Cheaper Train Tickets

Ten Ways To Reduce The Cost Of Train Travel .

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Train fares have been on the rise for some time, but there are savings to be made if you know how to find the cheapest price for your journey. Try our ten ways of obtaining cheap rail travel.

  1. Get a rail-card. Rail-cards cost £24 and provide the holder with a 34% discount on 'advance', 'off-peak' or 'anytime' fares. They are available to:
  2. Buy Online. There are a plethora of sites offering discount tickets. The best ones to go to are the train operators themselves, as they don't charge a booking fee. However, it may be worth while taking a look on sites like The Trainline and Raileasy, but bear in mind that they often charge both a booking fee, and fees for using a credit card.
  3. Buy Tickets In Advance. The most expensive way to travel by train, is to turn up at the station and buy your ticket there and then. You need to be buying your ticket well in advance in order to make savings. Don't fret too much if you haven't booked your ticket 3 months in advance, as significant savings can still be made the night before you travel. Train operators oficially stop taking 'advance bookings' at 18:59 the night before, so it's best to book before then.
  4. Single Or Return? Strangely, it's not always cheapest to buy a return ticket for a return journey. Sometimes buying two singles is cheaper. Also, sometimes a return ticket can be cheaper than a single. Sometimes this pricing system just doesn't make sense, so test and adjust until you find the cheapest way - this is easy when buying your ticket online.
  5. Get Your Own Back For Delays. It's a little known fact that if your train is delayed by more than an hour past its advertised time, you are entitled to compensation in the form of vouchers, worth at least 20% of what you paid for your ticket.
  6. Phone For Free. 'Local Call' numbers are great when you're calling from a landline, but that doesn't happen very often in today's world. The number to contact National Rail Enquiries is 08457 48 49 50, which can cost an arm and a leg when called from a mobile. We used the site www.saynoto0870.com to get hold of their landline equivalent: 0121 6342 040, which if you have free minutes on your mobile is free to call.
  7. Avoid Peak Times/Prices. If you're buying a return ticket, and only one leg of that journey falls into peak time, your ticket will be priced as though you were making both trips in the peak period. It therefore makes sense, in this situation, to buy two single tickets. Only pay for peak travel when you absolutely must!
  8. Keep An Eye Out For Special Offers. Check the National Rail Enquiries site to see what special offers are currently active for the route you're planning to travel. It is not uncommon to find tickets for as cheap as £1.
  9. Break Up Your Journey. But only in theory! This little trick will allow you to cut the cost of travel by breaking your journey down into sections. You don't need to leave the train for this, but it is perfectly legal to buy tickets to cover you between each station on a journey - which often works out to be cheaper.
    • Find out the cost of your planned journey,
    • Find out where your train is stopping on its way to your destination,
    • Break the journey down into sections,
    • Get a price for travel between each of the sections and add them up,
    • Compare the cost of the planned journey with the cost of making the journey in sections.
    • 9 times out of 10, splitting the journey into sections will be much cheaper. As mentioned earlier, this is completely legal, and once on the train, you don't even have to leave your seat. Remember to smile when you hand the ticket inspector your ticket!
  10. Travelling To France? It happens more often than not when travelling on the Eurostar. Return tickets are often much cheaper than singles. As mentioned earlier, check the prices of both single and return tickets prior to making a booking. You never know... You might save a fortune!
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