The train ticketing system is a farce. Ye
t learn how to play it with hidden tricks and you'll save a fortune.
This full step-by-step guide will show you how to slash the price with split tickets, buy at the right time, get early booking discounts last minute and much more.
In this guide
- Easy tricks including ...
- How to book early late
- Railcard discounts
- Pay in Tesco vouchers
- Hardcore tricks including ...
- Singles can beat returns
- Split-ticketing for serious savings
Quick links:
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Buy early, specifically 12 weeks early
Everyone knows book early and you can get cheaper fares, yet often these disappear quicker than empty seats on a commuter trip. Therefore to ensure a bargain, the key moment to start looking is about 12 weeks before.
This is because, contractually, Network Rail must have the timetable set 12 weeks in advance. Therefore train operators commonly, though not always, release cheap advance tickets shortly after.
It's sometimes not dead on 12 weeks though, often more like 10-11. To help, National Rail has a handy future travel chart, showing the latest date you can buy advance tickets for each train firm.
If you know when and where you want to go, there's a sneaky way to be first in the cheap tickets queue. The TheTrainline's* ticket alert system emails the moment cheap advance tickets for a specific journey come on sale (commonly the cheapest fares).
Get last-minute early booking discounts
Everyone knows advance train tickets are much cheaper, but many folks don't realise you can often buy advance tickets the night before or, occasionally, even on the way to the station. So the golden rule is:
Always check if advance tickets are still available, even if you're on the way to the station.
As proof of this, during one of my It Pays To Watch TV programmes, I was challenged to save a businessman who commutes to work by train most days as much money as I could. He usually only finds out his destination the day before, so just books at the station.
At 5pm I got him to call for a London-Sheffield train for the next morning. He'd have paid £147 on the day, but the night before, £64 advance tickets were still around. That was a stunning saving.
While ATOC's official policy is that advance tickets are only available up to 6pm the day before, a few train companies sell them even later.
Spend over £84/year? Consider a railcard
Railcards cut a third off the bill. Cards can be bought from the Railcard site and most are £28 per year or £65 for three years (works out at £21.66/year). So spend over £84 a year, even in just one trip, and it's cheaper.
Don't assume every journey is eligible for a railcard discount. Always check it out first, especially if travelling at peak times. The main cards:
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Season tickets for regular travellers
Urgent. Beat 6% train and Tube season ticket price hikes
On 2 Jan season ticket fares rise by an average 6%. Yet season tickets are charged at the price on the day of purchase, even if the ticket term extends into the higher charging period. So buy before 2 January and you still pay the 2011 rate. Do note your ticket (or the renewal date) must start on 1 January or earlier to benefit from the cheaper price.
That means those whose ticket expires in early January may be better off buying a new ticket on 1 January at the lower price, even if it means paying twice for a short period.
Do the maths to find out if it's worth it.
To see how much you'll pay, go to National Rail's Season Ticket Calculator and search for a season ticket to start on 1 Jan, then click 'back' and search for a ticket starting from 2 Jan.
How much you could save
On most season tickets, the rise is capped at an average of 6% (8% for West Yorkshire Metro). Yet rules let firms crank up some routes' costs by dropping others, so some passengers will see rises of 7.5%.
A year's Cambridge to London season ticket goes up from £4,000 to £4,240 (£240 hike), Newcastle to Leeds from £6,260 to £6,636 (£376) and Leeds to Bradford from £840 to £908 (£68).
This works for the Tube too
TFL travelcard season ticket prices for Londoners rise by an average of 6% on 2 Jan. An annual zone 1-3 travelcard jumps by £80 from £1,288 to £1,368. To check, compare TFL's 2011 and 2012 price charts.
Regular rail users and commuters should consider annual season tickets. National Rail's season ticket calculator is a nifty little tool to help you work out the cost.
Note that the same routes often have multiple season ticket options; check all of these, as it can make a real difference. A standard 12-month Bristol to London season ticket is £9,432. Yet if you restrict your travel to the Warminster and Salisbury route, it's £6,628.
If you're getting a season ticket on a heavy commuter route, check if there are any split ticket options. It can be possible to save with two season tickets covering different journey legs.
It's well worth noting that annual season ticket or travelcards for the South East Network Railcard Area give special perks. Holders these 'gold cards get a third off trips for them and up to four adults within the Network Railcard Area. They can also take up to four under-16s for £2 each.
