Cheapest fares

Thomask

Hi

I'm new to the world of MSE with trains / coaches!

I need to book the following trips for my mother and would appreachite any advice from those who've taken these trips.

Are there many coach / train operators offering these routes?

Would a railcard make a significant saving for these trips?


1. Cambridge to Norwich on Friday 7th Dec (need to be there by 10am)

2. Norich to London on Friday 7th Dec (leaving mid-afternoonish)

3. London to Plymouth on Tuesday 11th Dec (need to be there by 1pm)

4. Plymouth to London on Wednesday 12th Dec (leaving early evening)

5. London to Leeds on Monday 17th Dec (travelling cheapest time poss)

6. Leeds to London on 19th or 20th Dec (whenever is cheapest) OR if it's cheap enough I would look at doing a side trip to Liverpool then returning to London from Liverpool (19th).

dzug

No there will be only one, occasionally two rail or coach operators on each route. In the case of coaches, National Express and sometimes Megabus;

In the case of rail on the routes you mention the only route with a sensible second option is London - Leeds where both MML and GNER (both of whom are now called something different....) offer services, the latter a lot faster.

As to the railcard I think you said your mother was not eligible for a senior railcard in an earlier post. This would have been good for all the routes (but not necessarily times) you mention - but the Network railcard, for which she is eligible, doesn't cover ANY of the journeys.

http://www.railcard.co.uk/clientfiles/File/Network%20Railcard%20area%20map(2004).pdf is a map of the network railcard area

You need to be looking at coaches and at cheap advance purchase singles by rail.

Thomask

What does MMR and GNER stand for?

It's so confusing working out which carriers operate to different places!

mouse_potato

MML - Midland Mainline

GNER - [SIZE=-1]Great North Eastern Railway[/SIZE]

dzug

You don't NEED to work out which carriers go to different places - you can get times, etc, for all of them on the National Rail site and they all sell each other's tickets at the same price, with a few exceptions. In your case, GNER give (or used to - the new franchisee may not) a discount on some of their own tickets, but in general you don't need to worry. Just use one site for everything.