Cheap Train Fares guide discussion

Rawr_2

The thing that confusses me with London Midlands, is that, when you put in the details, it will have a little box saying for example, £8 - £121, so I click on it, and the cheapest fare is £25. So where did the £8 come from?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Rawr wrote: »

The thing that confusses me with London Midlands, is that, when you put in the details, it will have a little box saying for example, £8 - £121, so I click on it, and the cheapest fare is £25. So where did the £8 come from?

Because £8 is the cheapest avail for that route..If the time you want does not have an £8 ticket it will not show you that as a fare nor will you be able to click it

Jamp

Mizter_T wrote: »

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!).

Thanks again for the info. I signed up to East Coast’s notification and got that this morning (at 9:20), much more promptly than The Train Line’s notification was last week (late Friday afternoon). In fact it turns out they came out on Thursday this week, so I don’t know if that’s standard procedure. Fortunately I saw the email in time to get a bargain – £10 to Sheffield* with a railcard and £13 to Sandy without, though they’ve gone up since then so I’m glad I did it just in time.


* In fact I could only get it to Meadowhall (just north of Sheff) on a train matching with the Sandy train, changing in Doncaster. It would be more convenient to go to central Sheffield (Victoria). The system wouldn’t let me book that on the 16:00 East Coast train, presumably since it would be quicker to get the 16:08 XC, but I want to travel with my friend going to Sandy so preferred the EC train. Would I get away with changing in York and getting the 18:44 to Sheffield, hypothetically changing there to go back to Meadowhall (that train doesn’t stop at M’hall on its way through). I could travel ‘short’ and exit at Sheffield as there aren’t any barriers, and this has the added benefit of getting to Sheffield a bit earlier than the via Doncaster route. Is York to Meadowhall via Sheffield a permitted route? I’m presuming my ticket will only specify that I have to get the 16:00 EC out of Edinburgh, not that I have to change at Donny and get NT on from there, as per booking. If it’s risky then I’ll just travel as per booking and get the tram home from Meadowhall.

pmm1981

If when booking your tickets you had put via Doncaster (found in more options) it would have come up with this service to Sheffield as i've just done it
Dep Edb 1600, Arr Don 1853, Dep Don 1928, Arr Shf 2006.
You did well getting £10 straight away as its now £17.95 with r/c.
An advance ticket may not state any connecting services but if using XC you'd most probably have a reservation for the service.
York-Meadowhall via Sheffield isn't a valid route as there isn't any easements allowing the doubling back, your route would be to change at Leeds or Wakefield.
Why not just travel your booked trains and buy from Doncaster station a single Meadowhall-Sheffield, it's £2 or £1.30 with a railcard.

to go to central Sheffield (Victoria).

Also Sheffield station is what used to be called Sheffield Midland, Victoria closed on 05 January 1970 (altho reopened briefly in 1972)

Jamp

You're quite right PMM, I thought I had tried 'via Doncaster' but obviously not. I was trying harder to get it to give me the York-Shef XC connection, as well as rushing somewhat to ensure I got that £10 ticket. You're also right about the old name for Sheffield station, I'd got them mixed up for some reason!

shazspice

hi im looking for the cheapest way possible to get to newcastle from aberystwyth. Travelling up on wednesday 20th april returning on 24th april. Thanks

wealdroam

shazspice wrote: »

hi im looking for the cheapest way possible to get to newcastle from aberystwyth. Travelling up on wednesday 20th april returning on 24th april. Thanks

What have you found so far, Shazspice?

I am happy to help, as are others, but am not going to a lot of trouble writing something that you already know.

shazspice

the cheapest i have found is £74 return (i have a young persons railcard). Ive tried splitting the journey but it seems just as expensive

wealdroam wrote: »

What have you found so far, Shazspice?

I am happy to help, as are others, but am not going to a lot of trouble writing something that you already know.

achtunglady

Hi trying to help a friend out, she needs to get to Lancaster next wednesday for an appointment with her daughters Uni, there will be three travelling and one has a student railcard, best price was £205 on the trainline website, she needs to be there for 12.30pm, can anyone help please, thanks in advance, oh forgot to mention leaving from london euston

yorkie2

achtunglady wrote: »

Hi trying to help a friend out, she needs to get to Lancaster next wednesday for an appointment with her daughters Uni, there will be three travelling and one has a student railcard, best price was £205 on the trainline website, she needs to be there for 12.30pm, can anyone help please, thanks in advance, oh forgot to mention leaving from london euston

A walk-on Off Peak Return from London Euston (do you live in central London or are you travelling from somewhere else?) to Lancaster is £76.50 adult fare. Note that Off Peak is departing Euston at or after 0905. For the 16-25 Railcard holder the fare is £51.15 valid on any train. These tickets can be bought at any station for those prices, or online from Thetrainline with additional fees added! (Don't be a sheep, avoid Thetrainline )

The 0930 Euston-Lancaster will suit your needs.

Return travel is at any time providing your train is due into Euston at or after 1030 (so only very early trains are barred) any day within 1 calendar month.