Cheap Train Fares guide discussion

certainlynot · 22 October 2012 at 3:05PM

Did as you suggested lawnet and phoned Durham train station , instead of paying £96 , got very similar tickets for £42 , only diff being the return journey is 1 hour later than the £96 one .

Thx for the info .

Tom_higg · 22 October 2012 at 4:30PM

Thanks for the above advice, can i just confirm the following

I am going from Skipton to Manchester with a rail card, however will be arriving at peak time. Normal Price £21.20

The relevant routing points are: Leeds, Huddersfield, and Stalybridge.

A return from Skipton to Stalybridge is £14.60,

Then as Guide bridge is in the Manchester Stations group a £2.35 return will be valid from Stalybridgde> Manchester> Guide Bridge but the last link will never happen.

Thanks for the explanations above guys

thelawnet · 22 October 2012 at 6:37PM

There is an easement permitting this:

http://www.atoc.org/clientfiles/File/easements.pdf

Customers travelling from Guide Bridge to Stalybridge and beyond may
double back via Manchester Piccadilly. This easement applies in both
directions.

Actually you can go via Bradford and Hebden Bridge also.

You can try a Skipton - Hebden Bridge ticket, plus Hebden Bridge - Manchester.

CarysOx · 13 November 2012 at 11:09AM

I'm travelling from Birmingham to Exeter before Christmas and have worked out it will cost me £8 less to buy singles from Birmingham to Cheltenham to Bristol to Exeter, and using National Rail to match up the times of the tickets with the calling points. It looks like I can even select my seat on the Cross Country website to make sure I have the same seat all the way down :T
Can anyone think of any problems I may not have thought of though? Am I breaking any T&Cs of travel by doing this?

p00hsticks · 13 November 2012 at 1:20PM

CarysOx wrote: »

Can anyone think of any problems I may not have thought of though? Am I breaking any T&Cs of travel by doing this?

Assuming that the train is actually scheduled to stop at the intermediate stations (Cheltenham and Bristol), then that's fine.

thelawnet · 13 November 2012 at 8:51PM

CarysOx wrote: »

I'm travelling from Birmingham to Exeter before Christmas and have worked out it will cost me £8 less to buy singles from Birmingham to Cheltenham to Bristol to Exeter, and using National Rail to match up the times of the tickets with the calling points. It looks like I can even select my seat on the Cross Country website to make sure I have the same seat all the way down :T
Can anyone think of any problems I may not have thought of though? Am I breaking any T&Cs of travel by doing this?

Are these Advance singles, or Day Singles, or a combination of both?

The day singles come to

Birmingham - Cheltenham £21.90
Cheltenham - Bristol £8.10
Bristol - Exeter £24.90

a total of £54.90, which is a good deal cheaper than the Birmingham - Exeter single, at £77.50

Note however that if you are doing any part of the return journey within the following month you will almost certainly want to buy return tickets.

Also you can further split Bristol - Exeter:

Bristol - Taunton £11.20
Taunton - Exeter £10.40

And you can do Birmingham - Bristol cheaper than the £30 you have found.

Birmingham - Bromsgrove is £5.30, and then Bromsgrove - Bristol £11.70

The 17:30 from Birmingham calls at Bromsgrove and then Cheltenham at 18:18, the 18:30 also calls Brosmgrove and then Cheltenham at 19:13; change for the 18:52 or 19:52 from Cheltenham to Exeter, which calls Bristol and Taunton so is valid.

So only two trains per day, but you could still use these tickets, on a circuitous route:

Birmingham - Worcester Foregate Street on the hourly Birmingham - Hereford train (which calls at Bromsgrove)
Worcester Foregate Street - Cheltenham Spa (First Great Western)
Cheltenham Spa - Exeter St Davids (the same Cross Country train).

Total cost £38.60 using Birmingham - Bromsgrove, Bromsgrove - Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Temple Meads - Taunton, Taunton - Exeter

redux · 14 November 2012 at 2:26PM

thelawnet wrote: »

Are these Advance singles, or Day Singles, or a combination of both?

The day singles come to
[...]

Total cost £38.60 using Birmingham - Bromsgrove, Bromsgrove - Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Temple Meads - Taunton, Taunton - Exeter

I think it might have been advance singles. £38.50 on Fri 21 or Sat 22. But that can be split into 3 x £7.50 to £9.50 advance legs, though I have not traced them all through like I suspect the OP has for about £30. But your split with ordinary singles at Bromsgrove might fit with £9.50 advance Bristol to Exeter for £26.50 overall. Easier to check all this on PC rather than my phone.

loyceyhaj · 25 November 2012 at 2:50PM

Hello everyone!

Sorry to be someone who is inevitably annoying, by signing up and my first post being something requiring help... But I'm really at a loss! I've read through page after page of this thread and looked along the lines of National Rail's Best Fare Finder, and the above links from thelawnet regarding trainscanbecheaper and so on, but am struggling to get anything remotely affordable for my train journey.

I'm looking for an adult ticket from Bath Spa (at a push, Bristol) to Clitheroe (again, may be able to travel to/from Skipton if it brings down the price) on the 21st December, returning on the 23rd. I know I've left it too late but we have been relying on finding out other people's Xmas arrangements before knowing what days we've been able to travel.

Have tried spitting tickets - I'm aware a Clitheroe-Manchester Stations return is less than £15 so tried it that way but it all seems to be racking up to serious prices!

Any helps/links/ideas would be greatly appreciated, am completely at a loss and today's the day I've decided to stop lurking around the MSE forums and actually join up!

thelawnet · 26 November 2012 at 2:38PM

A standard off-peak Bath - Clitheroe return is £91.30. This is a flexible ticket, so better than advances.

You can split
Bath - Cheltenham £21.20
Cheltenham - Wolverhampton £22.30
Wolverhampton - Manchester £28.80
Manchester - Clitheroe £14.20

Total = £86.50

A small saving.

Otherwise, you can try:

21st
Bath - Bristol train £6.60
Bristol - Manchester 12:30, arrive 18:00 by coach £12.50 single funfare (National Express book now; can alight at Stockport at 17:40 on this ticket)
Manchester - Clitheroe by train, £14.20 return

23rd
Clitheroe - Manchester - paid above
Manchester - Bristol, 10:15 £12.50, arr 16:00
Bristol - Bath coach £4.70 16:15

All told:

£12.50 * 2 singles Bristol - Manchester
£4.70 coach - Bristol - Bath * 1 single
£6.60 train Bath - Bristol * 1 single
£14.20 train Manchester - Clitheroe return

These coach fares will get booked up, so book the two 'funfares' now....

dggar · 26 November 2012 at 2:44PM

On the Bristol to Birmingham leg Cheltenham is usually the best slpit.

On the Birmingham to Manchester leg try a split at Stoke on Trent.

If going via Birmingham Derby Sheffield try splitting the journey to
Birminghan Derby and Derby Sheffield.

The trick is to know which sections of the full route have their fares set by which train operating company(TOC) and what restrictions each TOC apply to their part of the route.

(I must be going word blind, I read Clitheroe as Cleethorps---Ignore Birmingham Derby Sheffield)

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