The Ticket Collector

The UK National Fares Manual Released!!!

Yes thats right people, we have gotten hold of the file which ATOC (Assocation of Train Operating Companies) would rather you not have.

“Advantix Traveller” is the codename for the programme, but it is actually the whole of the UK’s National Fare Manual in Electronic format.
It has every ticket price for every journey from one station to another. It also has a list of the fare add-ons such as PlusBus and TramLinks. It also has the pricing for all season tickets. The latter which is pretty hard to get.

Why phone up National Rail Enquries, get told the wrong information yet again, when youve got this nifty file which ATOC would rather you not have!

Download Now!
winrar (.rar format) 10MB
winzip (.zip format) 16MB

These guys need your help.

Theres a really great website out there which the owners of are requesting your help.

Traindelays.co.uk is a great site which users submit details of what trains have been delayed across the whole of the UK. All you do is sign up and then enter the details of what train you were on, and how long it was delayed. The delayed train then becomes public for all to see.

The site states this at the top of their page.
TrainDelays.co.uk is a free service with the sole aim of bringing commuters together, enabling them to submit delays online as they occur and then help them make the claims by emailing a claim form.

All you have to do is ‘Register’ with us to start using this service and then express your frustration with your rail operator by submitting a delay and making that claim. Don’t let them get away with a shoddy service, the only way to make a difference is to hit their profits!

They are also looking for some volunteers to help them, most if not all of the Railway Companies post delays on their websites and Traindelays.co.uk is looking for a ‘champion’ to check a railway companies website and submit the relevent delays on the traindelays website.

If you think you can do it contact Chris at info@traindelays.co.uk

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.

GNER This Weekend

Good Evening.

I apolgise for the lack of entries over the past few days, my normal blogger has been… err how can I put it… asked not to submit anymore controversal stories. GNER Guards from Hell was one of the entries posted by this person.

I was coming back Saturday from a destination up North and was amazed at how polite the Train Manager was, yes I got a free upgrade to First Class. I guess it prooves if you actually ask the TM before you get on, if you can sit in First, you more then likely will get a Yes.

The rest of the Train was completly full and as we left Newcastle all the Newcastle United fans, tanked up on booze, decided that they would go and piss off everyone through the Train. They eventully decided to take up residence in First Class singing all the way to Darlington. Now I doubt very much they would have paid the 20 quid upgrade.

The TM had a kinda spanish accent to him, which made him have a nice twang to his regular tannoy annoucements.