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MoneySavingExpert.com Cheapest Train Fares Article Discussion
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Victors_Bruvver wrote: »Thursday 27 December and I have just returned from dropping my wife off at Folkestone Central. The ticket (day return to London) I bought her from the ticket office was £21.90. When I checked the times & prices yesterday (& again this morning) both the National Rail & TrainLine websites are stating that a saver return for today is £16.00.
Not entirely surprised but it niggles me that if Southeastern are along with other TOC's running a Saturday timetable today why are they still charging her £21.90? Obviously the booking office staff is telling us that it is because her outward journey is before 10:00am but surely that ‘peak period’ relates to a Monday to Friday timetable? Is this not odd?
Does sound a bit odd - and I can't make full sense of what you are saying. A saver is £30.40, not £16.
There are two cheap day returns, one at £16 and one at £21.90. This week there seems to be virtually no difference between them - next week the £16 (increased to £17) does seem to be only after 1000.
Maybe the station staff forgot/weren't told about a relaxation in peak hours this week. I'd go for the latter.
It will be worth complaining - you'll get voucher of some sort I'm sure.0 -
Does Anyone know what has happened to all the advance purchase fares, i tried getting them on the crappy xc web site and not one fare is showing as available, it is for the 14/1 and rtn 18/1 from sheffield to newcastle for 2 adults with a disabled rail card.
I thought the trick was booking within 3 months?
any help gratefully recieved...
Plenty of them when I looked* a couple of minutes ago if you are flexible about times
*on the Chiltern site - nice unfussy interface, no extra charges0 -
Does sound a bit odd - and I can't make full sense of what you are saying. A saver is £30.40, not £16.0
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Maybe lots of you all know this already, but for naive beginners like me:
Gatwick-London Victoria
Gatwick express single fare is £15.90 (return fare is £26.80), lenght of journey: 30 min.
Far better option is Southern Railways with a fare of £8.90 single, lenght of journey: 35 min.
Be careful:
1. the automatic tickets machine have the gatwick express choice first, so choose the fare with the southern railway only (other routes option).
2. from Gatwick, sometimes the Southern and Gatwick trains depart from the same platform, but with 3 minutes in between! so check when you jump in or you will be asked to pay the difference.
Heathrow
Heathrow express leaves from Paddington, costs £14.50 for single (£28 for return), lenght of journey: 15 minutes.
Better option is Heathrow Connect:
from: (single fares)
Hayes & Harlington £4.90
Southall £5.50
Hanwell £5.50
West Ealing £5.50
Ealing Broadway £5.50
London Paddington £6.90
lenght of journey from Paddington: 25 minutes.
didn't find any cheap option for stanstead, luton is quite cheap with the thameslink trains (ãround £10).
I hope this helps
Cat0 -
Maybe lots of you all know this already, but for naive beginners like me:
A useful post - but some at least of those fares are going up next week.
Also don't forget FCC (ex Thameslink) for getting from Gatwick to London. Depending on where you want to be in London they can be very useful - with fares slightly cheaper than Southern! They serve London Bridge, Blackfriars, City, Farringdon and St Pancras - as well as loads of suburban stations.0 -
hi i'm looking for the best price from chesterfield to london st pancras need to arrive at london around 12ish l(ittle later or earlier would be ok). been on megatrain their prices are fab but not at the time i need.
thanks0 -
Another useful point if you hold a London Freedom Pass and need to travel to Gatwick is that the Pass allows free travel as far as East Croydon. You can, therefore, buy a ticket for East Croydon/Gatwick at the London Terminal and, as long as you travel on Southern, which stops at East Croydon, and NOT the Gatwick Express, the fare will only be about £4. Even less if you hold a Railcard! Sorry if that's no good for our younger readers.0
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yummy_mummy_of_3 wrote: »hi i'm looking for the best price from chesterfield to london st pancras need to arrive at london around 12ish l(ittle later or earlier would be ok). been on megatrain their prices are fab but not at the time i need.
thanks
You don't give the date - that can make all the difference.
The best possible price on EMT is £7 for a 'C' advance purchase single.
Whether that's ever available to get to London by midday I don't know.
There are other, slightly higher priced advance purchase singles as well - about 15 of them in all! Well some of them slightly more expensive, some a lot more.
Which you get depends on what's been allocated to the train you want and how early you book.
If you look at any of the TOC web sites you'll get the best fare available at the time you book.0 -
Thanks for your reply bit last minute but its for tomorrow friday 4th.0
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Cheapest i can get for thwe time i need to be there for is around £112 for myself and Hubby.0
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