Tips for cheaper train fares

thelawnet

Special discounts

In some cases you can get discounts, typically 10%, but sometimes more, by buying your tickets from the issuer's website. In other words, for a Southern fare, check Southern's website to see if it is cheaper there. Tickets can be collected from most train vending machines at stations (specify this option when you buy the ticket).

If you want your tickets delivered by post (allow several days), there will be a charge of around £2. If you buy a ticket from a station with no collection facilities, this charge will be waived. A child single from Matlock Bath to Matlock, costing 30p, will give you free postage on your whole basket.

Avoid thetrainline.com when buying tickets. They charge a booking fee.

You can get small amounts of cashback on rail tickets, typically 2%.

See
http://www.topcashback.co.uk/rail-ferry-and-coach/cashback/ and
http://www.quidco.com/travel/rail-coach/

Generally you can purchase tickets from any train company, so you can buy tickets on Southern Trains from say Northern, at 2% cashback (some train companies only offer cashback on their own tickets). However where the train company is offering an online discount, you can only get that from their site - in this case forget cashback.

Groupsave

Groupsave is a scheme operated by most train operators, but not Virgin, Northern, First Transpennine Express, London Midland, Merseyrail, Arriva Wales or CrossCountry.

Groupsave provides savings for any group larger than 2 adults. You pay for 2 adults, and get 1 or 2 adults or children (your choice) free. In addition, up to 4 further children are charged at £1 each (not in Scotland).

Thus 4 adults cost the same as 2. The group must travel together at all times. (Larger groups can combine groups of 3 or 4.)

This is not valid during the morning peak.

Because of the great value provided by groupsave for families travelling on the train companies offering it, the discount provided by Family & Friends Railcard may not be significant. Groupsave saves 33% on the total fare for a family of 2 adults and 2 children. A family and friends railcard saves 43%, which is more, but whereas Groupsave requires no railcard, the Family & Friends Railcard has an annual fee of (up to) £30.

In areas with no Groupsave, it is almost always worth buying a Family & Friends railcard, as it is for single parent families.

You cannot buy a London Travelcard using groupsave. You can however, buy a travelcard ticket from outside London. The cheapest is the Southern Only Epsom - London Travelcard. This ticket is valid on all trains, buses, tube, and trams in London (the Southern Only restriction only applies from Epsom). With Groupsave, and a group of 4, this ticket costs just £4.95 - £3.95 cheaper than buying London Travelcards each.

thelawnet

Rover tickets

Rover and ranger tickets are tickets valid over a specified geographical area, or on a specific train line or train company's services.

There is a full list at http://www.railrover.org/

Many are extremely good value, for example:

Cornwall Ranger - £10 adult, £20 family, valid from Plymouth through all of Cornwall.
Southern All Network Downlander - £16.50 adult, valid on all Southern trains, and also on certain buses http://www.southernrailwaytickets.com/main.php?page_id=296 (must be booked two days in advance)
Greater Manchester Rail Ranger - £4.80 adult, or £2.40 evening - valid across the Greater Manchester area
South Yorkshire Day Tripper £6.30

In most cases they are valid only off-peak. However, some are valid during the morning peak.

It is often possible to combine a local ranger ticket with a ticket valid from the boundary of the ranger/rover area to your destination. Check the terms to make sure your tickets are valid.

Rover tickets are valid for several days (at least 3), and tend to be considerably more expensive, but can save where you are staying in the area for several days and travelling around.

thelawnet

Megatrain

Megabus sell tickets on Southwest Trains and East Midlands trains to and from London only.

They also sell tickets on various intercity Virgin Trains services (not exclusively from London).

The tickets are usually much cheaper than those sold by the companies themselves, but there are no railcard discounts, no child fares, and these tickets are classed as Advance meaning they are only valid on the booked train, and you can't start or stop short, nor break your journey. In addition, the trains on offer will typically be later in the day, meaning that they are often not suitable for day trips.

Don't go by train

In some cases travel by train is not the best option. You can check public transport routes at http://maps.google.co.uk and http://www.transportdirect.info

A short bus journey may save you both time and money. In some cases, a taxi is even cheaper.

For travel to London airports, there are a variety of bus services, including National Express, Terravision, and Easybus, all potentially cheaper than the train.

For travel to Stansted Airport from London, you may find that tickets to Audley End, beyond Stansted, are cheaper than Stansted Airport itself.

For Heathrow Airport, the Heathrow Express is extremely expensive, even when discounted (the rival Heathrow Connect is slow and infrequent and not cheap). Take the tube instead, or for a family book a minicab. If you prefer rail:

Either take a London bus to Feltham (use Oyster if possible), which has a fast train to Clapham Junction and from there on to Surrey and Sussex.
Or towards Wales or the South West, take a bus to Hayes & Harlington station (using Oyster), from where train fares are cheaper than from Paddington, albeit that you will have to change at Reading.

The 'Railair' bus from Heathrow to Reading is designed to connect Heathrow to stations via Reading, but is quite expensive at around £18 - changing at Hayes & Harlington is cheaper, if less convenient. A minicab for a family group would be a better option, likewise the similar service to Woking station, for travel towards the south coast.

To Gatwick Airport, it is again possible to save, to/from London, by buying tickets from Three Bridges, one stop beyond Gatwick Airport. However the cheapest tickets are only valid on First Capital Connect trains, although if you buy a First Capital Connect Only travelcard, you can change at East Croydon onto a Southern train, since the travelcard element of the ticket is valid on all trains one with in London.

scorpio_biker

Thanks for this, some useful stuff in there that I didn't know. Having just started using public transport regularly there are some tips in here I hope to be able to use.

thelawnet

Penalties

You should always buy a ticket before travelling, where facilities exist. If there is no ticket office or ticket machine, you do not need to buy a ticket (how would you?), but must buy a ticket at the other end, if facilities are available.

