Rail Travel: Tips on Cheap Tickets

dzug

ravenk wrote: »

Lost for words.
My current journey is from
Whitchurch Hants to London Waterloo
1 Hr 3 Mins - includes London all zones
Season ticket fair = £3900 approx

Called and inquired about a season ticket from
Chesterfield
to London all zones .. Journey time 1 hour 53 mins
Nearly fell off my chair .....
£11,418 !!!!!!!! Standard Class
Also asked abot cost of 1st class ...just for a giggle ..quoted £18,900 ...eeekkk

Why is it so much more then my current ticket from whitchurch ?

Your train from Whitchurch is a suburban train with few facilities and goes a max of 90(?)mph

The train from Chesterfield is an intercity train with many facilities and goes a max of 125mpg

that's the theory anyway. I don't have the exact figures, but I would guess Chesterfield is rather further in distance than a comparison of the times would suggest.

ravenk

dzug wrote: »

Your train from Whitchurch is a suburban train with few facilities and goes a max of 90(?)mph

The train from Chesterfield is an intercity train with many facilities and goes a max of 125mpg

that's the theory anyway. I don't have the exact figures, but I would guess Chesterfield is rather further in distance than a comparison of the times would suggest.

Yes the train from Whitchurch does a max of 90mph. Thats a fact ...
sad I know but I took my SAT nav on my commute once and it did a max of 90mph.

I guess you have answered my question.
So unless you earn more than £17k more in London than Chesterfield and don't mind a 4 hour commute per day ...then a London commute from chesterfield is out of the question ...
Thanks for the reply.

lamplady

Any help much appreciated.
We are going to Paris on Eurostar, and need to book train tickets between Manchester and London on 26th May (arrive by 12.00) and returning 1st June (after 2pm).

There are 2 adults and 4 paying children.

The tickets for 26 may have been released today but we are being quoted £127 to London, whereas when I've mirrored the journey for the same day and time in April we've been able to do it for £30 ish - do they release the cheaper fares closer to the actual date of travel than 12 weeks?

Also, the return is a complicated trip in that there doesn't seem to be a weekend service from London to Manchester:mad:. Playing around I found London-Birmingham-Manchester seemed to offer some good deals, but again on much closer dates than 12 weeks away.

Any tips would be much appreciated. We don't mind changing trains, but with 4 children and a baby as well as our luggage, the simpler the better

isasmurf

I'm not sure where you got tickets have been released for 26th May from.

12 weeks in advance is not necessarily the date that tickets get released. The 12 week figure that often gets quoted is simply a requirement for Network Rail to notify train operators and upload any changes to the timetable. This is Condition 9 of Network Rail's operating license. Train Operators then have further time - I seem to remember up to 3 weeks from a Parliamentary report a few years ago - to release the booking system to passengers.

KeithP

Lamplady, have you considered going via Sheffield for a simpler lourney?
The London transfer then becomes a short walk within St Pancras station.

dzug

lamplady wrote: »

The tickets for 26 may have been released today

No they haven't - so far they have been released up to 1 May

The 12 weeks, as another poster has said, is a myth.

Just be patient

lamplady

OKI'm confused. I';ve been going on Thetrainline.com website every day for the past few weeks, and yesterday was the first day I was able to access the booking page for 26th May - hence why I said the tickets had just been released. My question was that there were very few tickets available - mainly very expensive ones and I was wondering if the cheaper tickets were released/made availabe closer to the travel date -

I will look at Sheffield as on option too

Christa1

My daughter has an interview at Manchester Uni on 5 March and needs to get from Newcastle to Manchester and back.It's £21.00 to get her there but unless she waits till 19.45 ( £14.00) the other tickets are all £48.50 to get back? Any suggestions?
I didn't want her to drive as it's a long way there and back on her own.

dzug

lamplady wrote: »

OKI'm confused. I';ve been going on Thetrainline.com website every day for the past few weeks, and yesterday was the first day I was able to access the booking page for 26th May - hence why I said the tickets had just been released. My question was that there were very few tickets available - mainly very expensive ones and I was wondering if the cheaper tickets were released/made availabe closer to the travel date -

I will look at Sheffield as on option too

See what you mean now - yes the trains have been released for reservation - it means you can buy full price tickets AND reserve seats; in theory the cheaper tickets come out at the same time but very rarely do in practice. Keep checking until you see some - they rarely all sell out at once. As it's a bank holiday there may not be all that many though so jump when you see them.

dzug

Christa1 wrote: »

My daughter has an interview at Manchester Uni on 5 March and needs to get from Newcastle to Manchester and back.It's £21.00 to get her there but unless she waits till 19.45 ( £14.00) the other tickets are all £48.50 to get back? Any suggestions?
I didn't want her to drive as it's a long way there and back on her own.

Try split ticketing at York - it may or may not help but it's worth a try