paulr

For random days out. For example Doncaster to London day return.

1. Trainline.........anywhere better.
2. Cheapest day, or are they all the same.
3. Parking at stations, any tips to cut costs
4. Book miles ahead, or leave it late?

thanks.

Turbo2

Live in a different country!

Honestly I have tried all your suggestions and never got a really good deal. Our local telly shows adverts for cheapo tickets to London, but I've never managed to find one, whether for travel today, tomorrow or in 6 months time. Consequently the cost of taking a family of four on a day-trip to London is exorbitant.

David Lock

Book in advance

Check out travel by coach instead

Stay at home!!

dl

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Megatrain (google it) has some great offers on certain routes - for example, return fare from London to Bournemouth was £12!

Ray T

http://splityourticket.co.uk/ give this a go

mgcvk

My wife goes Hull to Norwich quite often and it is usually cheaper to go the Doncaster Peterborough stretch first class! Usually booked on trainline.

Petem95

Booking in advance is easily the best option! I'm traveling from Leeds to London tomorrow, and I'm trying to decide between driving or train.

Currently it's looking like over £200 return on the train standard class (little in it between all the booking websites). I was in London a few weeks back and booked just under a week in advance and it was £140 return first class.

Geezer

We were in a similar situation last year, wanted to take the family to London, but didn'fancy driving in to the centre. However, no matter when you looked, the price was always outrageous, despite the claims of cheap travel.

In the end, we booked in to the Holiday Inn Express in Golders Green (£69 a night for 4 of us) and we could park in the tube station up the road for £1.50 a day!!!!!! (Finchley Central I think) and then it was about a 20 minute trip on the tube in to the centre.

So less than a tank of gas to get 4 of us there and back, cheap hotel and easy access to the centre.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but it was fine.

Geezer

XRS

Did a one-way trip from the South coast to Ashchurch for Tewkesbury (Powerstation) and I saved 50% by buying 3 separate tickets rather than for the whole journey on the same ticket. Also booked via the Trainline by phone as they don't charge a booking fee or postage (which they do if you book online).

astraboy

one of your friends got an annual ticket? (gold card) If they have, they are entitled to buy anything up to 18 network railcards, not for 25 quid like normal, but for 1 pound.

they entitle the holder 1/3 off all rail travel, across the entire south east for mine on all off peak travel.

Got a friend with a gold card? go pester them and dont give up until you get one
astraboy.

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Step 1. Buy two tickets

Step 2. When guard comes, everyone but one of you cram into the toilets

Step 3. You stand outside with two tickets

Step 4. Guard asks if there is anyone in the toilets

Step 5. You offer your ticket and your mates

Step 6. everyone piles out once guard is gone

Repeat on return journey

P1Fanatic

I use the network rail card. Even at £25 a year - one trip from Reading into London with travelcard for the tube is £12ish and you can buy for up to 4 friends. So for me and the mrs thats £13 saved per trip. Go twice and youve already broken even.

Simon

Devildog

1 ) Yes many of the rail companies own websites won't charge a booking fee

2) Pretty much all the same these days.

3) Check the price of other local parking?

4) Book miles ahead, big savings to be had

Also, have a look at splitting the Journey - doesn't mean changing trains, just look for a station on thr route and chose that. I did Glasgow to Manchester return recently. Booking Glasgow to Preston via Virgin website and Preston to Manchester via Scotrail website, in advance, resulted in a total return price of £87, first class. Doing the whole journey, on the same trains, but booking the whole lot as one trip was almost double the cost.

scoobyster

Yep as above book up to 3 months ahead to get the cheap 'Advance' tickets, but beware this means you have to get the exact train time booked and they're pretty strict on it these days.

I find www.eastcoast.co.uk to be the best site for finding the cheap tickets, especially if you're flexible about what time you go. Don't forget to check 1st class as it's often only a bit more and sometimes even cheaper. I think it's simply a case of they sell the cheapest (A) advanced tickets until they sell out, then the next cheapest (B) and so on, so sometimes they sell out of the cheap 2nd class before the cheap 1st class. I'm not aware of them ever getting cheaper at a later date the way you get with the budget airlines sometimes. The websites are all more or less the same price, though you sometimes make a small saving by buying from the operator's own site, eg. East Coast do 10% off, East Midlands is usually a quid or so cheaper from their own website, etc.

paulr

Cheers for the advice. Got a return Doncaster to London £35 in August. Could have saved £3 by going to the rail companies own website, but stuck with trainline for ease of buying.

Petem95

The credit card fees vary a lot tho! I went Leeds to London and back on the train today, and the credit card fee was just under £10!! (on a £206 ticket) - that was Raileasy.com so I'd compare others as I'm sure trainline.com is less.

paulr

I paid by debit card, not CC to save £3.50.