Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, Cumbria / Lakes

lyndhurst25

Here's a tip for anyone visiting the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway in Cumbria, especially those with Railcards.

You can buy a through return ticket from any Northern Rail station, for an add-on fare of £6.60.

A day return ticket on the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway costs £9.60 and no Railcard discounts are available.

However, a day return ticket from Drigg to the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway costs only £8 (or just £5.30 with a Railcard!). There's actually no reason why you can't buy the ticket(s) in advance from your local station and not actually travel on National Rail from Drigg to Ravenglass. Bear in mind though that there is no train service between Drigg and Ravenglass on Sundays, so it may be difficult to use this loophole for trips on that day of the week.

donnajunkie

this thread is old so i hope you are still around or someone else is who can help.
can you get a period return that includes the ravenglass/eskdale railway or is it just for day returns? i am thinking of going to eskdale for a few days in september and after getting to carlisle by bus i would get a train from there to ravenglass and then get on the next train to eskdale.
are the services reliable? what destination will it say on the train when boarding at carlisle for ravenglass? i am just paranoid about missing my train or getting on the wrong train.

lyndhurst25

Hi,

according to the Northern Rail website "Buy a through ticket to the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway and you'll save £3.00 adultand £1.50 child off the cost of the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway full line return fare, allowing one day’s unlimited travel on the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. The through ticket is available with any Cheap Day Return, Standard Day Return or Saver Return ticket to Ravenglass." With a period return (i.e. the Saver) travel on the R&E Railway is only allowed on the outward travel date of the ticket, so you wouldn't be able to use it to get back from Eskdale to Ravenglass on the following day for instance.

Another money saving solution (that I have just taken up myself) is to join the R&E Railway Preservation Society (https://www.rerps.co.uk). It costs £16 per year and members are entitled to free travel on the line (except on a few "special event" days e.g. Thomas he Tank Engine day). Considering that an adult return ticket costs £10.20 and a single costs £6, this gives you a considerable saving if you travel more that once during a year.

With regards to your train from Carlisle - you can download the full timetable from the Northern Rail website. I think that most trains will be going through to Barrow-in-Furness as their final destination. Just remember that there are no trains on the Carlisle to Ravenglass line on Sundays.

Have a nice holiday!

donnajunkie

thanks for your help.
so to be clear what i will have to do is get a saver return to ravenglass from carlisle and then just buy a seperate single ticket to eskdale and then another single back to ravenglass when i go home a few days later?

off-that-internet!

hi if you go to www.kidsvisitfree.pizzahut.co.uk there is a voucher on there for buy one get one free at lakeside and haverthwaite railway and thought it might help

off-that-internet!

sorry - just realised - wrong railway!!!

donnajunkie

off-that-internet! wrote: »

sorry - just realised - wrong railway!!!

i may visit there sometime but probably not this year. i dont have any kids anyway. :j