Last week we took a look at ways to cut costs on your commute. In the second instalment in this two part series, this week I’m unearthing a few more sneaky tips for cheap rail travel.
As I’m writing this, if I wanted to get to Edinburgh from my home town of Southampton, it would cost me less to fly than it would to catch the train. It’s a sad state of affairs when the environmentally-friendly train is trumped on price by a fuel-guzzling short haul flight. It’s also pretty odd that a flight which would take me 90 minutes works out cheaper than a train journey that would take me 441.
If you buy on the day, train ticket prices can be prohibitively expensive. However with a little bit of planning and a few simple tricks, you can take to the rails for a fraction of the price.
1. Get a rail card
An obvious tip, but a useful one nonetheless. Are you eligible for these cards?
| Railcard | How much? | Who can get it? | What’s the benefit? | What’s the catch? |
| 16-25 | £28/year
£65/3 years |
People aged between 16-25 or full time mature students
|
1/3 off rail travel after 10am | If you’re travelling before 10am on weekday mornings you’ll need to pay a minimum fare. |
| Family & Friends | £28/year
£65/3 years
|
Families with children aged 5-15 | 1/3 off adult fares and 60% off kids’ fares for up to 4 adults and 4 children | Adults will need to travel with at least one child aged 5-15. You won’t be able to use the card before 10am. |
| Senior | £28/year
£65/3 years
|
People aged 60 or over | 1/3 off rail travel | Discounts aren’t available before 10am on journeys within the London and South East Network Railcard area on weekdays. |
| Disabled Persons | £20/year | People who receive disability-related benefits, are registered as deaf or use a hearing aid, are registered as visually impaired or have epilepsy | 1/3 off travel for you and a companion | None. That I can find. Can you? |
| Network Rail Card | £28/year | People who live and/or travel in the South East | 1/3 off adult rail fares for the card holder and up to 3 other adults in the Network Railcard area | You’ll need to pay a minimum fare if travelling before 10am on weekdays. |
| HM Forces Railcard | £15/year | Members of the Regular Forces and their spouses | 1/3 off most rail fares | You guessed it- you’ll need to pay a minimum fare if you’re travelling before 10am on weekdays. |
| Regional Railcards | For special discounts in your region, take a look at the range of regional rail cards available in your local area. | |||
2. Check your travel operator’s promotions
Rail operators occasionally run special offers and discounts. National Rail Enquiries have helpfully made a list of links to all of the train operators’ promotion pages, so be sure to check them out. It’s also worth looking for one off deals and discounts on the major voucher sites, such as MyVoucherCodes and VoucherCodes.com.
3. Book up early
And by early I mean 12 weeks early. Train timetables get confirmed 12 weeks in advance. Once the timetables have been confirmed, the advanced train tickets go on sale. As I’m writing, Virgin Trains are currently offering advanced fares on its Birmingham to London route from just £7.50.
Advanced tickets are sold in limited supplies, so if you know when you’ll be travelling it’s best to book up early. Usefully TheTrainLine.com has a ticket alert system to let you know when advanced tickets for your route go on sale. Cross Country trains and East Coast Rail also run similar services.
If you didn’t get in there early, not to worry. Some advanced fares are still available up to 6pm the night before you travel, so it’s still worth checking for cheaper deals.
4. And for mega savings…
If you can be flexible with your travel times, take a look at Mega Train. Mega Train take advantage of extra capacity on trains travelling at unpopular times of the day. Tickets start as low as £1.50, and their range of destinations is pretty extensive.
5. Split your tickets
For some journeys, it is cheaper to buy two singles than it is to buy a return ticket. At the bare minimum, check to see if this is the case with your journey.
But splitting tickets can be even sneakier and more cost effective than that. Imagine I’m getting a train from London Paddington to Swansea. If I buy it on the day, an anytime single ticket for this journey will cost £121.
London Paddington – Swansea (anytime single ticket) = £121
However, if I split my journey into two stages and buy two tickets (rather than just one) to cover that journey…
London Paddington – Cardiff Central (anytime single ticket) = £99.50
Cardiff Central – Swansea (anytime single ticket) = £9.30
Total = £108.80 (saving £12.20)
Just because I’m making the trip with two tickets rather than one, doesn’t mean that I need to get off at my ‘middle station’ (in this case Cardiff Central). To stay on the right side of the law, I’ll just need make sure that my train stops at Cardiff Central, and doesn’t simply pass through through. Ticket splitting can work out cheaper because different train operators fix different prices for their part of the rail network. If your train is travelling through different rail operators’ territories, the lead operator will often fix a higher fee than that of the individual regional operators combined.
Splitting tickets to make the most of off-peak train fares
Here’s the clever part. On-peak fares run before 10am in the morning and then from 5pm-7pm in the evening. On-peak or anytime travel tickets cost more than off-peak, but if you split your tickets cleverly, you can make the most of off-peak fares even if your journey starts during on-peak hours.
I’m back on my way from London Paddington to Swansea again. Normally this would cost me £121.
London Paddington – Swansea (anytime single ticket) = £121
I’m leaving on the 6.45pm train, so I am travelling during on-peak hours. This means I’ll need a pricier ticket to travel. It takes 24 minutes to get from London Paddington to the first stop on the journey- Reading. This means it is 7.09pm by the time I get to Reading, so for the rest of the journey, I’ll be travelling during off-peak hours.
London Paddington – Reading (anytime single ticket) = £20.60
Reading – Swansea (off peak single ticket) = £36
Total = £56.60 (saving £64.40)
Split Your Tickets is a site which aims to make splitting your tickets much easier. However I have to say that it’s pretty poor at returning any useful results. I’d recommend identifying the station stops on your journey, then spending a few minutes of trial and error on East Coast rail to find the cheapest combination of tickets.
How do you save on your train fares?
{Image: Train Chartering & Private Rail Cars}