How to grab the cheapest fares and book for less
There are more promotional train fares available than people realise. For the ultra-cheap deals you have to know where to look and be flexible.
For a regularly updated list of super-cheap train promos, vouchers, and codes, see the Cheap Train & Coach Deals index.
Also see National Rail for a full local promotions index, listing hundreds of regional special offers by train company. Offers change regularly and include everything from Kids for a Quid with Southeastern to first-class upgrades for Mums-to-be with National Express East Anglia.
For Virgin Trains travel, use the Virgin farefinder where you could find super-cheap London to Birmingham singles from £7.50. London to Manchester and London to Liverpool singles start at £11.50. While these cheapies are findable on rail booking sites, they are far easier to spot on Virgin's farefinder.
The top UK train booking sites
There are five main sites for searching out cheap train fares, as well as different types of search tool. Bizarrely, they sometimes list different tickets, so for a belt-and-braces check on a big fare, try a few.
| Booking fee | Credit card fee | Debit card fee | Free ticket postage | Advantages | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RedSpottedHanky* | No | No | No | Yes | Tesco points stashers can grab RedSpottedHanky tickets for a half of the price. Read more. |
| East Coast | No | No | No | No | East Coast sells all train companies' tickets. Search for a trip & click 'lowest fares' at the bottom for that day's best prices. |
| TheTrainline* | £1 per transaction | £3.50 | No | Yes | If you’re flexible, bash in your destination on its ‘Best Fare Finder’ and it’ll hunt the cheapest days and travel times. |
| Raileasy* | £1 on tickets over £10, £2 under £10 |
2.5% | 50p | No | Sometimes highlights hard-to-spot deals, eg, when first-class is cheaper than standard. Until 31 Dec 2012 it charges no card/booking fees via this specific link |
| National Rail | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | It doesn't sell tickets, but lists fares and has great depth of search. It links to train operators, most of which are fees-free. |
Double Tesco vouchers' value on rail fares
Spend Tesco Clubcard vouchers on goods in its Tesco Clubcard Rewards brochure and their value’s up to trebled or quadrupled, so a £10 voucher becomes £30 or £40.
One of the deals featured is train ticket shop RedSpottedHanky* . Swap a £10 voucher and it’s worth £20, which buys, say, a London-Birmingham advance return. It includes cheap advance fares, you can use your railcard, there are no booking fees and postage is free.
In our check, prices were similar to elsewhere, so this is a decent saving. To book, go to Tesco Rewards. The minimum order is £10 and vouchers are valid for six months.
Though before doubling on RedSpottedHanky, check Tesco's Rewards brochure, as it may allow you to quadruple vouchers' value; see our top 10 Tesco Rewards list.
More quick tricks and tips
As well as the tricks above, the following can also keep your spending off the buffers.
Cut National Rail Enquiries call costs
If you need to dial National Rail Enquiries, the official number is 0845 748 49 50. To call for less, dial 0121 634 2040, press '1' twice and you get to the same place. See SayNoTo0870 for a full guide.
Travel overnight to save on accommodation
Sleeper trains may sound like something from days gone by, yet travel overnight and you save on accommodation. If you're planning a trip to London from Scotland, check FirstScotRail's Bargain Berths section, where Caledonian Sleeper single fares start at £19.Get free first class in the dining car
Some longer journeys still have first class dining cars as well as the standard buffet. These are often open to all diners, whatever class their ticket is. So go in and order a meal. While it's more expensive, you effectively travel in first class luxury at second class price - and get some grub.
They do have the right to kick you back to where you belong, ie, second class, once you've finished eating, but it rarely happens.
Reclaim the cost after train delays
The rules state that if a train is late you can reclaim a full or partial refund. How late it needs to be to qualify depends on the journey, but as a rough rule of thumb, if you're over 30 minutes late then it's worth checking out. Ensure you keep your ticket and pick up a reclaim form from the station.
Hardcore tricks to beat the system
Now let's delve into the hidden timetable secrets. The sheer mass of journeys and rail companies, combined with the system's lack of logic, means there are lots of tricks to try. Yet there's no way to know whether it'll apply for your journey without checking.
