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Train Fares


swanprincess

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Sorry if this is a really silly question, but I'm a bit confused.

Basically, I've booked to go to a masterclass in London in July. Last week, I travelled to London on the train having booked the tickets a week in advance; it cost £16. I thought I should book the tickets to get to London in July as soon as possible, to avoid the ticket price increasing closer to the date. However (the exact same journey that last week cost £16) in July will cost £45. Do i wait until a few weeks before the masterclass, and see if the train tickets drop in price, or is that not going to happen???

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I have a railcard, so can usually get to London for less than £20... I just find it peculiar how the same journey a month, week or even day earlier is about £30 less! Do you know what website is best for cheap tickets? I was just using the Trainline app so maybe there's something better that I've not yet discovered!!

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Hi, SP. This will depend, for a start, on the train operating company you're using and your time and day of travel, not to mention your route. (For example, I've managed to get £6 singles to and from Birmingham with Virgin by specifying a particular train. At those sort of prices, it's worth booking yourself on two trains just in case you miss one!) What I *do* know is that there is a specified time x weeks/months before travel date on which cheap tickets go on sale, and it may be too early yet for you to get them.

 

I suspect seat61.com might be a good place to look for information on this sort of thing: I believe they cover national rail as well as rail travel on the continent. But if you need more help, send me a PM and I'll ask the Oracle, aka my brother. Alternatively, perhaps Yaffa will spot this and post: she seems to be extremely savvy about this sort of thing.

 

One thing *is* certain, though: once you start getting near to the date of travel, prices definitely start to rise. For example, those £6 tickets I mentioned might rise to £7.50, and then to £9, and then to £15 ...

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Tell you what, try running the search for prices a week earlier, then if necessary a week earlier than that, and repeat until you spot cheaper prices. That will give you an idea of how far in advance the cheap tickets go on sale.

 

I usually use the nationalrail.co.uk website, or you could try redspottedhanky. I'm not sure how much difference there is between all of them, to be honest.

 

Of course, sometimes there are major sports or business events which cause companies to bump the prices.

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I find trains confusing full stop. During term time DD can catch a direct train to a town an hours drive from us so I can pick her up and save her the multiple train changes to get to our local station but come half term or the end of term and the £12 fare is suddenly £35-both on advance tickets or even more on the day and the last 2 holidays the direct train has suddenly disappeared off the timetable a few weeks before, giving her an extra change or worse still a bus journey replacing a leg of the journey. Since you are not travelling til July I would be inclined to sit tight and keep an eye on prices for a while. Unless a major event means there is strong demand on the day you wish to travel, I imagine prices will come down.

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The cheap tickets go on sale 12 weeks before the date of travel.

 

If you need to travel before 9:30 (or sometimes later with Virgin Trains!) it is much harder to get a cheaper ticket for the outward journey.

 

When I wanted to see a specific cast of Manon last October it worked out cheaper for me to see an evening performance and stay in a cheap hotel than to go down first thing in the morning for an early-starting midweek matinee.

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Some advanced tickets like the very cheap ones I use to get up to London......with a senior railcard as well.....you can only get from buying in person .....you cannot get them online.....or that is what I was told.

 

The cheapest "advanced" tickets have to be for a named train .....

that is a specified time of train....and you cannot travel up to or out of London in the rush hour. They are a sort of super off peak ticket.....this means not BEFORE 9.30 and not till AFTER 7pm on the return.

 

I always thought these type of advanced tickets were released six weeks before travel and it's a first come first served basis as for example to travel from Brighton to London there are so many released at £3-50 each way, then it goes to £4-50 then £5-70 then £6-30

After that you would be better off with a day return as that is £11- 50. The ordinary single fare is about £9 something now so these advanced fares are definitely worth it and especially if travelling up and back on different days. I think the ordinary month return from Brighton to London is £21 something now!!........so much better to get two £3-50 fares if you can!!

 

Ive just gone into that much detail as it's probably something similar from Birmingham although it's slightly different on inter city trains (Brighton to London is considered a suburban journey) and of course a different train company.

I think it's the inter city trains which release tickets 12 weeks in advance.

 

So if you are travelling towards the end of July they may not have been released yet.

If you can get to your nearest railway station it might be worth having a chat with them about any cheaper tickets available you cannot get online.

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On Thetrainline.com you can register to receive emails when the cheap tickets go on sale.  It does specify that the cheap tickets go on sale 12 weeks before It is a rolling 12 weeks so if you are going on a Monday booking will open on a Monday but if you are going on the Tuesday the tickets will not go on sale until the Tuesday.

 

I would then recommend booking with the train operating company direct as you then avoid the Trainline booking fees.

 

I estimate that tickets for 6th July will go on sale tomorrow (14th April).

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I always thought these type of advanced tickets were released six weeks before travel and it's a first come first served basis as for example to travel from Brighton to London there are so many released at £3-50 each way, then it goes to £4-50 then £5-70 then £6-30

After that you would be better off with a day return as that is £11- 50. The ordinary single fare is about £9 something now so these advanced fares are definitely worth it and especially if travelling up and back on different days. I think the ordinary month return from Brighton to London is £21 something now!!........so much better to get two £3-50 fares if you can!!

