British train travel has become ludicrously expensive, with some journeys costing as much as £1 per mile.
But you don’t always have to shell out vast sums on train tickets – if you know how to book tactically.
We’ve consulted experts, scoured rail operators’ websites, checked out all the quirks and hidden savings, and combed through all the fine print to work out how you can really pay less on Britain’s railways.
Hundreds of pounds are to be saved, with a bit of planning and shopping around.
And our snapshot check of the advantages of booking well in advance highlights huge reductions of as much as 80 per cent.
Meanwhile, other rail hacks can save as much as £300 on return tickets from London to Edinburgh.
Here’s our 15-point guide to how to be a savvy train traveller.
Sign up to alerts
To get the very best deals, Kevin Goodson and Jenny Keefe at Moneysavingexpert.com recommend signing up to price alerts via rail operators’ websites/apps – or via Thetrainline.com. To fix an alert on Trainline, you need to attempt to purchase a ticket beyond the current ‘ticket booking window’ for that route. Then, you’ll be offered a ‘set alert’ option. Alternatively, you can create an alert at individual rail operators’ websites – which may require registering with the rail operator using your email.
You don’t always have to shell out vast sums on train tickets – if you know how to book
8 to 12 week rule
Cheapest fares, especially for long distance routes, are usually 8-12 weeks before travel, when most rail operators release timetables, according to Goodson and Keefe. Some do it earlier. For example, London North Eastern Railway and Great Western Railway offer timetables 24 weeks in advance. To check exactly when to pounce – which is absolutely key if you want the best deals – see ‘Advance ticket booking window’ at Thetrainline.com. As a general rule: fares bought 8-12 weeks in advance are 75 per cent cheaper.
But never too far ahead
Watch out: if you book beyond the released timetable, it may cost you. Train guru Mark Smith of the Seat61.com warns: ‘Don’t fall into the trap! There are several weeks at the extremity of the booking horizon when expensive Anytime and Off-Peak fares go on sale but before cheap Advance fares go on sale. This ‘trap’ catches out many overseas visitors to the UK desperate to book train trips months ahead.’ This is why you need to check your intended rail operator’s exact release date for tickets.
Book direct
Fees on third-party websites are typically £1.50 a ticket – rising to £2.79. So it’s best to book direct with rail operators. ‘Beware Trainline’s booking fees,’ says Moneysavingexpert.com – which recommends using Trainline to check prices (but not actually book trains). The booking website Mytrainticket.co.uk also has small charges.
Or ‘Go Welsh’
Transport for Wales (TfW) is the main rail operator for Wales – and one of the quirks of its website (tfw.wales) is you can book all trains on it without a fee. This is available for all British trains, other than sleeper services. Smith of Seat61.com recommends this, saying: ‘There’s no need to find the “right” train operator website or to compare prices on different sites as [they are all on] tfw.wales.’ Or try redspottedhanky.com, which has a ‘no fees’ policy.
Two singles, not a return: Big savings
Two singles are almost always cheaper – even though you might expect return tickets to offer better value. For example, a London to Glasgow anytime return ticket can cost a whopping £393 on Avanti West Coast. But two single tickets for the same days came to £81 – a massive saving of £312. Always check.
Split fare bargains
Trainline is one of the websites which offers split-fare deals as a way to save money
Buying two or more tickets for a single journey is often cheaper. This is ‘split-ticketing’ and is possible due to complicated pricing anomalies that can help you (legally) dodge ‘peak’ period fares. To check/book go to Trainsplit.com, which only charges a small fee if savings are found. Split ticket prices are also offered on Thetrainline.com, Raileasy.com and Mytrainpal.com – each has small fees too. Buying four tickets for a last-minute direct Plymouth-Birmingham journey on Trainsplit.com worked out at £73.94 when we checked – a saving of £26.26 (35 per cent off).
Try a ‘price predictor’ tool
Trainline has an excellent ‘Price Predictor’ for major routes that allows you to check how prices are likely to change over the days running up to the departure date. For example, a London to Liverpool fare was available when we checked for £43, but would rise to £48 six days after that, to £68 four days later, and finally to £76.30 on the day of travel. By knowing this, you can make an educated decision on whether you need to buy immediately or not.
Say ‘yes’ to newsletters
This is slightly different to signing up to alerts at rail operators’ websites. Instead, you click to accept latest news and general offers. It’s a great way of keeping your eye on the market, with half-price discounts and promotions.
Travel on Wednesdays at lunchtime
This could be one of the cheapest times of the week to travel, according to Seat61.com.
Railcards for (almost) all
Senior, young people, and friends-and-family railcards and lesser-known ‘Two Together Cards’ offer a third off fares
You may be surprised to discover you qualify for a ‘railcard’. Yes, there are senior, young peoples, and friends-and-family railcards, but lesser-known are ‘Two Together Cards’ offering a third off fares (£30 a year for a card covering two, twotogether-railcard.co.uk) when you travel with your companion. You do not have to be married to apply. Two friends/relations are eligible; the cards particularly suit sports fans travelling together, or those in weekend hiking/rambling groups. You can get more than one (different cards for travel with different friends).
London and the South East
If you live here and take the train regularly, or even occasionally, it will almost certainly pay to buy a Network Railcard for £30 for a year, offering 34 per cent off fares after 10am on Mondays to Fridays (minimum fare £13) and at weekends (network-railcard.co.uk). The area covered extends from Exeter and Plymouth to Kent, across London, up near Colchester in Essex and near Banbury in Oxfordshire. You can take up to three adults and four children aged 5-15 at the same discount. Train guru Mark Smith swears by his.
Check out special promos
National Rail is tasked with promoting British train travel and its website is a great place to check out ‘rover’ tickets – from one to seven days – that allow unlimited travel on certain lines (nationalrail.co.uk). For example, an Anglia Pass covering Norfolk is from £68.10 – which works out at less than a tenner a day.
Occasional traveller savings
If you travel a couple of days a week on a regular route, a ‘flexible season ticket’ covering eight day-return tickets in a 28-day period could work out nicely for you. Moneysupermarket.com recently found that on 97 per cent of routes savings were to be made (£500 a year for someone travelling two days a week between Milton Keynes and London, for example). See its ‘Cheapest way to commute’ page.
Don’t forget the Eurostar!
Sign up to Eurostar’s newsletter and be the first to hear about our latest offers – from £35 one-way from London St Pancras to Paris (eurostar.com/uk-en/newsletters). Eurostar’s tickets are released 6-8 months in advance: this is the prime time to book cheapest fares to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
* Tom Chesshyre is the author of five train travel books. His sixth, Slow Trains Around Britain: Notes from a 4,162-mile Adventure on 144 Rides, will be published next June (Summersdale).