If you fail to buy a ticket, or deliberately avoid doing so, in some areas you may be issued with a Penalty Fare. If asked to pay this, it is best to do so! The alternative may be a trip to a criminal court, and much higher costs. In areas without Penalty Fares, you may be reported for prosecution with no warning, at the guard's discretion/

Penalties are not applicable in the following cases:

* when you travel at a time not allowed on your ticket
* when you travel on a route not specified on your ticket, but where the specified route is allowed on a more expensive ticket.

In these cases, you should be charged an excess, the difference between the fare you should have bought, and the fare you did buy. For example, if you have an off-peak day return, and travel in the peak, you should be charged the full difference between that and an anytime day return.

As another example, there are two tickets sold between Woking and Wimbledon

'Any Permitted' and 'Via Clapham Junction'.

The 'Via Clapham Junction' ticket is more expensive, because Clapham Junction is beyond Wimbledon, but is served by express trains, so is a reasonable route. If you buy the 'Any Permitted' ticket and travel via Clapham Junction, then an excess to the 'Via Clapham Junction' ticket would be appropriate.

If you travel on a route not permitted on any ticket, then you are technically classed as travelling without a ticket.
If you are polite to the guard then they are more likely to treat you leniently. If you are rude and aggressive, or if the guard feels you are a deliberate fare dodger, they may report you for prosecution. In this case, expect to receive a letter in the post to that effect. At this point you can usually offer to settle for around £100. If you do not wish to settle, you will be taken to court, where costs and criminal fines of around £400 are likely.

Moral: buy your ticket before you travel.

pompeyrich

Thanks thelawnet for some useful tips. The whole area of train fares is a minefield and any help finding a way to cheaper fares is most welcome.

One of my favourite "bargains" is the Southern Daysave ticket, has to be booked 7 days in advance but offers unlimited travel on Southern trains for a day, all day at weekends, for £14 per adult, a group daysave costs £28 for 4 adults, so for £7 return, up to 4 kids can be added for £1 each. LINK HERE

Natb8886

thelawnet wrote: »

Break your journey

There is a general right to break a journey.

For example, if I want to travel from London to St Albans, then continue on to Luton a little later, rather than buying a London - St Albans and St Albans - Luton ticket, I can just buy London - Luton, stop off in St Albans, and then continue to Luton later, using the same ticket.

But what happens when the ticket inspector stamps your ticket between London and St Albans, and then the next ticket inspector refuses your ticket as it has already been stamped, when you get on the train from St Albans to Luton?

Natb8886

also if that inspector has watched you get on the train at St Albans while your ticket says you have come from London, they may just think you have picked it up off the floor or something.

thelawnet

Cheaper travel using Travelcards

You can use a travelcard issued from a station outside London to travel via any permitted route to the boundary of the London travel zones (zone 6).

These stations are:

West Drayton
West Ruislip
Harrow-on-the-Hill
Hatch End
Elstree & Borehamwood
Hadley Wood
Crews Hill
Turkey Street
Enfield Lock
Harold Wood
Upminster
Rainham Essex
Slade Green
Barnehurst
Crayford
Knockholt
St Mary Cray
Coulsdon South
Ewell East
Ewell West
Surbiton
Feltham

So for example, a one-day travelcard from Ashford (Surrey), which is one stop outside of the London travelcard zones at Feltham, is valid to West Drayton using the route:

Ashford (Surrey) - Reading - West Drayton

This is shown by National Rail Enquiries:

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/AFS/WDT/tomorrow/1215/dep?via=Reading

and select the 'Travelcard' option.

Furthermore, since West Drayton is inside the London travelcard area, you can obviously travel onwards from West Drayton to Paddington using the travelcard element of the ticket.

In other words, a Ashford (Surrey) Super Off Peak Day Travelcard costing £12.60 is valid from Reading to London, which is a £21.70 travelcard ticket.

Unfortunately the train must stop at West Drayton on the day ticket for this to be valid.

If you bought a season ticket, however, it's not necessary to stop, and therefore rather than buying a Reading - London weekly travelcard at £120/wk, you can buy an Ashford (Surrey) - London at only £66/wk.

Other such journeys are possible, e.g., for travelling from Wokingham to Waterloo, you could buy an Iver - London one-day travelcard at £11.50

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/IVR/FEL/tomorrow/1215/dep?via=Wokingham rather than the £20.40 Wokingham - London One-day travelcard.

Since all trains from Wokingham to Waterloo stop at Feltham, this ticket is valid on all trains, and is a saving of almost 50%.

As noted below, in order to get the ticket to show up on booking sites, you may need to enter a return journey the same day. For all tickets except Advance tickets, the journey time shown on booking sites is purely informational - you do not need to take the specified trains, so enter any time, although be aware that there are off-peak and peak restrictions on most journeys, so this may affect pricing and validity.

Similar tricks can be utilised from many stations outside London.

Since this may prove controversial with train staff, you are advised to print out an itinerary from National Rail Enquiries showing that the Travelcard is valid via the route from the station you start from to a station within the zones (as per the list above), and that the train stops at this station (unless a season ticket).

thelawnet

Natb8886 wrote: »

also if that inspector has watched you get on the train at St Albans while your ticket says you have come from London, they may just think you have picked it up off the floor or something.

There wouldn't be discarded London to Bedford tickets at St. Albans.

If your ticket is stamped, you can ask the guard to write on it that you intend to break your journey. Most tickets are not stamped.