Tickets to Brum cheaper than London from Kent

jcrockf

I'm going to watch cricket at Edgbaston, Birmingham later this week and I was checking prices from my closest stations to home in Kent (Meopham and Gravesend). Return prices were huge and I know from booking train tickets for my daughter to attend uni interviews around the country that there are good deals to be had for advance single tickets.

I found that I could get a single to Birmingham from Meopham for £10.50 leaving on a peak time train out of Meopham. This ticket included underground from Victoria to Euston and fast service Virgin train to Birmingham. Normal single fare from Meopham to Victoria is £14 and return is £25.40. Have managed to get the same price ticket coming back too. So in total cost is £21 to Birmingham and back which is cheaper than my normal commute (I work 3 days a week in London so buy day returns). From now on I'll be looking at buying tickets to Brum as cheaper than just to London.

Having found this out I thought I'd look at the price from Dover Priory and this is even more astounding. Dover to London Victoria return £78 or 2 singles £56.90. By buying advance singles from Dover to Birmingham you can reduce this to £30! This is based on a train leaving Dover at 0702 - a peak commuter service. Also the ticket includes LU travel so you'd save on that if you need to get the tube to work

elverson

Note that it's technically not permitted to stop short on an Advance ticket, although this would be hard to detect in your case.