Cheapest Train Fares Discussion Area

nitejar

Martin mentions buying tickets using TheTrainline, but they now charge a £1.50 credit card fee, not for debit cards. However, you can book the same tickets for all uk rail journeys, I suspect using the same software system behind the scenes, at FirstScotRail without the credit card fee.

(If you are told somone else has already registered using your email address, try the password you have used at thetrainline.)

http://www.firstgroup.com/scotrail/content/buytickets/index.php

Thanks for the tip about MegaTrain, I'd missed that starting up.

N

bigfoot125

I would like to travel mid november from n wales to london,i have heard so often about bargain deals,when is the best time to start looking for these

cheers

nitejar

Re Barbara's earlier post, the default at FirstScotRail is not to tick the boxes for the insurance.

http://www.firstgroup.com/scotrail/content/buytickets/index.php

I'm off to the GNER site to see if I can get the 10% off quoted by another member!

N

slonik

If you have some kind of a season ticket for the London underground (weekly/monthly/whatever), you can shave off a couple of quid off your train tickets to/from London. You have to buy the tickets at the counter (machines don't have this option). When ordering ask for a ticket from "boundary zone two" (if you have a zone 1-2 card, or from whatever zone you are covered up to) to wherever you are travelling. That should be then printed in the "from" section of your outbound ticket - ie "boundary zone 2" -This seems to work on destinations in the South East - ones covered by the Network rail card, but may not work for journeys to other parts of the country. The station staff I asked weren't sure of the exact rules. But basically it saves around £1-2 off the ticket price, and you can still use your rail card or whatever. NB they will ask to see your season ticket at the counter.

Haynonnie

Thanks to Martin's new article on cheap train fares I have discovered that even old wrinklies like me (the other side of 40) who are entering full-time higher education for the first time are eligible for a Young Persons Railcard. This is fab news as I regularly use trains to travel all over the country and am always looking for a good deal (but even so I wasn't aware of the split ticketing trick - cheers Martin!).

Right now I'm also looking at Student Bank Accounts (thanks Martin for yet another brilliant article!) and am aware that NatWest offer a 5 year YP railcard with their Student Account. It would appear that this is managed separately from the standard YP card (if you lose it you apply to NatWest for a replacement rather than National Rail) but dredging through the smallprint it does seem that the mature student is still eligible, although only for the duration of the degree course (in my case 4 years) so you wouldn't get the full 5 years unless your degree course lasts that long. The railcard is renewed by NatWest annually providing that you have used your Student Account within the previous 3 months. I'm quite tempted by this as it looks a decent account. It may not have the biggest interest-free overdraft but who wants a vast overdraft that needs paying back some day

But then again, the YP card is a bargain at £20 for a year - I'd make that back on my first trip up North so maybe I should just treat myself to one anyway and choose another Student Account.

Have just realised that I've turned this into a banking thread - sorry! Was really just wanting to bring attention to the Railcard for mature students thing!! Doh!

Haynonnie

A small thing I know but have just noticed that if you lose/damage your YP railcard then the fee to replace it is £10 if you got your card from NatWest (with your student account) but only £5 if you buy one from National Rail. Both will replace it for free if it is stolen and you have a crime ref no from the police.

Might be significant if you're careless with your possessions!

gaspode_2

Hi,

What would be the best strategy for my sister who will be working in London the whole of October but will be coming home (Liverpool) every weekend? Should she buy a load of single tickets now for the month?

regards,
Kevin

littlewren

Hi,

Could someone please help with cutting the cost of train tickets?

My 23 year old daughter and myself will be travelling from Sandy (Beds) to York some time in early October for 3 nights.

We are having to watch the pennies and the train tickets that I found on Trainline came out at over £100.

Does anyone know how we can get these prices down please?

Many thanks in advance,

Carrie

sawanderer

Really useful site which tells you the dates that each of the Train Operating Companies have released their cheapest apex and value train fares up until:

http://www.atoctravelagents.org/clientfiles/File/TOC_BOOKING_HORIZONS(12).htm


Use this website to check whether the cheapest fares are still to be released, and therefore allow you to come back and buy a cheaper fare another day, or whether the tickets have been released and are all sold out.

Note that there are differences between Mon-Fri, Sat and Sunday release dates. e.g. on Virgin at the time of writing weekday Mon-Fri cheap fares have already been released right up until 24th November (10 weeks ahead) whilst the weekend bookings are only available up to 7th & 8th October (only 3 weeks ahead).

In this example it might be worth buying a cheap apex single fare for an outward journey on a Friday in November now, and then buy the return journey on the Sunday in a few weeks once the Value tickets have been released - however, I have been told by staff at Euston that the company are not obliged to offer the cheapest fares at all, so you may still get stuck paying through the nose for your return journey on Sunday.


It's still a really useful bit of info to add to the Money Saving toolkit!

itgirlinuk

If you want to find out the train stations that your train would be calling at, the trainline.com website does not give you this information. This info is very useful, if you want to find 2 single to work out a cheaper ticket.

In such cases, use transportdirect.info website. Specify the departure and destination and choose the Public transport option. Once the website confirms your location, it comes up with your route plan. Click on the train icon on the side. This will tell you the stations the train calls at. Quite useful, as not a lot of websites contain this information.