MoneySavingExpert.com Cheap Train Tickets Article Discussion

yorkie2

The £5 (each way) tickets are advance fares, only valid on the specified trains. At that price, providing you can be sure that you will get those trains, you should grab that bargain while you can!

The other prices you mention are all walk-on fares and £5.20 is the cheap day return fare from Cardiff to Swansea valid for walk-on travel.

u2o

ticketcollector wrote: »

But it is not going to be that simple!
As far as I am aware, the restrictions are going to be as they are now. Its just the ticket names that are changing.
So you will buy a Off-Peak Day from company A (which you can travel on trains departing after 0930) but on Company B an Off-Peak Day will only be vaild on trains arriving after 1030. However on Company C you can use the Off-Peak Day on trains arriving before 0600 and trains arriving after 1100.

So its not going to change anything.

yup nothing is going to change (except the name) - hence i think the current system is perfectly adequate. all im saying is we still need cheaper option for off-peak. the best solution would be for all train companies to standardise what "off peak" means and set on the same times!

ticketcollector

u2o wrote: »

yup nothing is going to change (except the name) - hence i think the current system is perfectly adequate. all im saying is we still need cheaper option for off-peak. the best solution would be for all train companies to standardise what "off peak" means and set on the same times!

That would be wonderful but is never going to happen.

Frances_K_2

HELP!! Hello???
I logged in for the first time this morning to get help on finding the cheapest way to get to Penrith from Oxford - Virgin is offering me £88.45 for a first class ticket, with Senior Railcard. I sent a message, but who knows where it went. Si I an trying again

I am trying really hard ( a full hour already) to get to the right forum place to get help with this one, but I need help even to get to the right site.

As a first time user, I would welcome any advice. I may be in my sixties but want to do this right!
Like, how do you get back to a thread you have found? I seem never to get back to where I want.
Many thanks

Billy-no-Money

Rangers
These get a mention, but only brief. There are some real bargains out there if you can find the anomalies.

For example the northern boundary of the West Midlands Day Ranger is, surprisingly, Crewe.

This means that you can get a day's travel across a large area for £15.40, when a return ticket to a single destination (e.g. Crewe-Hinckley) is £30!!
The only downside is it's off-peak only (all day weekends) and doesn't cover Virgin Trains (but does cover Cross Country).

There are Rangers for other conurbations such as Manchester, worth looking into if you're ok with getting off the train at the boundary.

Preston-area to/through Birmingham
For anybody in the North-West around Preston, cheap fares via Birmingham available through Virgin appear to have dried up - probably because Cross-Country no longer serves Preston.

Instead, consider going via Manchester as Arriva Cross-Country does serve the city - but use the www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk site. I've managed to find a Bristol-Manchester return for £37, (outward £16, return £21), to which you'd need to add a tenner for the leg to Manchester, total £47.

(The Duo ticket makes for a further saving on the Manchester leg for a couple, or you could set off from Chorley and use a Day Ranger which only costs £3.80!!)

The equivalent direct fare starts at £68.40.

For some reason it doesn't work if I ask for Bristol-Preston via Manchester, so you might need to buy the Preston-Manchester ticket separately.

Hope this helps

yorkie2

Billy-no-Money wrote: »

Instead, consider going via Manchester as Arriva Cross-Country does serve the city - but use the www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk site. I've managed to find a Bristol-Manchester return for £37, (outward £16, return £21), to which you'd need to add a tenner for the leg to Manchester, total £47.

It doesn't matter which site you use (as long as you avoid thetrainline.com itself) as they all offer the same fares, but NXEC's site does make it easier to find the good deals, it uses a different system developed by Atos Origin which is better than thetrainline-powered sites that all other companies use.

https://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.co.uk

Billy-no-Money

Well, b****r my boots!

I've bee buying tickets for years now and never realised how much better that National Express site is - it's not just a bit better, it's streets ahead.

Thanks v much - I'd seen the posts about it but it didn't register until I went on there and entered some typical journeys I regularly make.



Regarding the Preston-area tip, I think it can still sometimes be cheaper to buy a ticket to Manchester (esp a Duo or Ranger) and combine it with a ticket from Manchester to the destination, it's just a bit more effort and takes longer.

hazseljord

Can someone tell me the cheapest way to get from glasgow to portsmouth be it by train, plane or coach. Looking to travel on wednesday this week 18th june give or take 5 days. and return 4 or five days later.

Your help would be mostly grateful.

Thanks in advance

veggie4life

Hi there!

Could anyone help me ? I'm a bit lost!I need to travel from london to norwich on the 4th July leaving at 07:30 and returning at 17:30. Does anyone know the cheapest fare for this route ?

janey70

can anyone tell me if they can get a cheaper price for 3 adult train fares from nottingham to blackpool south leaving 4th july after 11am and returning 6th july around 1pm im getting £140.70 for all of us everywhere singles are more expensive before anyone suggests but are welcome to try can anyone try splitting for me i get to confused any help would be brill thanks x