The Ticket Collector

Just how do you get those ‘Cheap’ Fares?

We keep hearing on the media that Rail Travel is a rip-off and its cheaper to Fly, use the car blah blah. Well if you think about it the papers are more often right in some aspects but are bloody wrong in other ways.

It all comes down to how far in advance you want to travel. If you want to travel in say an hour then your screwed and must fork out for the most expensive ‘walk up’ fare. However did you know you were traveling in an hour 2 weeks ago?

Lets take a Return Journey from London to Newcastle standard class.

Now you have loads of different ticket options according to the Electronic National Fares Manual:
You could go just GNER, or you could go Virgin Trains only or if your feeling indifferent you could use both operators.

The Standard Any Trains ‘walk up’ fares are as follows:
Newcastle - London
Standard Open Return £224.00
Ah but this where the fun comes in, did you know that you can buy two seperate tickets for the same journey and as long as the train stops at that station where your two tickets finish/start?
Example:
Saver Return Newcastle to Peterborough £76.90
Standard Open Return Peterborough to London £33.50
Total £144.90

A Saving of just over £79, and its completly allowed as long as the Train your traveling on stops at Peterborough.

Booking in Advance

This is where the best savings start, but the catch is you have to book in advance and pray that you can get the cheap fare. Also you must stick to the trains your tickets say, or the ticket collector on the train will decide to charge you that full £224.00.
The Cheapest GNER advance ticket is £10.00 single, but to get this ticket you would need to book around 4 weeks in advance.
The Cheapest Virgin advance ticket is also £10.00 single, but to get this ticket you would need to book around 12 weeks in advance.

The further in advance you can book your tickets the better discounts and cheap tickets you can get, failing that you can always split the tickets as above.

Theticketcollector.co.uk can work out the cheapest route for you for a small nominal fee which goes towards the site running, click on the Route Planning link above, on our next site update.