Cheap Train Fares guide discussion

KatiePrecilla

Can anyone help me get tickets from Southampton Airport to Manchester Picidilly on Fri 11th Feb for 2 adults, leaving midday (ish), returning Sun 13th Feb midday (ish)

The only tickets I can find are VERY expensive!

Thanks in advance

xx

wealdroam

KatiePrecilla wrote: »

Can anyone help me get tickets from Southampton Airport to Manchester Picidilly on Fri 11th Feb for 2 adults, leaving midday (ish), returning Sun 13th Feb midday (ish)

The only tickets I can find are VERY expensive!

Thanks in advance

xx

An Off Peak Return is £91.90 each... on a direct train avoiding London.

Maybe try...
An Off Peak Return from Southampton Airport to Waterloo = £37.20.
Dep Euston 14:46, arr Crewe 17:39, Advance Single = £11.50.
Anytime Return Crewe to Manchester Picc = £11.50.

For the return leg, use the above return tickets combined with...
Dep Crewe 13:38, arr Euston 16:53, First Class Advance Single = £18.00.

So that's £78.20 each... £156.40 for two.

You still need to consider the cross London bit.

People's ideas of "very expensive" differ.
What have you found?

The_Crunchy_Nutter

Rawr wrote: »

gah, I am late ordering tickets and I was wondering if any of you nice people could point me towards some cheaper ones.
Traveling this Sunday (6th) From Liverpool to London.
Though, I can also travel from some other close by stations if its cheaper, such as Runcorn, Warrington and at a push Wrexham or Manchester.
This would be for a Single Adult.

Thank you.

Hi Rawr,
You don't specify times or whether you are returning, so I have listed a few options.

If you want to travel with Virgin, the quickest option, there is little left in the way of Advance Purchase tickets.
Travelling with London Midland is considerably cheaper, but there is a change at Crewe on all trains.

VIRGIN
SINGLES:
Cheapest advance single is on the 20:48 from Liverpool - £34.50 (1st class)
Nex cheapest is 16:18, 16:48, 18:48 and 19:48, at £46 (1st class)
Most of the day the cheapest advance single is £55 (Standard) or £59 (1st)

Compare this with the on the day £69 Off Peak Single.

RETURNS:
If you are returning, an Off Peak Return is £70 (buy on the day) - it may be possible to combine one of the above Advance tickets with another to better that, however.


LONDON MIDLAND
SINGLE
Buy a Super Off Peak Single on the day for £24.40, valid on any London Midland service to London Euston (valid all day at weekends, heavily restricted on weekdays).

RETURN
Returns start from £25.50 (buy on the day), different restrictions apply depending when you come back - please reply for more info.

EDIT: I should add that the above advance fares were checked and were available at 08:00 on 03/02/11

Hope this helps,
Crunchy.

The_Crunchy_Nutter

wealdroam wrote: »

An Off Peak Return from Southampton Airport to Waterloo = £37.20.
Dep Euston 14:46, arr Crewe 17:39, Advance Single = £11.50.
~~
You still need to consider the cross London bit.

Easy way round this. Crossing london by underground is £4 each way - not very MSE. Cheaper with an Oyster, but stil £3.40(?) return.

However make the Off Peak Return from Southampton Airport to Kilburn High Road (Just North of Euston), and it comes to £39.60 - just an extra £2.40, which will include the return journey across London by tube, and allow you to interchange at Euston.

Obviously the cheapest option is to walk - Waterloo to Euston takes around 20-30 minutes, but obviously it isn't always convenient.

J20BABY

Hi can anyone help with my journey?

I need to have a return from Hull to London on the weekend of either 4th March or 22th March for 1 adult and one child. Dd will be at school but if she has to miss a couple of hours it'll be ok. Don't have a families rail card but could get one if it works out best or is about the same, think they're around £20 atm with 25% off. So far, with or without railcard, the journey is going to be around £45-50.

Anyone help?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

J20BABY wrote: »

Hi can anyone help with my journey?

