Split Ticketing: Report successful routes here

liz.kingdom

I've just bought tickets from Exeter to London arriving in London at 09:21 Thursday 15 March. The usual price is £168 standard class. I bought Exeter-Pewsey and Pewsey-London and similar on return (on same train although changing at Taunton) for a cost of £62! Will be using them tomorrow and will report if there are any problems but the timetable is straightforward and the return journey leaving London at 16:33 is straight through.

alchemista

Some good newspaper articles were listed in this post:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=4604960&postcount=469

mandarama

Two years ago I travelled to Turin with a friend - we went on Eurostar to Lille (paid for with Airmiles - he he!) Lille to Lyon TGV (tickets bought in advance - online) then on to Turin buying a local ticket to go through the alps. Journey was fabulous, travelling upstairs in the double decker TGV was only one of the highlights. The combined price of the Waterloo to Lyon tickets are much higher than buying them seperately yourself, in any case. The online price for the Lyon to Turin route for two people was hundreds £s ( I can't remember the actual price) so we had thought we would pick up the overnight coach for that part of the journey. When we arrived we checked out the train - just in case and low and behold it was about £30 each - not much different to the coach fare. We stayed overnight in Lyon, but that only added about £40 (IBIS hotel - in August)

bill_the_bus

Retford to Huntingdon with mandatory change at Peterborough. It is approx 50% more to book direct than to book Retford - Peterborough and Petrborough - Huntingdon

Retford to Grantham. Book to Nottingham and its a lot cheaper.

iglimpse

Travelling from Liverpool to London in a few weeks. Have been quoted £59.70 return (out Sunday off peak, return Weds Peak). Does anybody know where to split this journey please

Roland

Altarf wrote: »

They have to sell you any ticket you ask for, but they do not have to find the cheapest combination of tickets to get from A to B. Unfortunately some people don't understand that and get annoyed with the staff when they won't work out the cheapest combination of tickets for them, and the station staff also know that a lot of people don't know the rules, such as the train needing to stop at the split station, so there will be aggro when they get an excess fare.

So next time don't mention 'split tickets', just ask for a ticket from York to Manchester, and then when they have sold you that, ask for a ticket from Manchester to Liverpool. There are many valid reasons why you may want such a combination of tickets, such as a meeting in Manchester before your meeting in Liverpool, which is why they have to sell you whatever you ask for.

I'll start by quoting from the National Fares Manual, which is issued to all station ticket offices :-

"Combination of Tickets
The National Fares Manual provides fares for most through
journeys. Tickets should always be sold for the throughout
journey required unless a customer specially requests more
than one ticket for the journey. In such cases the combination
of tickets should cover the entire journey being made. The
National Rail Conditions of Carriage specify circumstances

when tickets may be used in combination."

In other words, the ticket office staff at York cannot simply refuse to sell split tickets. They are within their rights to be refusing to do the necessary research for someone asking for the cheapest split fare from A to B, especially if there is a queue 10 deep at the time. You need to be able to ask for the correct, valid tickets for your journey on arrival at the booking office.

I have been looking at split tickets for some time and, for me, one notable example is for the relatively short trip from Leeds to Doncaster. The fares on this route are set by GNER, their trains operate this route from Leeds through to London Kings Cross. Cheap Day returns are usually available across the country for off peak journeys of less than 75 miles. GNER has decreed that cheap day returns will not be available on this route, so the day return fare at all times is £9.10.

However, Northern also operate a stopping service on the line, but the direct fare is the same, £9.10 for a slower journey. Travelling on Northern only and splitting tickets at South Elmsall, where GNER do not stop, reduces the fare to £5.30 return, a saving of £3.80. The split fares are now set by the Passenger Transport Authorities in West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.

Another example is a peak time day return from Leeds to Birmingham New St leaving at 7.05 returning before 18.00.

The are no Savers for departures before about 9.00.

Open Return LDS to BHM, an eye watering = £69.00
Advance Purchase 2 x £29.50, still enough to make you want to cry = £59.00

Standard Day Returns
Leeds to Sheffield (Not Doncaster)= £9.70
Sheffield to Derby = £14.60
Derby to Birm New St = £13.00
Total = £37.30 saving £31.70 over the Open fare and even £21.70 over the Advance Purchase fare. All journeys on this route require a stop or change at Derby or Sheffield.

When the Saver fare of £43.10 becomes available later, this can be beaten by an all Cheap Day Return, with the same splits of £25.50, saving £17.60.

The fact is that most passengers on these busy routes will only be sold the more expensive options.

dn852k4

iglimpse wrote: »

Travelling from Liverpool to London in a few weeks. Have been quoted £59.70 return (out Sunday off peak, return Weds Peak). Does anybody know where to split this journey please

Did you manage to find a split journey?

I would like to know the best split between either Liverpool or Chester to London Euston?

dn852k4

Liverpool to Hull

Saver return = £49.40


Liverpool to Leeds, cheap day return = £21.70
Leeds to Hull, cheap day return = £14.80

Total saving of £12.90;)

titus4t

Just about to book Wareham (Dorset) to Penrith (Cumbria). Cheapest return for my dates was £110.

Booking 4 singles - South West Trains to Birmingham New St - Then Virgin to Penrith - will cost £57

NB 4 singles is cheaper than booking 2 returns. Seems to me from some of the other entries here that spliting any journey that goes via Birmingham New St has a good chance of working out cheaper as singles.

KGG_2

I'm looking for return tickets from London to Manchester for the Manchester United VS AC Milan game on the 24th of April.
Tickets to go to Manchester with Virgin is now about 25 pounds 1 way
and around 23 on the way back early in the morning (because there are no trains left after the game ends at about 22.00.

I was wondering if anyone knew a better way to manage this trip because I tried splitting in Milton Keynes and that just adds to the time and only saves me about 2 pounds! and I really want to get back to london that night but there isn't a virgin train at the time, is there any other way to get back to london??

Thanks for all your help
Kevin