Cheapest Train Fares Discussion Area

Lynas_3

Martin says you cannot book tickets on the National train website, although this is strictly true in that you cannot book directly on this site you are directed to the appropriate train company's website in order to do so which is no hardship. You are given a number and collect your ticket at the ticket office or ticket machine (where available). I have found this option to be cheaper than the Trainline as no charges are made fot the use of credit card and where travel is within a short time, Trainline make a charge for delivery of the tickets.

Private_Storm

Hello there,

I struggled for what seemed like days on the phone and on various websites trying to get cheap tickets to go to Durham from London. It was about 6 weeks before the travel date and I assumed that I'd be able to get cheap "advance" tickets. No such luck.

The tickets at the time I needed to travel at worked out about £95 return, and even making my journey so stupidly inconvenient (arriving in Durham at 12:30am for example), I could only shave a tenner or so off.

A friend then told me of a small travel agents based in the north-east called Bretts who somehow manage to get cheap tickets. I managed to shave around £45 off the original price of the ticket by calling them. I'm not affiliated to them in anyway, but if you wanted to try them, their number is 0191-455-2292. Not sure if they just deal with GNER, but might be worth giving them a call.

Hope it helps.

MSE_Jenny

Just a quick note on the rights and wrongs of ticket splitting

You’re perfectly within your rights to split your route into several sections and buy separate tickets under the conditions National Rail Conditions of Carriage. There are rumours that the rail companies can turf you off and make you get on the next train, but having spoken to the rail press offices, this isn’t true.

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) press office says: “A ticket is valid from point to point, as long as it physically calls at the relevant station it’s valid.”

Virgin Trains press office says: “There’s nothing legally to stop people buying separate tickets. If people want to buy tickets valid for each part of the journey they can travel on that train; no one would ever get removed from the train if they had a valid ticket."

fredquimby_2

Just to throw it in - Quidco is purportedly offering 1% cashback on rail tickets it tracks as purchased on thetrainline.com for sales over £25, although I've not tried it myself (and I don't know if that's over £25 per ticket or per sale in case you're buying a quantity of low value tickets). It also lists cashback on various other transport providers.

Obviously try the alternative methods if it works out cheaper, but if you have to buy through thetrainline.com then it's worth a cheeky punt.

Hope this helps.

tigger_and_george

Dear all!

Just a few words of warning from someone with considerable years of experience in detecting and investigating 'irregular travel' (also known as fare evasion) on public transport, and on the railways in particular - please be aware that, when purchasing and / or using a railway ticket (and any associated railcard), that you are entering into a legally binding contract and that you are subject to the 'National Conditions of Carriage', available for inspection at any manned railway ticket office - and 'ignorance of the law is no defence', or put another way, the fact that you might chose not to take heed of these will not remove your liability to possible prosecution.

In addition, particular notice should be paid to the following (frequently ignored, I hasten to add!!) matters:

RAILWAY TICKETS ARE NOT TRANSFERABLE - put simply, once you have purchased a ticket, be it a single or return one, only YOU are permitted to use it........persons who try to be clever and 'give away', or even more serious, 're-sell' one or more portions of such tickets (as can be frequently seen on eBay!!) are not only leaving themselves liable to legal proceedings, but also the 'naively innocent' recipient.....it's not only 'pictures that paint a thousand words' - railway tickets can too........think about it.......there have been countless successful prosecutions in respect of similar aforementioned scenarios!!

PENALTY FARES - several Train Operating Companies have recently introduced Penalty Fare schemes on some, or all, of their services - in short, subject to certain exceptions, if you fail to produce on demand a ticket for your rail journey, you may be liable to be charged a penalty fare of AT LEAST£20-00 OR, WAIT FOR IT......TWICE THE SINGLE FARE FROM WHERE YOU STARTED YOUR TRAIN JOURNEY TO THE NEXT STATION STOP FOR THE SERVICE ON WHICH YOU ARE TRAVELLING........PLUS THE FULL STANDARD SINGLE FARE FROM THAT NEXT STATION STOP TO YOUR DESTINATION STATION - in addition, NO RAILCARD DISCOUNT WILL BE APPLICABLE TO THIS FULL STANDARD SINGLE FARE!!

So, in the words of that '70s TV Road Safety advertisement (showing my age now!!)..........''THINK ONCE........THINK TWICE........THINK 'GET THE RIGHT TICKET'!!!''

North_Sea_Shark

grex9101 wrote:

...Just to add...

Martin suggests splitting the tickets up to save money ("Return from York to Plymouth" boxout). Which is fine and all that.

BUT.

according to the national conditions of carriage, the train operating companies are perfectly entitled to put you off at each point of the journey, You would then be obliged to get the next train.

This is true, and is commonly seen with other ticket types e.g scottish oaps can travel for 40p single or 80p return on routes less than 10 miles, or pay half the full adult fare on journeys over 10miles, the cheeky pensioners will do exactly the same as Martin suggests i.e buy single tickets, but they DO have to get off the train and wait for the next one.

Just watch out[/QUOTE

True you may get asked to do so but in cases where changing trains was required you can still travel on the same train cheaper. In my case I even went up a class. I am travelling from Manchester to Kettering in a couple of weeks and the cheapest single I could get was £50. However by booking Manchester to Sheffield and then Sheffield to Kettering on exactly the same trains I got £14 and £16 respectively and better still both were 1st class advanced bookings. An overall saving of £20 and free cups of tea as well.