 

Lin, you've been up to London from Brighton on a day return recently, I presume?  Did I misread something?  Last September, I had a conference to go to and went for a Zone 3-Brighton all-day return and was shocked to pay something around £25-30 quid, but when I checked at the machines in Brighton station for the reverse journey it was nearly £50!  I'm assuming that was any anytime day return, but it was still obscene.

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Thankyou very much for the advice, great as always :D after considerable exploration of various train websites I realised that advance fares don't go on sale until 12 weeks before, so tomorrow- perhaps I should've read your comment before spending half an hour getting annoyed at the Trainline website, Janet :P

Thanks again!

Edited by swanprincess
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It's more expensive to travel from London to Brighton.

The single fare from London to Brighton was about £16 ....even with my rail card .....a couple of months ago because I missed my advance fare train.....very annoying

I was shocked at the difference.

The trouble is I get used to be a senior railcard holder so always get at least a third off

 

Also I'm nearly always travelling super off peak that is AFTER 10am out and AFTER 7pm back.

If you just turned up on the day and don't have a railcard then it's always horrendously expensive it seems with which ever train company you travel with!

Edited by LinMM
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To complicate matters further I think the off peak times must vary depending on location also. Our trains take 2 hours to London and peak fares are only those that arrive in London in peak time. You certainly do not need to wait til 9:30 for an off peak fare and returning from London we have no peak fares because both departure and arrival need to fall within the peak period for those fares to operate.

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And then of course there's the dreaded London Oystercard peak and non-peak times! Peak is (time you touch in) 6.30-9.30 am and 4 - 7 pm, which I always used to think was very unfair because I'd get clobbered for top rate every time I went into London for the theatre in the evening, despite the fact that i) I was travelling the "wrong" way and ii) we didn't get any better service for our troubles. I often used to try and touch in at 3.59 to get the lower rate! NOW, Boris has obviously decided that's unfair - not to mention having an adverse effect on the theatre and restaurant trade - so now, if you're travelling from the outer zones into Zone 1 during the evening peak it will cost you the off-peak fare, but as far as I know it's only for travel into Zone 1, so if you were only going from outer London to somewhere in Zone 2 I read it that you still have to pay the peak fare. Complicated!

 

And don't get me started on Boris having removed the off-peak cap, which has really played havoc with my social life. It now pretty much costs me a tenner every time to go into London!

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Normally advanced fares are attached to a particular train.... so even if you do get an an earlier one the ticket will not be valid.

This is one of the sometimes annoying things .....you've got the really cheap fare etc but if you arrive 30 mins early at the station you just have to hang around for your train.

 

If you have one of these tickets it has the time of the train you can use it on printed on the ticket.

There may be other advanced type fares which are cheaper but not tied to a particular train of course. The very cheapest ones will be though.

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If there are delays your restricted ticket is still only valid on the right train. E.g Your train is 3pm but there are delays of over an hour. You have to wait for the delayed 3pm train which actually leaves after 4pm not get on the delayed 2pm which actually leaves after 3pm!

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I have never ever found this on Southern fortunately.

 

Whenever there has been any mishap on the railways Ive always been allowed to get on the next train if it's after the time on the ticket.

 

If you miss the train then too bad but if the railways have the problem I must say have always found very accommodating

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You may be talking about inter city trains of course.

 

Most of my advance fare journeys are on Suburban lines(into London) where the trains are more frequent.

 

Intercity trains can be a problem because you have to reserve a seat usually so if it's delayed or cancelled then you won't be guaranteed a seat if on another train than the original one!

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Travelling home from London a couple of weeks ago our train was terminated at MK due to a fault.  The train we were able to get on was absolutely chokka and a lot of us had to stand as far as Crewe where we had to change again.  Not a pleasant experience.  However Virgin had arranged for us to travel with other train companies as appropriate at Crewe.

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We missed the recommended connection at Crewe and ended up on the Virgin train that left London an hour later than us - at least we managed to get seats.  As we were an hour late getting in, I filled in the form I was given and got vouchers to the value of the fare I had paid for the journey from London to Liverpool!  We stood for just over an hour - not pleasant on a speeding, wobbling train.

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I always dread this happening when I go down to Cornwall(relatives) there is always a bit of a tight connection at Reading and I dread missing the train Ive got seats reserved on and have to take pot luck with the next.

Nine times out of ten you could probably find a non booked seat......and I always check reservations as some people don't turn up for their journey or missed the train etc......but I remember once I was so glad I had booked and made the train ....already pretty full ....because we had to make an unscheduled stop to pick up some people somewhere round about Salisbury who had been turned off a broken down train and many of them were still standing when I got off at Liskeard! An awful long way!! There was some big event on in Cornwall that weekend which was why it was so crowded.

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