I need to have a return from Hull to London on the weekend of either 4th March or 22th March for 1 adult and one child. Dd will be at school but if she has to miss a couple of hours it'll be ok. Don't have a families rail card but could get one if it works out best or is about the same, think they're around £20 atm with 25% off. So far, with or without railcard, the journey is going to be around £45-50.

Anyone help?

Would you be returning on the following sunday?

£42.50 for the return leaving on 4th march return 6th

Hull - 12:45 - £21.25
Kings cross -10:52 - £21.25
Total :£42.50

25th march
Hull - 12:57/13:25 - £16.55
Kings cross - £21.25
£37.80 total

from the hull trains website..

fro the 25th you are going to have to change on them 2 fares coming down anyway so maybe try splitting them where you change but be aware that you will end up with lots of tickets and missplacing one will find you paying an awful lot more on the train

J20BABY

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Would you be returning on the following sunday?

£42.50 for the return leaving on 4th march return 6th

Hull - 12:45 - £21.25
Kings cross -10:52 - £21.25
Total :£42.50

25th march
Hull - 12:57/13:25 - £16.55
Kings cross - £21.25
£37.80 total

from the hull trains website..

fro the 25th you are going to have to change on them 2 fares coming down anyway so maybe try splitting them where you change but be aware that you will end up with lots of tickets and missplacing one will find you paying an awful lot more on the train

Hi thank you. Sorry I wasnt very clear I meant either the 4th to the 6th or the 11th to the 13th are when we will be able to travel

Jamp

Hi All

Anyone know what time Advance tickets are generally released each day?

I want to book Edinburgh to Sheffield and Edinburgh to Sandy, pref on the same East Coast train as far as York or Doncaster, on May 2nd. I booked to go the other way on Friday evening and many of the cheap ones had gone, since it's a double bank hol weekend. Today I'm eagerly awaiting their release to get a bargain return leg, but they haven't appeared yet. Just wondering if there is a set time they come out?

crystal64

looking for a cheap train from london to glasgow for 1 adult and 1 child for the 19th february can anyone help with this having problems finding one cheap as I might have left it too late thanks

Mizter_T

Jamp - My understanding is that Advance tickets are generally released weekly on a Friday, and the booking window (i.e. the dates in the future for which tickets are available) in turn advances by increments of a week. The release of Advance tickets for travel at weekends (and also I think bank holidays) can be out of sync with - and lag behind - the release of tickets for weekdays (the result of uncertainty over future weekend engineering works).

Also different train companies (TOCs) are on slightly different timescales for releasing Advance tickets. If your journey covers two or more TOCs then its possible that the relevant date is that of the TOC that the bulk of your journey is with (though I think this can vary depending upon the journey in question).

The National Rail website has a 'booking horizons' webpage which contains a table showing the booking horizons/ booking windows of each train company. Note that it's possible this page might lag behind a bit - i.e. not get updated with new release dates immediately - so don't rely on it being 100% up to date. The page is here (remove the space after the www):
www .nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/booking_horizons.html

Also, The Trainline operate an email alert service called 'Ticket Alert' - enter your origin and destination stations and date of travel and it'll email you on the day when Advance tickets are released for that journey - see:
www. thetrainline.com/ticketalert (again remove the space after the www)

This service has recently been expanded - it used to only offer alerts for a select number of journeys between major stations, but now it seems to be able to deal with any journey. Note that you won't get an email the moment that tickets are released - my experience has been that the email gets sent rather later in the day (e.g. early/mid evening). Of course you don't have to buy the tickets with The Trainline - indeed I'd suggest you go elsewhere for that (i.e. one of the many sites without booking and/or card fees).

So, Jamp, I'd expect Advance tickets for your Edinburgh to Sheffield & Sandy journeys on 2 May to go on sale this coming Friday (11 Feb). You could always set up a Trainline Ticket Alert in case you forget to check (or I've got it all horribly wrong!).