Northern deals

Via Health Service Discounts or Discounts for Teachers

NHS staff can sign up for free to Health Service Discounts, or teachers can sign up for free to Discounts for Teachers, to get 25% off Northern single advance tickets. The rail operator covers the North of England including Manchester, Blackpool, Leeds, Liverpool, York, and Windermere.

You'll need to get a code from one of the above sites and once you've applied the code at the Northern website or app, discounted advance tickets will be highlighted in yellow. If you need to alter the time of the train you're searching for, you may need to re-enter your code.

Tickets are for selected single advance purchase journeys only, but return journeys can be made by purchasing two single advance tickets.

On Northern train routes only. App required

Northern, the train operator that covers Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and more, is offering a 50% off advance train tickets code to those who haven't booked tickets before via the Northern app.

The offer is only available on routes offering advance tickets on the Northern network, which covers over 500 destinations. The code CANNOT be used with a railcard and is valid for one transaction only made via the Northern app. For full info, see the Northern T&Cs (scroll down to '50% Terms and Conditions').

You can search for stations offering advance tickets and see a complete list of them on the Northern website (scroll down to 'Find your Advance ticket route'). For a complete picture of the routes it covers, see the Northern network map.

How to get 50% off Northern advance fares

1. To get your 50% off code, sign up for it on the Northern website by entering your name and email address (you won't receive other emails from Northern unless you opt in).

2. If you haven't already, download the free Northern app to your smartphone or tablet (it's available for Android and iOS devices).

3. Open the app, go to the search section and enter where you want to travel from and to, whether you want a single or return, the date(s) and time(s) you want to travel, and the code (in the section that says '1 adult, no railcards or promo' – you can also change the number of adults and children travelling here).

4. Tap the 'Search live times and prices' button – if you've chosen a route the code doesn't apply to you'll see a message saying 'Promotion not applied'.

5. On the results page, choose the ticket(s) you want – you'll see the 50% off is automatically applied to the prices of eligible tickets, which are also marked with the Northern logo.

6. Once you've selected your journey, you'll be asked to log in or register if you haven't already. On the summary page you should see the code has been applied and you can pay via credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal.

How much can you save?

Here are some examples we found using the code on Tuesday 4 February (finding eligible routes via the app can be time consuming, so it's best to use the search tool on the Northern website before booking – scroll down to 'Find your Advance ticket route'):

• Blackpool North to York single – £7.90 (normally £15.80)
  
  

• Carlisle to Newcastle return – £8.25 (normally £16.50)
  
  

• Leeds to Sheffield single – £2.40 (normally £4.80)
  
  

• Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Piccadilly return – £5.85 (normally £11.70)

Booking tickets for a non-Northern route?

We've 17 ways to save on train travel, including how to bag the cheapest fares and split tickets, in our Cheap train tickets guide. And for other ways to cut travel costs, see Cheap train & coach deals and Railcard deals.