Cheap train & coach deals

For travel between 13 January and 25 March

You can get 'up to 76% off' over three million train tickets from almost all UK train operators until 11.59pm on Monday 12 January. The Government-backed 'Great British Rail Sale' returns for a fourth year, offering discounted advance and off-peak fares for travel between Tuesday 13 January and Wednesday 25 March – though we have seen them for a few days beyond this.

Sale tickets, which cover "thousands of popular routes" across the country (excluding Northern Ireland), are likely to go quickly, so don't delay. They CAN'T be purchased using a railcard and AREN'T refundable.

While most rail firms are included in the sale, the Department for Transport (DfT) told us it doesn't cover... Caldonian Sleeper, Heathrow Express, Hull Trains, Island Line, Lumo, Merseyrail, ScotRail, Translink (NI Railways) and Transport for London (DLR, Elizabeth line, London Overground and London Underground).

How to find Great British Rail Sale train tickets

The simplest way is to by using National Rail's Great British Rail Sale page, which will then offer you a range of ticket-booking sites and apps to book through, both train operators and third-party retailers.

Warning. Some sites and apps charge fees, so check our list of the top train-booking sites before buying.

Many train operators have their own sale pages, including Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway (GWR), London North Eastern Railway (LNER), Southern and Transport for Wales (TfW).

There's no exact science to finding tickets in the sale, so some trial and error is involved. You'll likely increase your chances if you're able to be flexible about when you travel (during our checks, sale fares often weren't available for morning peak-time services) and the further in advance you book.

Discounted tickets are marked as 'Rail Sale Advance Single' or 'Rail Sale Off-Peak Single', so check before buying. If you want to book a discounted return trip, you'll need to buy two singles in the sale. First class as well as standard fares are included, though obviously the former aren't as MoneySaving.

Is the Great British Rail Sale any good?

While the DfT claims the sale provides savings of up to 76%, we found that it's a mixed bag, so don't go snapping up tickets with 'Rail Sale' on them thinking it means they must be a bargain – in some instances we found regular fares cheaper than sale fares for travel on the same day (though not the same time).

Nevertheless, there are some decent savings to be made. Here are examples of sale fares we found and how much they might usually cost, though use these prices as a ready reckoner as what you'd normally pay would depend on when you travel, when you book, availability and so on:

• Cardiff Central to Liverpool Lime Street (standard single) £32.30 – usually from £41.80, so 23% off

• Exeter to London Waterloo (standard single) £10 – usually from £18.80, so 47% off

• London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly (standard single) £28.50 – usually from £33.50, so 15% off

• London Kings Cross to Newcastle (first class single) £55.25 – usually from £90.50, so 39% off

• London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street (standard single) £7 – usually from £12, so 42% off

• Manchester Piccadilly to Manchester Airport (standard single) £1.20 – usually from £2.10, so 43% off

• Newcastle to Middlesborough (standard single) £2 – usually from £5.20, so 62% off

• Norwich to London Liverpool Street (standard single) £6 – usually from £12, so 50% off

• Nottingham to Manchester Piccadilly (standard single) £10.90 – usually from £11.90, so 8% off

• York to Edinburgh (first class single) £73.60 – usually from £119.70, so 39% off

For more ways to save on train travel, see our Cheap train tickets guide and Railcard deals page.

Sees fares reduced to £40

If you're feeling spontaneous and love to travel, you might want to consider booking Eurostar's Snap. These are train fares 'reduced up to 50%' if you're willing to book a last-minute journey – the only catch is that you won't find out your train's departure time until at least 49 hours beforehand. 

You can specify both a travel date and destination, but Eurostar will allocate you a train time based on unsold seats. When you book, you will see a day slot with mystery time but you can pick a time slot before or after 1pm if you're travelling from London or 2pm from any other station (excluding German stations).

It told us the number of Snap fares available will vary depending on how full the trains are as it aims to optimise seat capacity.

Warning: These fares are non-refundable, non-exchangeable, non-transferable, and non-cancellable – so if you cannot make the time Eurostar books your train for, you will not get your money back. Snap fares are a good way of getting cheap train tickets if you can be totally flexible and willing to travel at short notice. See full Ts&Cs.

Eurostar told us that bookings can be made two weeks in advance for travel to and from London, and up to eight days ahead for other routes. The latest you can book a Snap fare is the day before departure. 

When we checked and compared fare prices to Paris for five day's time, the standard fare on Eurostar's website displayed a price of £97 as the lowest fare option. Comparatively, via Snap, this fare was £40, see image below. 