Trick one. Singles can beat returns
Buying a return ticket should be cheaper than two singles. Yet logic and train fares go together like a kettle and a rabbit. Lots of top deals are only available on one-way fares. It's very common that cheaper fares are available for two single tickets but not the return, thus always check.
And just to make it more confusing, occasionally if you're only doing a one way trip, buying a return can be cheaper.
The web makes finding them easy. If you're using East Coast, RedSpottedHanky* etc, you'll be shown both single and return fares.
Save £251 on a Manchester to Lond rtn
As an example, a quick search for a seat on a Manchester to London train,
coming back the next day, brings up a standard anytime return ticket costing a whopping £279. A quick check
instantly found that for the same journey, an outbound advance (single) ticket was £17, returning also on an advance at £11.50, a total of £28.50.
Video Guide
Courtesy of Martin's It Pays To Watch, FIVE
Trick Two. Split your tickets, not your journey
This is the big trick everyone should know. Instead of buying tickets for the whole journey, buying tickets for its constituent parts separately can bizarrely slash the price – even though you're travelling on exactly the same train.
It's perfectly allowed within the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, and has been confirmed by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). The only rule is that the train must call at the stations you buy tickets for.
Save £195 on a Lon - Penzance rtn
To show how this works, we unearthed this cracking example. For a London to Penzance return, the cheapest ticket was an anytime day return at £239. Yet the train stopped in Plymouth, so instead we found four singles:
The total cost for those tickets is just £45, a saving of £195 and just to clear it up …
It's the same train at the same time, the difference is you've four tickets covering the journey rather than one.
Read a full step-by-step guide to finding split tickets
It normally takes five to ten minutes to check, but it's worth doing, especially for long journeys. Here's a step-by-step guide:
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Find the journey's cheapest standard price
First get the price for the standard journey; without this you won't know if you can save.
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Find out where the train stops
Use the National Rail journey planner. Just search for a journey, click the 'i' for info and then 'see calling points', to see where it stops.
Alternatively, if your journey involves changing trains, go to the East Coast site, click the train time, then the info button. It will reveal when and where the train stops; try splitting your ticket there.
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Check the options
Now pick a main station about halfway across the journey and get a price for separate tickets to and from there for each leg. If that doesn't work try another leg. If the train stops at many places then there's a huge combination of available tickets.
Obviously it's a balance of time versus money. You could split a journey's tickets into six or eight; it all depends on the amount of time you have.
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A final tip: if Megatrain covers part of your journey, you could bag a £1 ticket for part of the trip. Routes include London to Birmingham (read £1 Megatrain Fares for more).
| Route | Split tix at | Standard Fare | Split tix Cost | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Great Yarm – Manchester |
Nottingham |
£158.00 |
£42.00 |
£116 |
|
Doncaster – Southampton |
London |
£50.00 |
£20.00 |
£30.00 |
|
Leeds – Newcastle |
York |
£46.00 |
£31.00 |
£15.00 |
|
Birmingham – Basingstoke |
Banbury |
£85.00 |
£37.60 |
£47.40 |
|
Sheffield – Worcester |
Derby |
£74.00 |
£39.30 |
£34.70 |
|
Newcastle - Preston |
Carlisle |
£71.50 |
£46.90 |
£24.60 |
|
Norwich – Birmingham |
Peterborough |
£65.00 |
£42.40 |
£22.60 |
|
Manchester – Edinburgh Waverly |
York |
£150.00 |
£92.20 |
£54.80 |
|
Tiverton - London |
Pewsey |
£99.00 |
£55.00 |
£44.00 |
If you find a journey where split ticketing works, please report your split ticket success so others can benefit.
Watch out if you need to change trains
In the very rare event that you book specific tickets, your split ticket stop coincides with the place you change trains, and your first train runs late, your second ticket might not be valid for the next leg of the journey.
Eg, if you travel from Aford to Cshire via Btown and split your tickets at Btown, plus need to change trains there, if the Ashire to Btown train is late, your ticket may not be valid for the later Btown to Cshire train.
Free tool to find split ticket options
We are working on an automated Train Ticket Calculator to find split ticket deals. It's more difficult than it appears, requiring huge computing power and research mathematicians to devise the algorithms and a problem of manipulating live data.
Full details, when it's up and running, will be in the free weekly MoneySaving e-mail.
