Cheap Train Fares guide discussion

richstack

Thanks for the replies. I did leave out lots of details - so I'm travelling to St Pancras at the moment on the high speed link. I start work at 8.45am on Weds in Soho so I get the 7.15 from Canterbury West to get me there in time.
Its a long way, so the non HS1 service seems like a bad option for me, however I can see from that season ticket calculator that the prices jump up when you add HS1.
I don't take the tube in London - run or bike to keep costs down.
So a return today would have cost £56.70. Its heartbreaking.
I just get distressed when the price escalates from £19.85 to £56.70 from one day to the next, and I think this stops me from thinking straight.
I only work 4 days a week, so my weekly cost from buying daily tickets is about £117.45.
7 day season ticket is £129.80.
It looks as though I'll only make a saving if I buy a whole years ticket and I hope to have a new job before then. Anyone know if season tickets are refundable if you don't need one after a while?

Thanks again for the help.

harryhound

I don't know about HS1 season tickets but generally speaking unused seasons are refundable but usually at the rate applying to the next step down season ticket (ie quarterly) so a refund of a 12 month ticket won't be worth it with only a month to go on it.
The other thing to watch is the starting date of an annual ticket when there is a price increase in the offing.

One year I had a clerk refuse to sell me a new annual ticket as I would be the proud owner of two tickets at once, So in those pre computerisation days I just bought the new ticket the other way round: ie from my office address to my home address rather than the other way round):D

Obviously your time is valuable to you but at an extra 40 quid it is almost worth organising a crash in town deal of some sort. (I watched a building site over the road from my office and noticed that one of the builders slept on site in his car !).

[For the benefit of out of town readers - I take it HS1 refers to the High Speed trains that use the new Channel Tunnel rail link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_1 ]

geordieracer

richstack wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I did leave out lots of details - so I'm travelling to St Pancras at the moment on the high speed link. I start work at 8.45am on Weds in Soho so I get the 7.15 from Canterbury West to get me there in time.
Its a long way, so the non HS1 service seems like a bad option for me, however I can see from that season ticket calculator that the prices jump up when you add HS1.
I don't take the tube in London - run or bike to keep costs down.
So a return today would have cost £56.70. Its heartbreaking.
I just get distressed when the price escalates from £19.85 to £56.70 from one day to the next, and I think this stops me from thinking straight.
I only work 4 days a week, so my weekly cost from buying daily tickets is about £117.45.
7 day season ticket is £129.80.
It looks as though I'll only make a saving if I buy a whole years ticket and I hope to have a new job before then. Anyone know if season tickets are refundable if you don't need one after a while?

Thanks again for the help.

You can get a refund but beware that if you buy a yearly season you are only paying for 40 weeks travel. After that time you will not get a refund. And any time before that they work out a formula which is the price of daily tickets or something - I cant remember right now.

You say you work in Soho - so why dont you get the slower service that goes to charing cross - will be a cheaper point to point ticket and then you can just walk up the road a bit to Soho. Getting the HS1 means you will need a tube journey from St P.

wealdroam

richstack wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I did leave out lots of details - so I'm travelling to St Pancras at the moment on the high speed link. I start work at 8.45am on Weds in Soho so I get the 7.15 from Canterbury West to get me there in time.
Its a long way, so the non HS1 service seems like a bad option for me, however I can see from that season ticket calculator that the prices jump up when you add HS1.
I don't take the tube in London - run or bike to keep costs down.
So a return today would have cost £56.70. Its heartbreaking.
I just get distressed when the price escalates from £19.85 to £56.70 from one day to the next, and I think this stops me from thinking straight.
I only work 4 days a week, so my weekly cost from buying daily tickets is about £117.45.
7 day season ticket is £129.80.
It looks as though I'll only make a saving if I buy a whole years ticket and I hope to have a new job before then. Anyone know if season tickets are refundable if you don't need one after a while?

Thanks again for the help.

OK, with the extra info, a five week season now shows a smaller saving, but nevertheless, a saving...

For example from Monday 6 June to Friday 8 July, your current arrangement will cost you £587.25.
A season ticket for the same period costs £549.10 to London St.Pancras via HS1.
So it looks like you could save over £7.60 a week... not a lot.

But consider this...
Buy your three £19.95 Off Peak Day Return tickets with your Railcard as usual.
On the other day, get an Anytime Single to St.P at £31.20.
For the return leg get an Off Peak Single from St.P to Canterbury using your railcard at £19.85.

So your weekly cost could be £110.90.
A weekly saving of £6.55.

geojay

I'm trying to get a better price for a return from Bath Spa to Oxenholme (depart last train on Friday 17th June, return before 2300 on Sunday 19th June). I don't seem to be able to get anything but anytime fares, I've tried various splits but with no improvement in price.

Can anyone spot anything better?

Thanks!

AirlieBird

geojay wrote: »

I'm trying to get a better price for a return from Bath Spa to Oxenholme (depart last train on Friday 17th June, return before 2300 on Sunday 19th June). I don't seem to be able to get anything but anytime fares, I've tried various splits but with no improvement in price.

Can anyone spot anything better?

Thanks!

According to https://www.redspottedhanky.com there is an off-peak return fare available.

geordieracer

geojay wrote: »

I'm trying to get a better price for a return from Bath Spa to Oxenholme (depart last train on Friday 17th June, return before 2300 on Sunday 19th June). I don't seem to be able to get anything but anytime fares, I've tried various splits but with no improvement in price.

Can anyone spot anything better?

Thanks!

Your off peak return is £102 and is available on the last train - 1700 from Bath. check https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

Livingthedream

geojay wrote: »

I'm trying to get a better price for a return from Bath Spa to Oxenholme (depart last train on Friday 17th June, return before 2300 on Sunday 19th June). I don't seem to be able to get anything but anytime fares, I've tried various splits but with no improvement in price.

Can anyone spot anything better?

Thanks!

If you were after some cheap advance singles, unfortunately
1. You've left it a bit to close to your travelling dates and any decently priced advance tickets that were there are long sold out
2. Advance tickets are routed by Arriva Crosscounty so would be expensive anyway.

As to splitting the route up, it's a bit of a carp route to do that, but off the direct route; ie Bath Spa - Worcester - Liverpool LS - Oxenholme can be done for £70 but not with the timings you want and involves the odd advance ticket (so booked trains) and is a 'ball ache' of a journey, but it's an option for you.

geojay

Thanks for the insight, I was in a bit of a hurry when I posted originally and mistakenly said the best I'd found was a Any-time ticket when in fact it was a Off-peak ticket. It's at least reassuring to know I wasn't missing a trick and that the £102.10 was the best I'm likely to get.

Thanks again

skylight

If I purchase tickets (single ones) on Trainline, it specifies the times. Do I have to travel at those times if there are no times on the tickets or reserved seats etc?? As long as I travel in the peak or off-peak period I buy tickets for?

Primarily we are looking at going from Datchet to Eastbourne - far cheaper to get singles to Clapham and back again.

Some are priced at £11.50 and others at £17.75 or £30 for singles (3 adults, 2 kids and a F&F railcard - 3/8 to 5/8). If I buy the cheaper tickets can I travel at anytime within the peak/off-peak times?



I also want to go (On my own) from Slough to Cardiff on the 19th for the weekend. Would the tickets be timed for this one do you think so I could also travel on almost any train I wanted?

Lots of options on a really tight budget but I want to have the option of catching earlier trains to leave just in case.