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MoneySavingExpert.com » Travel & Transport » Cheap Train Tickets: how to find hidden fares

Simple train ticket cost cutting tips

Before we get to all the hardcore tips to really slash the price, there are a few simple things to consider to cut costs:

• 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 is buying 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.

• You can book early quite late

  Early booking is still cheaper even when it's not so early. Advance tickets can be available as late as 6pm the night before, so it's worth checking.

• 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 a bit more expensive, you can effectively travel in first class luxury for a second class price and some grub.

  It's worth knowing, 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.

• If you spend over £72 a year, get a railcard

  Railcards typically cost £24 and cut a third off the bill. Therefore if you spend over £72 a year (even if it's just one trip) on applicable journeys, get one. They're available at stations or the Railcard website. There are three main cards:

  The Young Person's card is for under 25s or full-time students of any age. One trick with this is ensure you renew just before your 26th birthday to get another year (the same applies for those older and leaving Uni). The Family Railcard can be used by an adult with at least one under 15 in tow, plus there's the Senior Railcard for the over 60s, though that isn't valid on some peak services.

  For those that qualify there's also the Disability Railcard costing £18.

  Don't assume every journey is eligible for use with a railcard though, always check it out first. Bizarrely if your railcard isn't valid, don't try and use it as there are some reports they actually add to the price.

• Check out local rail cards, season tickets and Rover & Ranger tickets

  Local rail cards, season tickets and Rover and Ranger tickets, such as the Network Railcard in the South East, are also available offering holders unlimited travel within specific areas for specific periods of time. There's a full list of these on the National Rail website.

• Travel the same route frequently? A season ticket may save you money

  The National Rail website has a nifty little tool to help you work out the cost of a season ticket. Just go to its season ticket calculator, enter your route and the length of season ticket you want and it'll tell you how much it'll cost. If there's more than one route available it'll show all i.e., look for an annual season ticket from Bristol to London and it gives two choices, one without restrictions costing £8,672 the other limiting you to trains travelling through Warminster and Salisbury costing £5,880.

• Check for hidden promotional specials

  The National Rail website has a special promotions index page listing all the special discounted offers. Also do note that on certain Virgin and South West Trains routes, including Manchester to Edinburgh and London to Southampton, it's possible to get Megatrain fares for £1 if you book early enough.

• Know where to get the info and how to book

  There are two main train booking websites: The Trainline* and Raileasy*. It’s always worth checking both, as they can have different availability. If they come up with identical fares, the one to pick depends on whether you want to pay by credit or debit card, and how much you’re spending.

  Best for paying by debit card or spending over £60 on a credit card. Here, the The Trainline wins, because it has no booking fee and charges a flat £2.50 fee for credit card payments. Do be aware that it adds £1 travel insurance by default, so ensure you uncheck the box if you don't want it.

  Best for spending under £60 on a credit card. Raileasy charges a £1 booking fee on every purchase, plus a 50p debit card fee. Yet as it charges a 2.5% for credit card purchases instead of a flat fee, it beats The Trainline for sub-£60 credit card purchases. Unlike The Trainline, Raileasy lists single fares on the first results screen, so to compare fares, click The Trainline’s “two singles may be cheaper” button.
  
  Book direct with no booking fee. For more complex searches, the National Rail website is quicker and more powerful. Yet you can't directly buy. Instead it sends you to the sites of the rail companies themselves; not a bad thing as some include extra online discounts and don't charge booking fees. Of course you can call National Rail Enquiries or pop down to your local railway station, but then it's often much more difficult to work through the options.

• Call National Rail Enquiries for less

  If you need to dial National Rail Enquiries, the standard number is 0845 748 49 50, yet this is expensive (see the Say No To 0870 article); it's cheaper to dial 0121 6342040 and then press '1' for the same thing. Alternatively pop down to your local railway station.

Beat the system: Hardcore Train Fare Tricks

Now let's delve into the hidden secrets of the timetable. The sheer mass of journeys and rail companies mean there are many ticket price anomalies to take advantage of, so I've ordered the process from least to most complex; checking them all shouldn't take more than 15 minutes.

The most important lesson to remember when it comes to train tariffs is…. logic doesn't apply.

A new free tool to instantly find you the cheapest system

I'm currently developing a free automated Train Ticket calculator, which will calculate the ultimate cheapest ticket for you using the techniques below. It's taking time as it's a massive undertaking, requiring huge computing power and research mathematicians to devise the algorithms. When it's ready full details will be included in the free weekly MoneySaving e-mail.

Trick One: Hidden saver singles beat returns

Buying a return ticket should be cheaper than two singles. Yet logic and train fares are two different beasts, so many top deals are only available on one-way fares. It's very common that saver fares are available for two single tickets but not the return, thus always check.

How big's the saving... £134 on a Manchester to London return

As an example, a quick search for a seat on the mid-week 7.15am Manchester to London train, coming back the next day, brings up a standard open ticket costing a whopping £220; a quick check instantly found that for the same journey, an outbound advanced standard ticket was £61, returning on a 'value advance single' at £25, a total of £86.

How to find them

The web makes this easy. If you're booking via The Trainline* then in its step 2, there's a special 'two singles could be cheaper' link. If you're using National Rail or Raileasy*, you'll be shown both single and return fares. Alternatively call National Rail Enquiries.

Trick Two. Split your tickets, not your journey

This is the big one, the 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.

This is 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've bought tickets for.

How big's the saving… 75% cheaper from London to Penzance

As an example, for London to Penzance the cheapest ticket was a standard open return at £234. This train stops in Bristol, so then I checked separate ticket prices. By buying four singles: London to Bristol, Bristol to Penzance and then for the return Penzance to Bristol and Bristol to London; the total cost was £79, a saving of £155. And remember this is for the same trip, on the same train, which you needn't get off!

How to find split ticket bargains

It normally takes about ten minutes to check, but it's worth doing.

• First get the price for the standard journey; without this you won't know if you can save.



• Find out where the train stops. This info is available on the timetables section of the National Rail website, but a much easier method is to use the Transport Direct journey planner; just click on the train icon after you receive your route to see where it stops.



• Now check the ticket prices for the different combinations. If the train stops at lots of places then there's a huge combination of available tickets. However to save time just try the system, split ticketing via one or two main stops.

We're currently in the middle of building a free web-tool that'll do this for you, though it's a hugely complex task and will take time. Full details will be included in the free weekly MoneySaving E-mail once it's built.

Please report successful split ticket routes

If you find a journey where split ticketing works, please report it so others can benefit. Add yours/read others: Split ticket routes

Trick Three. Only pay peak for the portion that is peak

Train peak times are usually before 10am and between 5pm and 7pm. Therefore if you're getting on a longish train journey during peak time, and some portion of the journey is outside peak time; you're still paying a peak ticket price.

Thus by split ticketing you're only paying peak prices for the portion of the journey that is peak; you'll save money.

Trick Four. ‘Travelling short' can be cheaper, but it's banned

Saver fares are often less likely to be available on more popular routes, especially commuter routes. 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.

For example Chester to London peak time saver fares aren't usually available, but they are for some journeys starting in Wales, going via Chester, meaning absurdly it's actually substantially cheaper to travel further. Many people do this, it's known as traveling 'short', but sadly it's a no go as it's against the ticket's terms and conditions, and you can get kicked off a train if you do.

Buy on the day at peak time and an open return from York to Plymouth costs a staggering £349. For the same trip travel off-peak with a saver return and the price drops to £124. Buy single fares and it's £100 there, but just £21 back. Even better split ticket via Birmingham and the total drops to just £72, a saving of £277.