Train tickets

iain_j

Does anyone understand how train ticket pricing works :evil:

A few weeks ago I booked hostels for a weeks' touring in the southern Highlands, at the end of July. This will start with getting the train from Liverpool to Balloch (Loch Lomond) on Saturday, then back on the following Sunday (ie. 8 days later).

When I booked the hostels, the times/prices for the trains weren't yet available, but for the equivalent days a few weeks earlier, it worked out at between £11 and £15 each way on Advance tickets. Bargain!

Now the "real" dates are starting to become available, the cheapest I can get for the outward journey has shot up to £59 on an Anytime ticket. It's the same if I go back to the earlier "test" dates. I can haggle it down to nearly £70 for an Off-Peak Return, but where's all the cheap Advances gone? What's the secret? Do they only sell them on certain days?

Aggieboy

Not sure specifically about when pricing starts/ends but this is a good website for putting in dates and getting good prices, if you're not already using it.

http://www.thetrainline.com/buytickets/?href=ppcg_trainline&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_ev=click&gclid=CNXR7KbctqECFcOX2Aod_Q12DQ

iain_j

Thanks Aggieboy, I use www.nationalrail.co.uk, it's brought up the same ticket options and prices.

Ands

Looks like you can only buy 'advance' tickets up as far as 16th July at moment.
http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/tickets-offers/

Train pricing seems bizarre at times. I regularly book my husband tickets to London and sometimes it is cheaper for me to book 2 tickets than 1 - e.g. WBQ - Rugby; Rugby - Euston - even tho it is the same train and he doesn't need to get off at Rugby!

iain_j

Ah thanks Ands, I'll keep an eye on Virgin's website.

Aggieboy

This may help....

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 is buy 12 weeks in advance. This is because, contractually, Network Rail must have the timetable set 12 weeks in advance. Therefore this is commonly, though not definitely, when tickets are released.

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).

rick_chasey

iain_j wrote:

Does anyone understand how train ticket pricing works :evil:

A few weeks ago I booked hostels for a weeks' touring in the southern Highlands, at the end of July. This will start with getting the train from Liverpool to Balloch (Loch Lomond) on Saturday, then back on the following Sunday (ie. 8 days later).

When I booked the hostels, the times/prices for the trains weren't yet available, but for the equivalent days a few weeks earlier, it worked out at between £11 and £15 each way on Advance tickets. Bargain!

Now the "real" dates are starting to become available, the cheapest I can get for the outward journey has shot up to £59 on an Anytime ticket. It's the same if I go back to the earlier "test" dates. I can haggle it down to nearly £70 for an Off-Peak Return, but where's all the cheap Advances gone? What's the secret? Do they only sell them on certain days?

Pretty sure the competition commission is looking at the way train prices are publicised.

The accusation is that they deliberately make pricing information difficult enough to find that people pay for a more expensive ticket than otherwise due to lack of information.

I could be completely talking out of my arse though.

PBo

try this:

http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/

you don't need to be using east coast trains.

Now I'm pretty sure all systems use same base data and prices, but I find this is by far the easiest to work out options, as it produces a grid of prices and times, both single and return, so you can see which trains are available at each price point, and play around to get best option.

Obviously, it can only work with the data it has, so this doesn't over ride the 12 week advice etc. in previous posts.

Ands

Rick Chasey wrote:

[

Pretty sure the competition commission is looking at the way train prices are publicised.

The accusation is that they deliberately make pricing information difficult enough to find that people pay for a more expensive ticket than otherwise due to lack of information.I could be completely talking out of my ars* though.

This is true. If I go on the Virgin website and look for tickets from Warrington to Reading, it only gives me trains via Euston (£139 standard fare). If I go to the 'more options' section and specify 'avoid London' I still get sent via London completely unneccesarily. (Warrington-Wolverhapmton-Oxford-Paddington-Reading, at a cost of £139.) Why? The Wolverhampton to Oxford train continues on to Reading - it's actually the next stop. If I check all this on Nationalrail.co.uk I can travel Warrington-Wolverhampton-Reading (yes, stopping at Oxford) for £68 standard fare. I cannot get this route at all on the Virgin website - only the route that sends me from Oxford to Reading via London, at £139.

shane515

Dont know if this will help in your quest but......

