Cheap Train Fares guide discussion

dzug1

edrandall wrote: »

Sorry I should have said that I'm returning next day, day-returns are out for this one.

Can a ticket that says "London terrminals" be used to get from London Bridge to Kings Cross, or indeed any London mainline station of my choosing?
The Thameslink line should make sense, if I am allowed to use it.

No - it can only be used on a permitted route. I think that ends (from the south) at City Thameslink or Blackfriars. It would get you to Cannon Street, Waterloo East or Charing Cross, but that's no help

You'd need a ticket to London Zone 1 or a travelcard to get to Kings Cross

Or the ticket to Birmingham would work - it's not actually valid but there is absolutely no way of preventing you doing it or detecting it's been done

terryw

dzug1 wrote: »

Or the ticket to Birmingham would work - it's not actually valid but there is absolutely no way of preventing you doing it or detecting it's been done

Agreed.

As an aside, the single fare of £6.95 (with railcard) Staplehurst to Birmingham must be one of the best value tickets on the rail system.

miller

I think the "route maltese cross +" tickets are just coded with a single for Zone 1 for the barriers, much like tickets to Zone U1* Lndn.

thelawnet

terryw wrote: »

Agreed.

As an aside, the single fare of £6.95 (with railcard) Staplehurst to Birmingham must be one of the best value tickets on the rail system.

It's an Advance fare. Many such cheap tickets exist if booked in advance on long distance journeys.

terryw

thelawnet wrote: »

It's an Advance fare. Many such cheap tickets exist if booked in advance on long distance journeys.

Thank you. Yes I do know this. I made the observation that this was
one of the best value tickets.

The best value in my opinion is the overnight sleeper from Euston to the Scottish Highlands for £19 (if you can get one). Unless anyone knows a better one?

edrandall

miller wrote: »

I think the "route maltese cross +" tickets ....

[STRIKE]That's lost me, could you possibly elaborate what this is?[/STRIKE]
OK found it on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APTIS_ticket_features: "A dagger (†; described in publications as a "Maltese cross") may appear before the route if the ticket is valid for a cross-London journey on the London Underground."

miller

edrandall wrote: »

[STRIKE]That's lost me, could you possibly elaborate what this is?[/STRIKE]
OK found it on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APTIS_ticket_features: "A dagger (†; described in publications as a "Maltese cross") may appear before the route if the ticket is valid for a cross-London journey on the London Underground."

Apologies for being cryptic - the gist being your advance ticket should operate the barriers at 2 stations (one in, one out) in Zone 1.

redux

Do you badly need to split that fare?

On the two dates I looked up Staplehurst or London to Newcastle, the advance railcard fares were from £27.70 and £18.80

So doing that split with the partly used advance to Birmingham potentially saves only about £2.

If you do want to try something like this at other times, also look at Staplehurst to Kettering, which is from £5.95 adv and won't involve the issue of Euston vs Kings Cross St Pancras

miller

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terryw

miller wrote: »

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