Quick query for someone new to traveling regularly by train

od017

Hi,

I begin a part time masters course next month in Brighton, which I will be commuting to every Tuesday. I have a very economical car, and a very economical driving style, however a few quick internet searches seem to indicate that traveling by train to Brighton (from Salisbury) could be significantly cheaper than driving (with the associated costs) over the course of two years.

My question is: I've read the extensive tips and watched the videos on the MSE site about getting the cheapest train fares, have signed up for thetrainline.com's advance ticket alerts, and have used the Tickety Split app to see if it's cheaper to split the journey (it appears that it is not), but it seems that the price for an off-peak return to Brighton from Salisbury is consistently affordable. I've done a few preliminary searches on various Tuesdays between now and Xmas, and if departing from Salisbury at 10:30ish and then leaving Brighton for the return journey at about 18:30ish, the cost seems to always be just shy of £16 (with a Network railcard).

Have I just lucked-out with a consistently cheap route? Might I be able to get my ticket even cheaper somehow? Have I also read it correctly that the cheapest possible rail ticket is £13 (from the minimum fares section here: http://www.railcard.co.uk/network/tickets-types-min-fares/#Minimum_Fares)?

Apologies for all the questions, but I have only ever used trains for one-off journeys before, and am hoping that some brief help from the clever minds here might be of a massive help Thanks

Kite2010

I can't see anything cheaper starting from Salisbury to Brighton vis Southampton for that fare (opposed to going via Clapton). The £13 min fare kicks in if you try and spilt it

One thing to consider is that Salisbury railway station car-park gets full rather quickly on weekdays

Remember you can pre-book via Red Spotted Hanky and get some cash-back

HappyMJ

That is a very good price. 175 miles of train travel for £15.85. Unless you are super economic with the car I'm not sure you could beat that.

Kite2010

Plus you get the avoid the parking charges of Brighton

od017

Thanks very much for the replies.

Yeah I think the diesel would cost me just shy of £20, but then I'd have whatever parking fees I'd incur in Brighton. A search earlier today seems to point to that costing at least another £8.

Extremely fortunately for me, one of my p/t employers is located about a 3min walk from Salisbury train station, so I can leave my car at its private car park after my 3hr shift on a Tuesday morning, and then collect it when I arrive back later that evening.

Traveling by train will also provide me with a few hours of reading/essay writing time!

Thanks again.

yorkie2

The Route: via Barnham fares offer excellent value for money.

I've met the person responsible for introducing these flows, I understand it was Southern's aim to increase patronage on the less popular routes avoiding London/Clapham, so introducing cheaper tickets via Barnham, while increasing the fares via London/Clapham was a way to do that.

I know someone who made a website that compares fares over the past few years, I've looked this up and, in fact, if you had been making the journey 4 years ago, the cheapest return ticket would have actually cost £3 more! (most other journeys cost noticeably more today than they did in 2009).

od017

So it seems I and others have benefited massively thanks to someone's forethought. Excellent! Thanks

cookie365

That route is also the cheapest Bristol-Brighton route, so it might be quite busy.