Dirt cheap train tickets?

[mattR]

Did a cruise out of Southampton a few years ago and I remember getting very cheap train tickets but can't remember how I think it was for trains going the opposite direction of rush hour or something.  Any ideas how to get these very cheap tickets? 

[Aulanis]

There are many schemes available for getting cheaper then standard price tickets.

"Advance"  tickets which are available in advance  and are cheapest when they go on sale and the price increases nearer to travel date.  These are normally non refundable should you decide not to travel or miss the train.

There are also off peak tickets  that may be nearer to what you have used before.

What is classed as off peak can vary for different journeys. Might be  cancellable/refundable.

On some routes there are also split ticket fares where it is cheaper to buy a ticket from A to B   and another from B to C  ( Without breaking the journey)   than it is to buy a single ticket from A to C.

 

See here  https://www.nationalrail.co.uk   

 

 

Edited June 23, 2023 by Aulanis

[John Bull]

There were "cheap day-return" tickets some years ago - a round-trip cost pennies more than a one-way ticket. You could buy at the station when you travelled. They usually had some restrictions - for instance you couldn't get a cheap day-return train that got to London before 10am.

 

Cheap day return tickets have gone, now the cheapest are the Advance tickets mentioned by Aulanis.

They're one-way tickets, so for there-and-back you need to buy tickets for each leg - so they're much cheaper for one-way travel, and if you want to travel both ways they don't have to be on the same day.

 

Advance tickets are available from about 12 weeks out - if your date is further out, do a dummy booking for the same day of the week about 10 weeks from now. You'll see that the cost is at least half the regular cost & usually a lot less.

As per Aulanis' post, the cost of Advance tickets is dynamic, as the date draws close the price increases, and Advance tickets may even be unavailable.

 

No refunds & no amendments'

The tickets are only good for the train time that you chose - miss that train & your tickets are trash so you'll have to buy expensive walk-up tickets for the next train.

If you're lodging in the UK and want to take the train to the port there's no reason why you shouldn't be punctual, 

 

But being committed to a specific time when flying in to Gatwick airport (trains aren't the best choice of transportation from Heathrow)  you're dependent on the reliability of your arrival time and the time taken for paperwork at the airport

Do you book an early train and take a big risk in order to cut your travel time to a minimum?

Do you reduce that risk by booking a much later train, which can leave you twiddling your thumbs waiting for your train time ?

Do you book for both early & later trains to cover both options but negate much of your savings by throwing away the unused tickets?

Or do you forego the cheap tickets & plan to pay the walk-up price, which will cost you more if all goes to plan but will cost you nothing if your cruise or flight is re-scheduled or late.

"Do you feel lucky? Well do you, punk" as Dirty Harry would have said 😏

Same applies to train travel at the end of your cruise, but the risks are much lower.

 

(there are no cheap Advance tickets on inexpensive short rail journeys or on some long journeys)

(split-ticketing and RailCards are only of use to visitors who are travelling most of the length of the country or touring the UK by train (the two-together RailCard is best)

 

JB 🙂 

[fruitmachine]

2 hours ago, John Bull said:

Cheap day return tickets have gone, now the cheapest are the Advance tickets mentioned by Aulanis.

UK rail pricing is even more complex than this, though I'm sure you're aware that there are tests and permanent changes on some routes to simplify it a bit by doing away with any kind of return ticket.  Perhaps it's just on shorter journeys, but the St Albans/London route I've recently used was just ~5% more for a "Super Off-Peak Day Return" (which could be bought on the day) compared to the cheapest single (even if bought well in advance).

The advice I always give is to check both a sample journey for today, and for 4-6 weeks out (on the same day of the week as you will be travelling) to get the lie of the land on pricing.  Then you'll know when there are tickets at good price on your chosen date of travel if it's well into the future.

[edinburgher]

And keep an eye on train strike dates as the strikes continue with no obvious sign of agreements being reached with the unions.

 

Closer to your travel dates, you should check regularly to see if your train(s) will run on the days you hope to travel.