if you prefer. They are standard day returns so no price difference if you buy them in advance.

Most trains from Bristol-Brum stop at CS so you can stay on the same train right through.

Altarf

isasmurf wrote: »

The National Rail website quotes only station to station season tickets. As far as I can tell there isn't a way to get it to quote season tickets including travelcards.

You can use the renew ticket option at Southwest Trains to get train and travel card prices - http://www.trainsfares.co.uk/season/st_redirect.asp?sitecode=SWT

Even though it is Southwest Trains it has prices for the whole country.

It requires you to register (but does not send you a validation email so you can put in anything) and needs a photocard number, but again there is no validation so anything will do.

loopylass81

Does anyone know what the cheapest tickets I can get for going from Chesterfield to Clacton leaving 16th Feb and coming back 23rd Febish... I would prefer to avoid London but dont have to if tickets are cheaper. Its me and my 6 year old going and we have a family railcard. Many Thanks

dzug

loopylass81 wrote: »

Does anyone know what the cheapest tickets I can get for going from Chesterfield to Clacton leaving 16th Feb and coming back 23rd Febish... I would prefer to avoid London but dont have to if tickets are cheaper. Its me and my 6 year old going and we have a family railcard. Many Thanks

The cheapest way is probably (if you book early enough and get the right fares) Megatrain to St Pancras, bus to Liverpool Street and a Saver thence to Clacton.

Not much more expensive is the cheapest EMT advance singles ticket - which would include the underground transfer.

Avoiding London you would need advance singles, splitting the tickets at Ely (ie book two tickets, Chesterfield to Ely and Ely to Clacton). At its cheapest this would be slightly less than via London. You would need to change at Peterborough and/or Ely and Colchester on most trains.

If you don't want to commit to booking too much in advance the first option mentioned is probably the best bet - the saver bit is a walk on ticket

EmmaH_2

Hi all,

My daily commute is from Cuffley (outside Zone 6) to Victoria (Zone 1) - Monday to Friday.

I paid £2200 last year for a standard annual ticket to cover all Zones plus Cuffley, which has this year rocketed to £2320 which I am loathe to pay!

I have found that I can buy an annual ticket from Cuffley to Winchmore Hill for £740, then an annual tube travelcard for Zones 1-4 for £1328 - a total of £2068 saving £252. :T

I am still looking into every combination to ensure I'm not missing a trick - would be great to find anyone making the same journey so we can compare notes!

Or if anyone else has any ideas on how I can slash the price further I would be appreciative.

brightontraveller

AP wrote: »

You might be right if you only travel during off-peak hours, i.e. with the outward journey on a train scheduled to depart after 9.30am when you will be able to get a Cheap Day Return instead of a Standard Day Return ticket.

A 7-Day season ticket is usually priced at 4 times the price of a Standard Day Return ticket, so you will still save money even if you only travel Monday to Friday.

A one-month season ticket is priced at 3.84 times the price of a 7-Day season ticket with an annual (12-Month) season ticket priced at 40 times the 7-Day ticket which give even bigger discounts.

As long as the duration of the season ticket is at least one month, you can actually have it for 1 Month and 1 Day, 1 Month and 2 Days, ... , or even 1 Month and 9 Days, etc., with each additional day calculated at 1/29.5 of the price of the one-month season ticket. I always make use of these extra days on top of my one-month season ticket so that it finishes on a Friday and I don't have to start another one until the Monday after.

For long distance journeys or where a journey crosses the boundary of two counties, consider buying the tickets separately for the journey of each county. The cost of the tickets together may add up to less than the price of one through ticket. You are allowed to travel on through trains which does not stop at the station where you change from one ticket to another as long as one of the tickets is a season ticket and the other is not. This is specifically permitted under Condition 17(c) of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage.

Thanks been travelling 6 mth as was so surprised its saving me 14 a month now :beer: