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Cheap London-Birmingham rail tickets


Yaffa

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Chiltern Railways have just released 50,000 tickets between London (Marylebone Station) and Birmingham (Moor St) for travel up to 17th May, via an Evening Standard offer. There are currently many tickets available at peak travel times.

More details at:

http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/eveningstandard50offer

If you're travelling further afield, you might want to combine this with other train offers - there's a good (but not complete) list on the moneysavingexpert.com site:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-coach-train-ticket-deals

 

No connection to any of the above. Just passing on the information.

Yaffa

 

[edited to correct typo]

Edited by Yaffa
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  • 10 months later...

The Evening Standard has another one of its 50 p fares for London-Birmingham and back offers on Chiltern Trains on at the moment: http://www.standard.co.uk/esrewards/london-to-birmingham-return-for-50p-9166349.html

Valid until early April - I've no idea whether it coincides with any BRB performances or anything else.

 

As ever, I've no connections with either the Standard or Chiltern.

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  • 1 month later...

And now, Virgin Trains (West Coast Mainline, so London-Birmingham/Manchester/Scotland etc.) has a seat sale on for travel between 14th May and 21st June, but it finishes today, so you'll need to be quick. http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/sale/buy-me/

 

I think this covers BRB's summer season at the Birmingham Hippodrome, among other things, so I'm going to take a look.

 

As usual, I don't have any connection with Virgin.

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  • 1 month later...

The Evening Standard apparently has an offer of day returns London-Birmingham for £19.66 instead of £28 and something.  I doubt it'll be any use for BRB performances, but perhaps there's something else going on in Birmingham ...  Or might be useful for any Brum-based visitors coming to London, of course.

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  • 2 months later...

The Evening Standard has another one of its 50 p fares for London-Birmingham and back offers on Chiltern Trains on at the moment: http://www.standard.co.uk/esrewards/london-to-birmingham-return-for-50p-9166349.html

Valid until early April - I've no idea whether it coincides with any BRB performances or anything else.

 

As ever, I've no connections with either the Standard or Chiltern.

 

The Evening Standard is currently promoting Chiltern's £6 London-Birmingham fares, although I'm not sure whether this is actually a special offer.  It's good value if you don't mind committing to a specific train, but my limited experience suggests that you might want to avoid coming back from Birmingham in the evening rush-hour :( (for that matter, I've usually managed to get a £6-£7.50 ticket between the same cities for around that time with Virgin on the West Coast Mainline)

 

(PS: I've no connection with Virgin, either :))

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For Virgin routes, I always first check Megabus/Megatrain, which offers changeable (for just a £1 fee) tickets on exactly the same Virgin etc. trains for a fraction of the cost (but with limited inventory and times). From my post about this in another thread:

 

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets can be a good starting place for tricky train journeys, with pros and cons and many special offers of different networks, alternative routes etc. But not everything of relevance to ballet travel is spelled out. For example, ballet uncertainties (audition outcomes, cast changes etc.) can make it risky to buy most cheap advance tickets, which also usually have high penalties for changing and can't technically be transferred or sold. But Megabus/Megatrain (http://www.megabus.com) offer a limited number of tickets for Virgin, Southwest, East Midlands etc. trains and routes at a fraction of the regular cost - and they are also fully changeable for just a £1 fee! You do need to read the Megatrain terms of service carefully, and it only offers a 6 week booking window and a small number of routes and times (You can see a slightly out of date map of its train routes at: http://images.moneysavingexpert.com/images/megamap.gif?_ga=1.106902723.11961899.1409079758 ).  But its Birmingham to London route, for example, can be great for auditions and for partial journeys between London and the North. Another Megatrain route for ballet folks in Manchester: the 11 p.m. Virgin train from London to Stockport, Macclesfield and Manchester Piccadilly, currently offered on many Mondays to Thursdays for £1 and £5. Unfortunately this route is just one way and does mean arriving at around 2 a.m. - but could be useful for people who want to return affordably from an evening performance in London.

 

NB: The Megatrain/Megabus site combines bus and train searches, with ultra-cheap buses not just in England but also to Europe - I've travelled for £1/£5 for the Paris Opera Ballet School Demonstrations

 

Yaffa (with no ties to any of the above resources - just passing on some of the info I've been collating)

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Really?  The odd times I've bothered trying Megatrain for tickets to Birmingham, they've always done silly things like offering Birmingham International only :(

 

Both Birmingham and Birmingham International are on Megatrain's routes. But not finding what you need is very common: Stagecoach, which runs Megatrain/Megabus, is a partner/owner of Virgin, South West and East Midlands, and is essentially running a separate 'bargain basement' to get rid of particular tickets. So inventory, routes and times are extremely limited  and there's  only a 6 week window for booking. My own use of Megatrain:

 

It is usually the first site I search, even when I'm not sure whether I'll be travelling. This because prices are discounted so heavily and the conditions of sale are different from the main ticket sellers e.g. exchanges allowed until 24 hours before the journey for just £1, and no specific peak/off peak rate difference.

 

I sometimes buy two or more tickets for the same day. (Ticket prices on Megatrain usually (but not always) rise as the travel date approaches and sometimes sell out.) When my travel plans are clearer, I select the one I want and change the other for a different journey.

 

Even if I don't see the exact journey I need, it is often still worthwhile to use a  Megatrain ticket for part of my journey and a separate one for the rest - sometimes even staying on the same train. (NB: With Megatrain, you're not allowed to get off early or break your journey.)

 

I forgot to mention that there's a 50p booking fee (that's per booking, not per ticket). Also resale of Megatrain/Megabus tickets is forbidden.  

.

Yaffa

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Virgin now also has a particularly good offer with trains between London and

Birmingham £4 one way

Liverpool £10 one way

Manchester £10 one way, and

Glasgow £14 one way.

You need to book by 3rd March for seats between 18th March and 20th May. at https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/ Right now there seems to be good availability.

 

There are also a lot of other very good deals on accommodation e.g. until 4th March, Easy Hotels are offering some Croydon rooms for £15 and central London for £24. Those are going fast.

 

No connection to either of the above, just hurriedly passing on info, will send some more later.

 

[edited for clarity and to add Liverpool]

Edited by Yaffa
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