Eurostar wouldn't tell us what the lowest possible discount would be as the exact saving varies depending on availability and demand at the time of booking. Ultimately, this is a bit of a 'no risk, no reward' travel hack as you won't be able to get your money back once you've booked. You'll need to weigh up if a cheap fare is worth a time you may not like to travel during, especially if you live further away from London and need to factor in getting to St Pancras station.

Return journey include:

• Paris and Brussels

• Paris and Amsterdam

• Paris and Cologne

• London and Brussels

• London and Paris

Or you can travel one way between London and Amsterdam.

As ever with travel deals, the best way to make your money go further is to be flexible. Of course, it may incur more costs and be slightly more risky to book a hotel last-minute, so it's worth having a few options for accommodation to book in case there's no availability or researching a neighbourhood you'd like to stay in beforehand. That said, sometimes you can also bag hotels at a cheaper price if you book last-minute, so it's a bit of a luck game. 

Alternatively, if you're lucky enough to stay have friends and family living at your chosen destination, this could be another safe bet to secure yourself somewhere to stay.

How to book:

• Visit snap.eurostar.com to select a travel date and destination.

• You can book up to four people, although there’s no guarantee you’ll all be seated together.

• Eurostar then allocates the train times for the chosen date.

• 49 hours before departure, Eurostar will confirm the train details.

See our Cheap train tickets guide for more ways to save.

Get annual railcards half-price by converting Clubcard points

Get a 16-25, Family & Friends, Senior or Two Together Railcard via Tesco Clubcard for £17.50 in Clubcard vouchers instead of the usual £35. You'll be sent a code that can be used at the Railcard* site.

To get this deal, you have to turn every £2.50 into £5 to use with Railcard. You'll need £17.50 in Clubcard vouchers, exchanging these at twice their value, to pay for the one-year Railcard in full.

What discounts do the railcards get you?

16-25: A third off fares if you're aged 16 and over and under 26.
Family & Friends: A third off adult and 60% off child fares, a minimum of one adult and one child, and a maximum of up to four adults and four children (age 5-15) can travel using one card.
Senior: Those aged 60 and over get a third off rail fares.
Two Together: A third off rail fares for two named adults when they travel together.

Check the railcard site for restrictions and to ensure you're eligible before exchanging your vouchers. See our Tesco Clubcard boosting guide for other ways to use your points.

If you or someone you know has a gold card season ticket

If your train season ticket is an annual gold card (or comes with one), you can get extra discounts you don’t get with a standard season ticket. One of the biggest perks is being able to buy a railcard for just £10 (up to 70% off the normal price) for yourself or someone else.

This discount only works for those in the south of England, but if that’s you, it can be a winner. Railcards usually give a third off most fares – see full info on what each railcard gets you.

How do I get a gold card?

To do this, you'll need to have an annual gold card – this will either be your actual season ticket or come with it. You should have been given one automatically if you’ve bought a year's season ticket or Travelcard (not weekly or monthly) from one of 600+ stations on this annual gold card area map, and at least one of the stations on your ticket falls within the same area.

This won’t work in much of the UK, but the gold card area includes a large part of the south of England.

Which railcards can I get for £10?

You can choose from most of the major national railcards – 16-25, Family & Friends, Two Together, Senior, Network Railcard for London and the south of England (all normally £35) and Disabled Person's Railcard (normally £20). These cards get you a third off most journeys – see all railcard types.

You can get one annual railcard for £10 at any time during the validity of your annual gold card.

Don't have a gold card? You can still get a £10 railcard

The person buying the railcard doesn’t have to be the person who ends up using it.

So if a friend or family member who commutes has a gold card, just ask them to buy the £10 railcard for you if they don't need it, and they can follow the steps below. Check the Railcard* website to make sure you're eligible beforehand, and provide the gold card holder with any photos or evidence of eligibility required.

You can only buy the £10 railcard from a station

If you bought your annual season ticket from a train station, you'll need to purchase your railcard from that particular station. If you bought it online, then you can go to your nearest station. The only exception is if you're getting a Disabled Person's Railcard – see 'More info' below.

Let the staff member know you want to purchase a £10 railcard with your gold card and fill in the application they give you. Some railcards such as 16-25 and Senior require photos and evidence of eligibility so have that with you, and you'll need to show your gold card.

If you're buying a railcard for someone else, Railcard says the person you're buying the railcard for doesn't need to be present.

Another way to get a discount on railcards

• If you have a Tesco Clubcard with enough points, you could use your Clubcard vouchers to get a one-year railcard for £17.50 in vouchers. See .