+1 for booking 12 weeks out.....I paid £15 each way London to Edinburgh, its costing more to get from Edinburgh to Pitlochry on the train than its from London to Edinburgh!!!

CyclingBantam

I watch a lot of football and regularily have to go through the farce that is trying to find the advertised train tickets. They are there and if you can book far enough in advance (Now for Mid July should be just about ok) you can get them. I will try and summarise what I do and hope it helps:

1st off - Find out when they should be available. I have never found out exactly when this is however, initially tickets will be available for sale only at the high prices, often for up to a month before they then drop in price to the cheapest available before again climbing back up as they sell.

I will look for the date I want as soon as possible and if I find they are a high price look the week before and then the week before that until I see they are available for cheap. You then know how long until the week you want is cheap.

2nd - Don't just look for the obvious tickets. Most people know 2 singles are a lot cheaper but altering your route can make a big difference. I was looking for cheap tickets from Leeds to Exeter and was having to pay £70 direct. In the end booking tickets to Birmingham and then Birmingham to Exeter was significantly cheaper (Even though it was exactly the same train!!!!) Try looking for tickets via big citys even if they are out of your way a little and you may find it a lot cheaper. I sometimes find it cheaper to go via London (they seem to like advertising cheap tickets to London as they are attractive). Another example, I have found it cheaper to travel from Leeds to Manchester to London where cheap Leeds to London tickets were not available.

3rd - Pay for what you don't need! Again going from Leeds It has been cheaper sometimes to pay for a cheap ticket from York to London (again the Special deal tickets) and just get on at leeds as the train passes through Leeds. Same for paying for a ticket from Edinburgh to London and meeting the train along the way can be cheaper than a direct train.

I really hope this helps. Ultimately you just have to keep looking (I have found that you only need to look at one site (although always check a couple just before you book just in case) as they all seem to have the same prices)). Try searching through every option you can think of re. route and hopefully you will find something that is suitable.

All in all, it is a total con the prices they advertise as you do need to put a lot of work in to find them. They are certainly not clear and easy to find. The worst thing is you are held to randsom if you can't book in advance.

Good luck.

CyclingBantam

Just had a quick look at the trains and it seems that to get cheap tickets from Liverpool to Glasgow you will need to book from when the next weeks allocation (I think they release them week by week on a Sunday or Monday) is released this Sunday or Monday for week commencing 25th July.

Then to book for the week commencing 1st August you would need to book not this sunday/Monday but next Sunday/Monday. Hope this makes sense.

You will see how quickly yhey go though as for the tickets that were released this week (for week commencing 18th July) there are very few available.

I book here (like someone else said, it doesn't seem to matter if you are not using the companies trains, you can still book through them!

http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/

iain_j

I've just checked Virgin's site and the Advance tickets for 24th July have been released, so I checked on National Rail and, lo and behold, the cheap tickets are back.

Thanks for all the tips everyone. Why does it have to be so friggin' complicated :roll:

lastant

BenBlyth wrote:

3rd - Pay for what you don't need! Again going from Leeds It has been cheaper sometimes to pay for a cheap ticket from York to London (again the Special deal tickets) and just get on at leeds as the train passes through Leeds. Same for paying for a ticket from Edinburgh to London and meeting the train along the way can be cheaper than a direct train.

Careful with this one - it technically breaks the rail companies Terms & Conditions and if you're unlucky enough to get an arse of a ticket inspector they may not let you board. Ridiculous, I know!

You can sign up to e-mail alerts on eastcoast's website, then you'll get told when the next batch of cheap tickets for the day you want to travel become available.