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Greater Anglia Deals

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1 Current Deal

Weekends

Buy online or at ticket offices. Must travel together

When two adults travel together on the Greater Anglia network on a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday, the second passenger gets 50% off their ticket cost. So split it between you and you can each save 25%.

You can get the offer online or by quoting the 'Duo tickets' offer at ticket offices.

It's valid on super off-peak day returns only, on the Greater Anglia route south of Manningtree/Harwich and the Cambridge to London routes. London to Stansted Airport is also included. See the Greater Anglia route map.

More info

The offer is not available for journeys wholly within the area bounded by London Fare Zones 1-6 plus Theobalds Grove, Waltham Cross, Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Brentwood and Shenfield. Unfortunately, when there are engineering works taking place, you won't be able to get the discount.

Expired

Greater Anglia train ticket sale – off-peak day returns from £6

Book online for travel up to 11 June

Want to catch the train from Cambridge to London and back for £12? Or from Colchester to Southend for £18 return? Then you're in luck, because Greater Anglia is having a sale on tickets across its network (see the Greater Anglia map), offering off-peak same-day return fares from as little as £6.

There's no limit on the number of tickets available, but they have to be for travel on Greater Anglia trains by Tuesday 11 June, and you have to book by 11.59pm on Friday 12 April.

Travelling with children? You can book up to four aged 5-15 years old for just £2 return each per adult.

How much can you save?

Obviously this all comes down to where you're travelling to and from, but here's what we found when we checked on Tuesday 9 April:

  • Great Yarmouth to Norwich: £6 return

  • Cambridge to London: £12 return (normally £25.20, according to Greater Anglia)

  • Colchester to Southend: £18 (normally £30.70, according to Greater Anglia)

  • Chelmsford to Norwich: £24 return (normally £48.70, according to Greater Anglia)

  • Norwich to London: £24 return

And if you're booking either a single journey or a non-same day return journey due to take place by Tuesday 11 June, it's worth checking if you can save by buying a sale ticket for all or part of your journey instead of an advance ticket, particularly if you're booking at relatively short notice.

How to bag a sale train ticket

The sale's online only and exclusive to Greater Anglia, so you'll need to search for discounted tickets using the Greater Anglia website or mobile app.

They're easy to spot on the website as they're highlighted in pink and are labelled as 'GA Promo - Hare Fare'. On the app, they appear with a 'Cheapest' banner and you'll see 'GA Promo - Hare Fare' when you've chosen your journey. Annoyingly, on the mobile website, you don't get the 'Cheapest' banner, but again you'll see 'GA Promo - Hare Fare' once you've chosen your journey (provided you've chosen a discounted fare, which the cheapest are likely to be).

Greater Anglia doesn't charge any booking fees, so the price you see is the price you pay.

Where and when can you travel?

The sale includes the entire Greater Anglia network, which covers London, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk – for more info see the Greater Anglia network map.

But it DOESN'T include Greater Anglia journeys that take place wholly within the Oyster pay-as-you-go area in London or Stansted Express services between London, Stratford, Tottenham Hale and Stansted Airport.

Sale tickets are off-peak day returns, which are fairly flexible – you can take any train on a Saturday and Sunday, and most trains on weekdays – but obviously you have to come back the same day.

If you're travelling on a weekday, here's how off-peak tickets on Greater Anglia work:

  • The earliest you can arrive in London is 10am

  • The earliest you can depart London is 9.30am

  • The earliest you can depart from a station outside London is 8.45am

  • Evening peak restrictions only apply between London and Ipswich from 4.31pm to 6.34pm, but not in the school holidays (Tuesday 2 April-Friday 12 April and Tuesday 28 May-Friday 31 May)

For more info on when off-peak tickets are valid, see the Greater Anglia website.

Expired

The 'Great British Rail Sale' - over a million train tickets 'up to 50% off' 

Plus trick to get an extra 5% off via TrainPal or 10% credit back via Uber

The 'Great British Rail Sale' gives 'up to 50% off' over one million selected advance and off-peak rail tickets. In the sale, English and Welsh Government-contracted train operators are offering discounted tickets until 11.59pm on Monday 29 January, though they're likely to go quickly, so don't hang about. 

The 'up to 50% off' fares are for selected routes throughout England and Wales, as well as those that cross the Scottish border, for travel between Tuesday 30 January and Friday 15 March and you need to book at least seven days in advance of travelling. 

The sale is part of a Department For Transport (DfT) initiative. The DfT told us most rail operators in Britain are included in the sale, but that ScotRail, Caledonian Sleeper, Lumo, Hull Trains, TfL rail and London Overground are excluded. There are a few ways to book...

  • Book via third-party booking site TrainPal to get an extra 5% discount. Select your discounted tickets, then log in or sign up to TrainPal*, and enter the code BRS5 at the checkout to get an extra 5% off – the code is for both new and existing users. There are no fees when booking via TrainPal and you'll receive digital tickets (same as booking direct).



    You can only use the discount code once per account, and it's valid for 14 days from the date you add it to your account, so even if you decide not to use this code for Great British Rail Sale tickets, you can still use it on a different journey booked via TrainPal.



  • Or, book via Uber to get 10% back in credit. The Uber credit will appear within 10 days, and will be valid for a further six months. This could be a good option if you regularly use the Uber app for travelling as you're essentially getting cashback to use towards your next journey.



  • Or, book via the Great British Rail Sale website without the extra discount. As the Great British Rail Sale routes cover various destinations and dates, it will be trial and error finding the cheaper seats for when you want to travel. There'll be more availability the further in advance you book and it helps if you can be flexible on dates and destination.

Sale fares cannot be used alongside railcards. The sale isn't for travel within Scotland, or in Northern Ireland, but it will apply to routes that cross the English and Scottish border, such as London to Edinburgh.

Here are some examples of popular train journeys and how much you could save:

  • Portsmouth to Penzance – £21 (was £43)

  • Birmingham to Bristol –  £15.30 (was £30.60)

  • Manchester to Leeds – £4.30 (was £8.60)

  • Leicester to Sheffield – £3.60 (was £7.30)

What does 'up to 50% off' mean?

The DfT told us the majority of discounts are around 50% against an off-peak ticket or an advance purchase price. Though, in the case of advance purchase, the (non sale) prices of these tickets may vary, so you may see more or less of a discount compared to what you usually pay.

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

Martin's Money Mantras

Use them

Before spending

If you answer 'NO' to any of the following questions, don't buy.

Are you

Not skint? Ask:

Will I use it?

Is it worth it?

Are you

Skint? Ask:

Do I need it?

Can I afford it?

Free protection for all shopping!

There's a little-known piece of legislation that turns any credit card into a financial self-defence superhero. 'Section 75' of the Consumer Credit Act means your plastic must protect anything you buy for more than £100 for free, so if there's a problem or the company goes bust, you can still get your money back.
And although Section 75 doesn't apply to debit cards, there is something else to fall back on if you've paid using a debit card, or used a credit card for a purchase under £100. Known as Chargeback, this is part of banks' and card companies' internal rules and not a legal requirement. Read full details of Section 75 or Chargeback, plus how to claim, in our guides.
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