Getting Cheaper Rail Travel

MichaelCole

I'm a student and I was wondering how I can get cheaper train travel, I was thinking are there any organisations that will allow me to get cheaper train tickets? I know students get a 1/3 of fares anyway but I was wondering if more can be done?

pin

I'm quoting from a post on rpoints here:

"Some tips for getting some even better value out of thetrainline.

Split your journey
This involves either:

Changing trains and taking a slower but cheaper line over part of the journey. Examples of this include Chiltern Trains from Birmingham to London (Moor St, which is 5 mins walk away via the Bullring), WAGN from Peterborough to London, and ?South West Trains from Reading to London.

An other example is by ordering 2 or more tickets that cover the same journey on the same train. An excellent website here lists a few examples, just type in your start destination only to list every bargain from your station. It's a bit thin on the ground ATM but hopefully it'll snowball Rpoints style with publicity like this.

Keep an eye out for advance purchase bargains

Tickets such as GNER Apex and Virgin Value are advance purchase. You need to specify trains to travel on, and often travel is limited to off peak journeys. The tickets are supposed to be made available six weeks in advance, but due to Network Rail's short-notice engineering works this is often reduced to 3 weeks as the train operators don't know if the track will be dug up or not.... Around 3 weeks from travel, look at thetrainline every couple of days or so to see if yours become available.

Buy Single Tickets

This mainly applies to the Virgin Trains network - on most other networks this is prohibitively expensive. Virgin put up a limited number of Value tickets up which are often 2/3 cheaper than standard fares. Look 3 weeks in advance for the cheapest fares, and check back every few days if they aren't yet on sale. Sometimes your single leg might be available but the return leg might not be. Don't be afraid to book one and buy the return leg later when the cheap tickets go on sale.

A special bargain to book in advance for those in Glasgow/Edinburgh travelling to London is Scotrail, link
here. They sell tickets on overnight sleepers at £19 single. Buy two of these for a trip to the Smoke for only £38 . It's bunk beds in Standard though, so you might have to fight it out with your other half to see who goes on top ."

skiddy2k

michael, are you going into your first year to university by any chance?

if so, wait for natwest's student account to open, this gives you a 5 year free rail card.

but, im not sure on which rail line,you'll have to wait a month or so to find out!

Skiddy

NellyLock

skiddy2k wrote:

michael, are you going into your first year to university by any chance?

if so, wait for natwest's student account to open, this gives you a 5 year free rail card.

but, im not sure on which rail line,you'll have to wait a month or so to find out!

Skiddy

this will most likely be a young persons rail card which is valid on most rail networks and saves u potentially up to a 1/3 on rail travel

skiddy2k

nelly, thats also possible.

im not too sure on that one,

student100

NellyLock wrote:

this will most likely be a young persons rail card which is valid on most rail networks and saves u potentially up to a 1/3 on rail travel

That's correct.

http://www.natweststudents.com/

ohit

I gave up with trying to find cheap train fares.

For me, it works out cheaper for me to drive my car there/back.

Dronegc_2

I've bought myself a YP railcard for the last 4 years. It used to be £18 and has now gone up to £20. I usually save nearly the cost of the card on the 1st journey I use it on, which is great.
It isn't only for students though. Anyone 16-25 can get one. I'm intending to renew until I'm too old (not long now!)

http://www.youngpersons-railcard.co.uk

crana999

pin, you said

"An other example is by ordering 2 or more tickets that cover the same journey on the same train. An excellent website here lists a few examples, just type in your start destination only to list every bargain from your station."

There doesn't seem to be a link to the "excellent website" - was there a link in the original post?

ETA: You can often get points back on journeys booked online (with sites like Qjump) using sites like mutualpoints.com. Remember to check coaches too - they are often cheaper than trains and can be faster (mainly if there's a direct coach service but you have to change if you use the train)

ianwall

Another tip when using advance purchase Tickets on Virgin.

Normally, you must travel on the train that you've specified when booking. If you receive your tickets by post, your journey details are printed on the ticket and it's pretty obvious to the train manager when your travelling on a train you are not supposed to.

However, if you collect your tickets by fast ticket then the rail ticket comes seperatly from the reservation.

Every time I've travlled on Virgin (12 times every year), the train manager has only asked for the ticket part and not the reservation. This means I could have got away with travelling on a different train than I was supposed to.

Remeber though, this is could have just been by chance and if you are discovered you'll have to pay to upgrade to a Standard Open Single (hundreds of pounds).

Ian

pin

crana999 wrote:

pin, you said

"An other example is by ordering 2 or more tickets that cover the same journey on the same train. An excellent website here lists a few examples, just type in your start destination only to list every bargain from your station."

There doesn't seem to be a link to the "excellent website" - was there a link in the original post?

ETA: You can often get points back on journeys booked online (with sites like Qjump) using sites like mutualpoints.com. Remember to check coaches too - they are often cheaper than trains and can be faster (mainly if there's a direct coach service but you have to change if you use the train)

Sorry, the website from the Rpoints post is: http://www.the-pev.co.uk/trains/tickets/search.php