The aim of this web page is to teach anyone who wants to learn how to get cheap prices on their train travel. While most people know that booking early tickets help, few know that there are cases where booking three or even four tickets instead of one can reduce your fares by 25% or more.
This document does not currently cover the specific technqiues for getting cheap travel around London and the south east. That is a topic worthy of a book not a web page, but some of the suggestions still apply.
In theory train fares ought to reflect the distance travelled, as well as demand. In practice they often exploit people who want to travel through busy stations or into London. In a free market new competitors would spring up offering cheaper fares but it is hard for a new company to enter the market and in many cases there is not enough network capacity. To be more accurate there is probably capacity but they can't, or don't want to figure it out.
Train operators price tickets to encourage travel on off-peak trains. They also price both directly and indirectly to discourage cheap travel via busy routes. The range of tickets varies by company but there are some real bargains to be had.
Train passengers generally make several wrong assumptions. If you catch a train that is in the peak period then most passengers will buy a single ticket for the length of the journey. In many cases most of the journey occurs outside of the peak period and it is therefore cheaper to book a cheap ticket or two for much of the trip and a pricier ticket only for the peak period part of the journey.
Another common assumption is that if cheap tickets are not available for a journey then there are no alternatives. In fact the cheap seats are often available for most of the journey and it is cheaper to book several tickets or travel a less busy route.
Finally people assume the timetable and fare computer system is set up to help them. It isn't. It, and the station staff who rely on it, will regularly offer bad value even on basic routes.
Sheffield to Birmingham is a fairly routine journey, a single train with no changes required. You might think that the station staff and the computers would be able to get you the best prices. In fact the truth is quite different.
For the example I picked Tuesday 18th April 2006. It's the next non holiday date to the date the article is being written and to travel at 2:30pm because that is the current time. On this arrangement the national rail web site cheapest fair offer is a standard open single at £23.50. There are cheaper value fares for early booking but they have gone. On the other hand if I ask for fares between the main points on the route I find that Sheffield to Derby is £8.40 on a cheap day single, and Derby to Birmingham is £9.30 on a cheap day single. You can't buy a cheap day single from Sheffield to Birmingham, but you can sit on the same train with two sets of tickets for a total of £17.70, a saving of £5.80. (Sorry to anyone holding a railcard for that route who is now feeling very very angry indeed).
The scale of the mess is even more obvious when you look at the standard open single prices. It is cheaper to book the two standard open single tickets than the one ticket. Here is an even more shocking example.
Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury: £15.90, standard day single (no cheapday available). Aberystwyth to Telford, £13.00. This should strike anyone with a vague knowledge of geography as slightly peculiar because Telford is after Shrewsbury on the same train. Hopefully this convinces you that the train operating companies are not playing fair and that their pricing is systematically designed to rip you off.
Another way to get prices down is to pick alternate routes to the obvious ones. If you are booking well in advance try and pick a route that is partly Virgin Trains and look out for the £10 early booking fares. Prices are also often lower on minor routes that are heavily government supported, and which your custom will conveniently also help keep open. Many of these routes take a little longer but have rather nice scenery.
One example is getting from Swansea to Shrewsbury and then via Birmingham. If you are not in a rush then you can travel Swansea to Shrewsbury for £17.50 instead of £27.80 by travelling via the rather beautiful Heart of Wales route. If, like me, you work on the train then for an extra hour working in glorious scenery you save a tenner. Combining the Virgin early offer with this technique I've travelled Swansea to Sheffield for £27.50.
In the midlands there are several routes to London, the fastest and obvious route (New Street to Euston) is usually a good deal more pricy than Snow Hill to Marleybone.
These can offer some real bargains. If you don't mind a coach trip in the middle of your travels you can regularly score the best advance prices because many rail users avoid trains when there is disruption. £10 from Exeter St Davids to Swansea by train except for a comfortable coach from Bristol Parkway Station to Newport Station is one trip I've done this way.
Several rail companies offer group tickets for three or more people. These can save a lot of money as three or four can travel for the price of two. Generally they are only valid where cheap day returns are available, but by booking multiple tickets you can get quite a way. In addition you can mix these tickets with other tickets as discussed earlier to get the best deals. For larger groups (eg ten or more) always phone the train company and ask about group travel. There are some real bargains but again expect the train company not to suggest multiple tickets and other tricks that save money.
London has a woeful shortage of rail capacity and a large number of business users. The rail companies love it and the prices they charge are obscene. There are some reasonable prices to be found when travelling out of peak hours (and remember the advice about multiple tickets for this). In peak hours then anything closer to London than Swindon is probably best done on the bus.
If you find the site useful please tell your friends. I'd also like to hear from people who find interesting rail rip offs and ways to avoid them. I can be reached as alan -at- lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk.
Finally the train operators are mostly subsidized and they and network rail should have to answer to government, so if you don't like what is happening then do let your MP know just what is going on.
This document is copyright Alan Cox 2006. The information within it has been checked but may contain errors. You rely upon it at your own risk. You may copy this document and redistribute it non-commercially providing it remains unchanged and this statement remains intact. If you have suggestions for improvements or wish to publish it commercially please contact the author. If you wish to link directly to this document feel free to do so.
I have no direct interests in the companies mentioned, nor are any mentions of these companies in any way an endorsement of them. My goal is simply to document how to avoid being ripped off by the railway companies. I live in hope that people will write software and other tools that have everyone walking into the station buying long series of tickets so that the companies are forced to abandon this scam.