Simon_from_Salford

Here's a good piece of advice-I've never tried it on the trains but don't see why it shouldn't work. Last year I had to go to New York for two days and as I wasn't staying a weekend was quoted £800. As I knew I was going back a few months later I booked two plane tickets at once, one starting in the U.K. and one in America but ran them simultaneously so both were staying over a weekend and saved £400. Obviously only good if you know the exact travel times for both journeys. I even cleared it with the airline before I booked!
As trains charge a fortune for day returns as opposed to longer term returns, for those who travel often I don't see why it shouldn't work.
Comments please.

richardw

Simon_from_Salford wrote:

Here's a good piece of advice-I've never tried it on the trains but don't see why it shouldn't work. Last year I had to go to New York for two days and as I wasn't staying a weekend was quoted £800. As I knew I was going back a few months later I booked two plane tickets at once, one starting in the U.K. and one in America but ran them simultaneously so both were staying over a weekend and saved £400. Obviously only good if you know the exact travel times for both journeys. I even cleared it with the airline before I booked!
As trains charge a fortune for day returns as opposed to longer term returns, for those who travel often I don't see why it shouldn't work.
Comments please.

You're lucky the airline let you do that, some airlines have computer software that looks for this kind of arrangement and it then cancels the tickets without refund. Not sure if the train companies do this, but there is computer software that searches for this so called fare abuse.

Bzmotman

Hi

No one has mentioned using Rover or Ranger tickets to cut travel costs.

There are many of them covering areas from just one line to all of the country. They are all listed on national rail site - link is http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/promotions/ and click on rangers and rovers

However its a bit of a pain to search through. Best printed guide I know was in issue 52 of Todays Railways UK which was the 2006 review of such tickets. Don't know the month as I only kept the guide but magazine is sold in Smiths and I guess back issues are available.

You have to careful about validity in terms of when, a lot not available before 0900, the area covered and which companies are covered.

Example of savings available using a Freedom of Severn & Solent Rover valid for 8 days in 15 costing £60:
Cardiff - Bournemouth out Aug 29 return Sept 4 Standard Open return £155, Saver £38.80. Whilst the Saver is £21.20 cheaper the Rover still has 6 days unused travel so further journeys mean you start making savings. Its also unrestricted as to what time you travel.

It can work for commuters as well. Bournemouth - Southampton Day return £9.70 so 8 day returns = £77.60, buying a weekly season would only reduce the cost by about £5.

You may be "surprised" to learn that leaflets are not easy to come by and that in my experience a lot of staff are not very clued up on them.

As regards splitting of fares this has been going on since the Network Card was introduced many years ago. Used to get day return Swindon - Didcot and Network return Didcot Paddington.

Hope this is of help


Bzmotman

DerekB

Several points which I don't think have been made before:

1. We all need to watch for attempts to do away with the regulated Saver fare. These are the only remaining walk-on (i.e. no need to book ahead or specify a train time) fares which are still controlled by reference to the retail sprice index. The train operators are lobbying government to scrap the Saver because it is the only thing preventing them from introducing an even more crazy fare structure than now. There is no point in trying to market fares between the Saver level and the "premium" standard open fare because nobody in their right mind would pay them. Do away with the Saver and a whole new range of walk-on fares could be introduced making it possible virtually to have a different fare for every train.

2. Many of the fare anomalies arise because different train companies "set" the fares on different parts of the network. Usually, where it is cheaper to buy two tickets (e.g. Plymouth-Birmingham) the through fare is set by Virgin Cross-Country but the Plymouth-Cheltenham bit is set by First Great Western and the Cheltenham-Birmingham bit is set by (I think) Central Trains.

3. One reason the train operators are so keen to sell the book-ahead fares is because, being often restricted to their own train services, the company receives 100% of the ticket price. With an "open" or "Saver" ticket, a system called ORCATS is used to divide up the fare in proportion to the likelihood that any of several train companies might carry the passenger for all or part of the journey. For example, between Plymouth and London, parts of the journey might be made by FGW, Virgin CC and SW Trains, so the price of a Saver is apportioned between these firms regardless of which trains are actually used.

4. Day return fares, especially from London and other large conurbations, are usually restricted for travel after 09.30. The difference between the "cheap-day return" price and the before-09.30 price can be enormous. So, if for example you are travelling from Waterloo to Portsmouth it's worth checking whether a train leaving Waterloo before the 09.30 deadline calls at, say Woking or Guildford after 09.30. If so, it is sometimes worth buying the unrestricted ticket for the first part of the journey and the cheap-day return for the second. Just make sure the train you catch stops at the "boundary" station. (Ticket office staff sometimes try to prevent you buying two tickets in this way. If so, demand to speak to a supervisor/manager and quote the Conditions of Carriage).

5. When dealing with a maverick system of privatised train operators determined to "throw the book" at travellers who have the wrong ticket and create ever new penalties and rules, and frequently fail in a range of ways to provide a proper service (late trains, no catering, no seat reservations, short-formed trains, faulty aircon, etc, etc, etc), it seems wholly justified that passengers use every means they can, short of law-breaking, to make life difficultt for and reduce the profits of these companies.