Same journey - different prices

RobM99

Basildon —> Three Bridges return, via London Bridge, one ticket, £38

Basildon —> Three Bridges return, via London Bridge, two tickets - same everything - £27.

How does that work?

QrizB

Different routings?

Where are the changes for each option?

RobM99

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82168767#Comment_82168767

Exactly the same.

TadleyBaggie

Split ticketing often is cheaper than using a single ticket.

RobM99

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82168849#Comment_82168849

Yes, so it seems. Strange!

MeteredOut

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6686766/same-journey-different-prices

How did you buy it? There are websites that specifically look for cheaper fares using split ticketing.

RobM99

Trainline. Just on a whim I wondered if I could find a cheaper way! Bought the tickets at the relevannt stations on the time of travel.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82168875#Comment_82168875

Can't help on the price difference but have to commiserate on what must be a !!!!!! of a commute.

oldernonethewiser

I believe the Trainline does split ticketing as a matter of course.

Other sites also do this and some TOC own sites do. The old Scotrail app used to but since moving to a new supplier and format the current app is pretty much useless.

RobM99

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82168905#Comment_82168905

It was evening out and late back, oddly enough not too grim a trip. I've had worse football trips - home at 01:30 from Lewes, for example!

LukeB_92

It works because there is no single national price for a journey - each ticket is priced for the flow it covers, and the two shorter flows can each be cheaper than the through flow expects.

A Basildon to London ticket and a London to Three Bridges ticket are priced separately, often by different pricing patterns and with different Off-Peak / Advance availability, and a London terminal can have very competitive fares starting from it. Added together they can undercut the Basildon to Three Bridges through fare, even on exactly the same trains. That is split ticketing in its simplest form - you have not found a loophole ticket, you have bought two valid tickets that together cover the whole journey.

Two conditions are worth checking before relying on it regularly:

1. The train you use must actually stop at the station where you split (here London Bridge), which yours does as you change / pass through there on that route - a split is not valid if the train runs through the split station without stopping.
2. Keep both tickets together for inspection and for any gate, and expect delay compensation to be treated per ticket rather than as one through journey, which can make a claim more fiddly if one leg is delayed.

For a regular commute it is also worth checking the split against a season ticket for the through journey, as the split saving on day returns does not always beat a season over a month.