Cheap Train Fares guide discussion

redux

dzug1 wrote: »

If you stick to those trains it's highly likely

But for example out on the 0600 and back on the 1930 on a random Wednesday in March is £47 return (£23.50 each way). You may be able to replicate that if you know far enough ahead when you are travelling

Before I read this I chose a couple of different dates a bit nearer

30th Jan
out 0640 £64.50 adv - (but splitting outbound at Didcot £55.70 for anytime singles)
rtn 1930 £26.00 adv
rtn 2000 £18.50 adv

12th Feb
out 0600 £23.50
out 0640 £50.50
rtn 1930 £23.50
rtn 2000 £15.50

The other angle is to renegotiate the time spent in London, and leave Bristol later, e.g 30th Jan 0851 £18.00 advance

redux

cosmojohnson wrote: »

At this late notice most of the really cheap Advance tickets will have gone. I can see some for £40 (outward) and £32/£36 (return leg) that suit your times; so just under £80 (but you would be tied to specific trains).

Splitting at Didcot Parkway will probably save you around a tenner - make sure you book the same trains so you don't need to change on the Paddington-Bath leg.

A flexible ticket for the whole trip is £91.70. For a 180-odd mile journey you may or may not find this reasonable...

I was confused by this for a while. I think you might have mistakenly used Wellingborough in Northants instead of Wellington in Shropshire

mollygrub wrote: »

Hello everyone, we are attempting to travel from Wellington, Shropshire to Bath on Sunday late morning to get to Bath sometime early afternoon and then return on Monday leaving Bath late morning.. i am struggling to find a cheap method of doing this.. can anyone give me any tips on splitting the travel or whatever we have to do as we cannot afford the prices i am finding on the normal sites... help.. thank you so much... :rotfl:

An off-peak ordinary return is £58.50, and I'm not sure you can save much, or not that I've found so far.

Even from Birmingham to Bath or just Birmingham to Bristol isn't a lot cheaper than your whole trip, so breaking at those points won't help.

Splitting and buying two returns to and from Gloucester or Cheltenham only saves a few pence - like £36 + £22.10 compared to the £58.50.

Apparently splitting at Bromsgrove could save a bit, about £10 off, but only if the train stops there, and these don't, so changing would add complication and more time

Maybe there will be a family ticket type of arrangement that the experts will know about

If it's this coming weekend you're travelling, it doesn't help that there seem to be rail works meaning a bus service between Birmingham and Gloucester on Sunday

dzug1

lesshaste wrote: »

This sounds fiendish but I don't get it. Would you mind spelling it out in a bit more detail? Do you mean get a Didcot to Reading season ticket and then split the tickets at Cholsey using the Didcot to Reading season ticket to fill the gap?

I think he means by a normal ticket Bristol to Cholsey and a season ticket Cholsey Paddington. This means you could use trains that didn't stop at Cholsey (or Didcot) to make the journey

I can't see on earth how it could help you though. Cholsey London seasons are around £100 a week

thelawnet

lesshaste wrote: »

This sounds fiendish but I don't get it. Would you mind spelling it out in a bit more detail? Do you mean get a Didcot to Reading season ticket and then split the tickets at Cholsey using the Didcot to Reading season ticket to fill the gap?

It depends if you ever use the train otherwise really. If you have a season ticket that you can use for part of your journey, you can make use of cheaper splits, at stations your train doesn't stop at.

E.g.,

Bristol Parkway - Didcot £27
Didcot - London £28.70

cf.

Bristol Parkway - Cholsey £27
Cholsey - London £21.50

but to make that split you'd need to have a season ticket (any season ticket pretty much).

mcmanlyn

Here's an odd one I thought I'd share just in case it helps anyone else.

Used Trans Pennine Express site for Manchester-Glasgow, came up as £53.00 on the trains I needed (23/24 Feb) I just searched for them using the 'Plan Your Journey' bit on the left of the front page.
But if you follow the link on the front page advertising their 'January sale 25% off' I got the EXACT same trains for £40.50...

No idea why/how it works that way but it's worth checking other train sites for a similar glitch/mix up

thelawnet

mollygrub wrote: »

Hello everyone, we are attempting to travel from Wellington, Shropshire to Bath on Sunday late morning to get to Bath sometime early afternoon and then return on Monday leaving Bath late morning.. i am struggling to find a cheap method of doing this.. can anyone give me any tips on splitting the travel or whatever we have to do as we cannot afford the prices i am finding on the normal sites... help.. thank you so much... :rotfl:

There are no trains between Birmingham and Gloucester on Saturday and Sunday
http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/media/94537/changes_to_train_times_sat_19_to_sun_20_jan_2013.pdf

One option is as follows:

Wellington - Ledbury Off Peak Return £19.60
Worcester - Bath Spa Off Peak Return Not Via Birmingham £26.50

This comes to £46.10, which is a small saving on the straight Wellington - Bath Spa ticket priced at £58.50

The route would be:

Wellington - Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury - Newport
Newport - Bath Spa

The ticket Wellington - Ledbury is valid to travel Wellington - Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury - Hereford, Hereford - Ledbury, and you will finish short at Hereford (without getting off the train). For the Worcester - Bath Spa ticket you 'start short' at Hereford (you don't need to get off the train, which should be a through train from Shrewsbury to Newport), which is on a permitted route between Worcester and Bath.

You would have to take this route in both directions.

redux

I was looking later at via Hereford and Newport, but couldn't come up with those options

mollygrub

Just wanted to say a huge thanks for those of you who replied and took the trouble to help me... thanks v much. as it happened, because of the weather we decided to cancel our weekend in Bath so we don't need the trains now.. but we are going to be rebooking and hopefully next time I will have more notice for the advance tickets and savers... thanks again.. :T

miller

Rainbow Day at Salisbury Train Station
Unlimited travel on the South West Trains network for £10 on Saturday, 23 February 2013.

Submit details and obtain voucher for redemption at Salisbury ticket office between Wednesday, 20 February and Saturday, 23 February.

Full details:
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/rainbowday.aspx
a link to the terms and conditions is also on that page.

thelawnet

I wonder if there is any chance of this article being rewritten by someone with expertise in train ticketing.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets

The article is not accurate, and is missing much info on how to save money.