Train tickets - why so expensive?

ritchieS

I am trying to book a return train ticket from London to Edinburgh for a weekend at the beginning of June.

This is more than 3 months away but the cheapest ticket is over £100.

Why is it so expensive already?

Are these prices likely to go down?

I want to get the train for environmental reasons but these bloody prices are tempting me to fly.

The_One_Who

Advance tickets are only released twelve weeks in advance (afaik), so there won't be any for that date. You will be being shown the normal priced tickets which are expensive.

misscutiepie1984

12 week is maximum you can book in advance, do bare in mind that when booking for weekend travel they need to finalise any railworks that may be taking place so you may find its only 8 - 10 weeks in advance for weekends.... they also tend to get released into the system on a friday.

ritchieS

OK. So looks like I'll be better off waiting a bit

minerva_windsong

The Trainline (and I think possibly others as well, certainly National Express used to do it before they were nationalised) have something where they will allow you to key in the dates you want to travel and then you'll get an e-mail saying 'tickets for this date are now available' when the tickets are released. When you get that you just go to the website of whichever train company you're travelling with and book.

Dov_2

ritchieS wrote: »

I am trying to book a return train ticket from London to Edinburgh for a weekend at the beginning of June.

This is more than 3 months away but the cheapest ticket is over £100.

Why is it so expensive already?

Are these prices likely to go down?

I want to get the train for environmental reasons but these bloody prices are tempting me to fly.

Hi ritchieS, as the others have said the cheapest train tickets will be the advanced purchase ones.
I have just booked tickets from Markinch -- London Kings cross, via 1 change at Edinburgh Waverley and bought them the day after they were released for Fri 9th April, 1 way was £24.99 pp. Then i got return from Kings cross to Waverley on mon 12th for £16.99 pp. The times i got were--the 7am train down on friday and return is 2pm ish on Monday.
I found it best to book with the train operator aswel--so im guessing it will be an east coast train from Edin--Lond---go to their website http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/ and on the right hand side, sign up for updates. Then when your tickets are released you will be emailed right away--it worked for me. Right now they are only taking bookings until Fri 14th May.
The train will take aprox 4hrs 45mins from edin with no stops, and you will probably be about as quick as if you got a flight!

Good Luck. Dov

montrose5

Easiest thing to do, go on the East Coast Trains website (nat express before they went bust) and register your travel dates with their ticket alert system. When the cheap tickets become available (12 weeks approx as previously stated) you will get an automatic e-mail alert.They are still pretty much the cheapest going between London and Scotland

wallbash

Train tickets - why so expensive?

My reply , Train tickets - why so cheap ?
As the other poster have said , do your research , book at the correct time.
Have needed to get daughter to Manchester Uni from Hertfordshire a number of times in the last three years.

Have paid as little as £7

gill_hc

Have you tried the megabus website - they do the trains as well. My mum has just come glasgow to birmingham on the train for the pricely sum of a fiver.

ritchieS

Thanks for everyone's help. Lucky I checked here because I was going to pay £100 thinking it was the cheapest available.

I have signed up for the alerts now, I did not know you could do that.

colmil

The most important thing is to look at the prices for two singles, this allows you to pick your times at the best price..

Try to travel off peak, and book as early as possible.

I have travelled twice to Edinburgh from the north east in the past two weeks(first class) cheaper than standard, taking the free coffee into account!

Going to London does not give the same bargains, just bear in mind that off peak times from Edinburgh may be peak times from York or Doncaster with the higher prices.

Perhaps the flights may be a better option, after all!