Leeds to Bristol - Cheap train tickets - do they exist!

CashStrapped

If there is one thing I despise having to do, it is book train tickets. I always feel like I am being taken for a ride.......and not to my destination....

I am booking a train from Leeds to Bristol well in advance. Very flexible on the date, anywhere in March or even April. Returning same day.

I cannot seem to find a cheap ticket much less than £70 return! I was expecting maybe around £30 this far in advance.

So, I assume this is meant to be a good deal!

If this is the case, than it seems like a sleeping bag and a national express funfair for £6 return is the way to go.

I do not book trains often so if there is anyone on the forum who is skilled in sniffing out cheap deals, I challenge them to find it.

Voyager2002

The lowest fares are generally Advance Singles (so you would need to look for a pair of them, rather than just searching for a return ticket). And now might be a little too early to look.

You might have more luck if you were to split the journey: look for cheap tickets between Bristol and Birmingham, and between Birmingham and Leeds. Or even Leeds and London, then London and Bristol. If you are using split tickets then leave plenty of time between trains in case of delays.

yorkie2

CashStrapped wrote: »

If there is one thing I despise having to do, it is book train tickets. I always feel like I am being taken for a ride.......and not to my destination....

I am booking a train from Leeds to Bristol well in advance. Very flexible on the date, anywhere in March or even April. Returning same day. .

A flexible Off peak return is £115 (you can get a combination of 2 x unrefundable inflexible Advance singles, valid on specific trains only, for less).

This is ridiculously expensive because it is priced by Arriva CrossCountry. They deem this to be a premium long-distance route, for which there is no viable alternative mode of transport. So they want you to pay a fortune.

You can use a website like trainsplit.com to purchase a combination of fares for a lower price (it will try to put you in the same seat throughout but this is not always possible). It will give you one booking reference for the entire journey, and one itinerary, but you will be issued with multiple pieces of card. Comparing flexible fares, you save around £35. For Advance fares, it varies.

This is because fares for shorter distance journeys are often charged at a much more reasonable rate, and any number of such fares can be combined for one journey.

Are you travelling on a weekday or a weekend? If the former, what time roughly?

CashStrapped

To be honest, I am completely flexible, so I intend to avoid peak rush our where possible.

Hence, I though there was a good chance of a cheap ticket. But with the cheapest return being around £70 (can't remember if that was two singles). I was quite appalled.

Nice split ticketing website, had not come across it before.

But, for a weekday in march at non-rush-hour times and it comes up with around £66 -

This is why I hate booking train tickets.....

jbuchanangb

I have looked at 3 different ticketing sites, for off peak weekday travel in March.

The best non-split advance single I can see is £34.70. 3h30m direct train service, quite long distance. If you do opt for a cheaper split ticket, be aware that the train needs to call at the splitting station.

CashStrapped

Thank you for having a look too! Much appreciated.

Yep, £34.70 each way is pretty much what I found.

So much for booking ahead. Maybe the route is just an expensive one.

agrinnall

It's £3 on Megabus in March.

jbuchanangb

But Megabus journey time is 5h45m with long stop over in Birmingham. It is cheap though.

agrinnall

The OP asked for cheap rather than fast.

martindow

agrinnall wrote: »

The OP asked for cheap rather than fast.

Yes, but he wants to return the same day and presumably have a few hours in Bristol so the travel time is relevant.

agrinnall

martindow wrote: »

Yes, but he wants to return the same day and presumably have a few hours in Bristol so the travel time is relevant.

Ah, yes, I'd seen the flexible on date comment but missed the return same day one. Which does make Megabus rather less attractive.