Split Ticketing: Report successful routes here

omelette451

Halva wrote: »

I'm trying to get from Warrington to Southend on Saturday 25th April, returning the next day. Need to be there by 16.00ish and would be good to be back by 19.00 the next day. At the moment I'm looking at £76.10 each for 2 adults.

From Warrington (and often other NW VT stations) you can often save a bit by splitting at Crewe or routing your journey via Birmingham. Using express trains, the best I've found for you is to book two singles, one as Manchester-Southend and the other as Southend to Warrington; obviously you'll have to get a connecting train from Warrington Central into Manchester first; this comes out at about £60 return each.

If you're desperate to save cash you can split at Crewe and London, using London Midland trains only between the two (£20 super off-peak return on LM), but it's a much longer journey and I'm not sure it's worth it given the distance you're going in a weekend. Up to you though. Note that the £76 you found is for a fully-flexible off-peak ticket valid on any permitted route.

sns101

Split tickets at Manningtree or Colchester (Manningtree marginally cheaper, but not all trains stop there) to save on tickets from Ipswich to London.

Manningtree is also on the edge of the Network Rail Card network, which costs around £20 per year and up to 4 people can travel on one card, saving a third on tickets. This card covers the South East for off peak travel and by using this card for the Manningtree and beyond part of the journey saves a third on that part of the trip, so makes it even cheaper to split at Manningtree (once you have covered the cost of the card originally).

Lugh_Chronain

I've tried split ticketing in the past and have had no luck with trying this to be honest. I frequently travel to Warrington from London and have had to travel with National Express in the passed as their tickets tend to be much cheaper than Virgins i.e. NE: £25ish Virgin: £50ish. But not anymore as I've recently found The Train Line Fare Finder which has made it a lot easier to find cheaper tickets to long distance destinations. This tool helps you find the cheapest long distance rail tickets for your chosen journey if you can be flexible about when to travel.

While this is great for info, you can book more cheaply by going direct to the train company.

Lugh_Chronain

I randomly chose a journey from London Liverpool Street Station to Ipswich Station and found plenty of £6 single tickets. I’ve found that clicking the next button when using the fare finder and then clicking on where it says 2 singles could be cheaper should verify whether or not these prices apply.

And as mentioned above go direct to the train company, which I think in this case is National Express East Anglia, instead of booking via The Trainline. There is a small charge if you book through The Trainline. The Trainline charges a £1 booking fee, plus an extra £2.50 for credit card payments.

bootman

This has taken we all night to do but here goes...

Banbury to Newcastle £90 one way

By going Banbury to B'ham, to Derby to Sheffield to York then Newcastle total cost £54.60 much better

Total saved £34.50

omelette451

bootman wrote: »

By going Banbury to B'ham, to Derby to Sheffield to York then Newcastle total cost £54.60 much better

Did you go for the Chiltern service Banbury-Birmingham Moor Street rather than CrossCountry to New St? Usually saves a few pounds in itself...

kayaitch

alanrowell wrote: »

Why did you waste £1 - the websites of the Train companies allow you to book for free and won't charge you for tickets and CC usage

That was the case until recently but today I booked online with South West Trains and they appear to be now charging £6 for delivery of your ticket. The only way to avoid this if you book online is to collect it from a ticket machine at the station.

omelette451

kayaitch wrote: »

That was the case until recently but today I booked online with South West Trains and they appear to be now charging £6 for delivery of your ticket. The only way to avoid this if you book online is to collect it from a ticket machine at the station.

Or you could book through the nxec site. Much easier to use and absolutely no booking fees, whatever the chosen mode of delivery.

dzug1

kayaitch wrote: »

That was the case until recently but today I booked online with South West Trains and they appear to be now charging £6 for delivery of your ticket. The only way to avoid this if you book online is to collect it from a ticket machine at the station.

As far as I can make out they still offer free first class post.

The £6 is for next day delivery - possibly it's all that's offered if your travel date is too close to rely on normal post.

kayaitch

[QUOTE=dzug1;20885213]As far as I can make out they still offer free first class post.

The £6 is for next day delivery - possibly it's all that's offered if your travel date is too close to rely on normal post.[/QUOTE]

Yes, thank you, you are right - I could not understand why free 1st class delivery did not appear as an option. Having phoned SWT about this it was because I was booking on Tuesday for travel on Friday so not enough time, it has to be at least 5 days before travel. Doh!