All split ticket updates will go in the free weekly email Get MoneySavingExpert's free, spam-free weekly email full of guides & loopholes
Trick three. Only pay peak for the bit that is
Train peak times are usually before 10am and between 5pm and 7pm. Yet if a long train journey's during peak time, even if a portion of it's outside peak time and you return outside peak time, you still pay peak ticket price for the whole return journey.
By following Trick Two above and split ticketing based on time as well as distance, you can ensure you're only paying peak prices for the portion of the journey that is peak.
How much can you save … £65 on a Taunton to London peak train return.
As an example, on testing a Taunton to London return train leaving just after 8am, the standard return fare was £199. Yet splitting the ticket at Reading so the final portion is off-peak, and buying an off-peak ticket for the way back, you can get the same journey for £90.
Trick four. Grab £1 Megatrain fares
A bit like a pound shop for train tickets, Megatrain flogs hundreds of singles from £1 for routes across England & Scotland (plus 50p booking fee). Fares from a quid include London - Liverpool, Carlisle - Birmingham, Southampton - London, Bath - London and Glasgow - Preston.
And don't worry, it's not a cheap 'n' cheerful train. The site's run by Stagecoach, owner of South West, East Midlands and Virgin Trains. You're on the same service as everyone else, eg, for London to Brum it's Virgin.
What routes are included?
Megatrain covers over 100 journeys in England and Scotland. There's no map or destinations list on Megatrain's site; we suspect because its booking system's merged with Megabus £1 coach tickets, and the £1 train tickets draw people in to check prices.
Yet it's kindly allowed us to update an old map with all the latest routes and reproduce it here (see right, or see all Megatrain routes below)
Portsmouth/Havant to London |
Derby to London |
Oxenholme to Preston/Crewe/ Warrington/Birmingham |
|---|---|---|
Southampton to London |
Nottingham to London |
Preston to Crewe/Warrington/ Birmingham |
Poole/Weymouth/ Bournemouth to London |
Loughborough to London |
Crewe to Birmingham |
Bristol/Bath to London |
Chesterfield to London |
Warrington to Birmingham |
Exeter/Honiton/Axminster/ Salisbury/Yeovil to London |
Carlisle to Oxenholme/Preston/
Crewe/Warrington/B'ham/Edin |
Birmingham to London/Edinburgh |
Sheffield to London |
Glasgow to Carlisle/Oxenholme/Preston/
Crewe/Warrington/Birmingham |
Coventry to London |
Leicester to London |
Glasgow to Carlisle/Oxenholme/Preston/ Crewe/Warrington/Birmingham |
Liverpool to London/Runcorn/Stafford |
Even if your full journey's not covered, you can still save when Megatrain covers part of the trip – see Megatrain Splitting below.
When can you get them?
While normal cheap advance tickets are released 10-12 weeks in advance, Megatrain only releases tickets 45 days before – handy for those booking later.
These are 'spare capacity' tickets, so there are more for less-popular times. Once the £1 tickets have gone, there are still uber-cheap fares, eg, £3, £5, £7. Popular routes sell like hot cakes, so diarise the date you want.
Just search on Megatrain and be sure to tick travelling by 'train' or you'll get bus fares as well. Booking fee is 50p (per transaction).
Another crafty trick is to combine Megatrain fares with split ticketing. If Megatrain covers part of your journey, grab a mega-ticket for one leg of your journey and a cheap advance for the rest.
Eg, if you were going from London to Truro in Cornwall, get a £1 mega-tx from London-Exeter and a £10 advance for Exeter - Truro (as always, do check the train calls at the stations you buy tickets for).
Warning! Travelling short: cheap but banned
Cheap advance fares are often scarce on more popular routes, especially commuter ones. This means it's sometimes possible to buy a ticket for a longer journey that incorporates your route at a cheaper price and make some serious savings.
A popular one that was shut down, for example, was Chester to London. While peaktime cheap fares weren't usually available, for some journeys starting in Wales, going via Chester, they were, meaning absurdly it was actually substantially cheaper to travel further.
Many people do this, on lots of different routes and it's known as travelling 'short', but sadly it's a no-go as it's against advance ticket's terms and conditions, and you can get fined if you do. There are a few cheap off-peak fares on which it is allowed; it will be in the ticket’s terms and conditions.
