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A combination of advance and split tickets can work. Try a few combinations of stop off points to see if breaking a journey without necessarily getting off the train can save ££
Tips & tricks for cheap train tickets
- Thread starter Diddums
- Start date
Soldato
Assuming you have a licence then drive.
Will save you a world of stress and aggravation not having to worry about whether the train is going to be delayed/cancelled yet again, not to mention the money on replacement buses & taxis on top of the season ticket you're already paying for for a train which you get to use half the time at best.
Will save you a world of stress and aggravation not having to worry about whether the train is going to be delayed/cancelled yet again, not to mention the money on replacement buses & taxis on top of the season ticket you're already paying for for a train which you get to use half the time at best.
Traffic congestion, ULEZ and parking need to be considered though.
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Soldato
Worth dealing with to avoid the train IMO
Traffic congestion is going to affect your bus/taxi anyway.
ULEZ can be dealt with by getting a compliant car.
Parking yes, but worth it for the convenience
Soldato
That must be a London thing? Certainly isn't the case round here!
No, if you have a valid train ticket but they are needing to put on a bus replacement then you can use that at no extra cost, its the same anywhere in the country.
Rail Replacement Services | National Rail
If there are planned engineering works or an unplanned disruption, we might need to run rail replacement services instead of your train. This could be a bus, coach, wheelchair accessible taxi, saloon car taxi or wheelchair accessible minibus.
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Soldato
No, if you have a valid train ticket but they are needing to put on a bus replacement then you can use that at no extra cost, its the same anywhere in the country.
Rail Replacement Services | National Rail
If there are planned engineering works or an unplanned disruption, we might need to run rail replacement services instead of your train. This could be a bus, coach, wheelchair accessible taxi, saloon car taxi or wheelchair accessible minibus.www.nationalrail.co.uk
Ah yes, official rail replacement services actually arranged by the rail provider then of course.
The far more likely 2-3 times a week "We couldn't be bothered to run the train today, so you'll have to find your own way to work" "replacement" buses on the other hand...
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Even the very worst of statistics don't paint that picture.
Soldato
Maybe a slight exaggeration, but it depends on how you measure those statistics.
If it's "all trains", then no probably not. If it's "trains I* actually need to take" (which arguably is far more relevant), then looking at the spreadsheet I ended up creating, during the 5 week period from 18 July - 21st August last year I put in 10 compensation claims for complete cancellations, so that is 2x a week.
Over a longer period - the 14 weeks from 18 July - 23 October resulted in 17 claims (so 1.2/week), 14 of which were complete cancellations requiring payment for alternative travel, 1 of which over an hour, and the other 2 over half an hour.
They have improved slightly recently, but we're still looking at an average of 5 claims/month, which is still more than one a week (if I remember correctly, last time I calculated it, it was around 18% of journeys being delayed in some way, with 12% being a complete cancellation)
The delay repay compensation is limited to 1/20th of the season ticket cost per day, which isn't enough to pay for a return bus journey (which inevitably also results in being late for work), and certainly isn't enough for a taxi if you actually want to get to work on time (and that's only for a cancellation or delay over 2 hours), if it's less than that then it's a fraction of that. So if the train is delayed more than 15 mins or so, you're stuck with the choice of hoping it does actually turn up at some point and getting to work late (again), paying for the bus to be slightly less late, or paying for a taxi to not be late.
The trains are great when/if they actually turn up on time, but I certainly wouldn't rely on them for commuting unless I had full flexibility of my hours, so it didn't matter what time I finally arrived.
* When I say "I", I actually mean my partner, but that makes no difference to the results.
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Permabanned
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- 10 Nov 2005
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Milford on Sea?
There's no train station mate.
Edited hahaha
There's no train station mate.
Edited hahaha
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Permabanned
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Oh thank god mate. You just dodged a bullet, that train station fiasco would have done your head in.
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Soldato
Caporegime
Get a motorbike.
My main advice:
- If you are travelling infrequently, season tickets are not good value. I travel 1-2 days per week and do not buy one any more. Even the "flexitickets" that offer 8 journeys per 28 days are not good value.
- Day returns to London are more expensive than two singles for me, because the return journey is off peak
- Get a cheap network railcard (trip.com often have offers) and you can use this for cheaper travel in the evening. Pays for itself in a couple of journeys.
- If you know in advance when you need to travel, consider advance tickets. Even peak time tickets can be cheap if you buy them a few weeks in advance, less than half the price.
- Sign up for delay repay and find a website where you can look up how many mins late your trains were to make claiming easier
- Learn how to optimise what carriage you sit in to exit the train near to the platform exit you want. Where to stand on the platform when waiting for the train so you are likely to be near a door and more chance of getting a seat etc.
- Learn how to look up trains and figure out what platform they are likely to come in on. E.g. often the train you want leaving the station won't have a platform, but sometimes you can see what platform a train coming the other direction will arrive at, and often that's the same train.
- Learn what trains run 4-seat wide carriages vs 5-seat wide. 4 is much more comfortable. The Portsmouth line you will be on tends to have a lot of fivers
NB some trains are made up of multiple configurations eg front half might have a different number of seats per row than the back - Get a sense of when a train is likely to be more busy than usual e.g. previous train cancelled. In these cases you may wish to sprint up the platform as soon as it is announced to get ahead of people and more chance of getting a seat or at least a standing spot on the train.
- Midweek is typically busier than Mon/Fri
- Airline seats typically give more legroom than if you are facing somebody
- Season tickets prices typically go up on 2nd Jan. So if you are buying an annual ticket buy it on NYE. You'll save loads of money not only on this ticket but also on the renewals in future years.
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Soldato
I used the train for work for about 2 years… the work place ticket loan is about the best it gets. It’s interest and tax free.
You can also use it at weekends.. it’s only worth it if your going to the office everyday, as it’s literally the cost of around 4 day return tickets per week.
You can also use it at weekends.. it’s only worth it if your going to the office everyday, as it’s literally the cost of around 4 day return tickets per week.
My main advice:
- If you are travelling infrequently, season tickets are not good value. I travel 1-2 days per week and do not buy one any more. Even the "flexitickets" that offer 8 journeys per 28 days are not good value.
- Day returns to London are more expensive than two singles for me, because the return journey is off peak
- Get a cheap network railcard (trip.com often have offers) and you can use this for cheaper travel in the evening. Pays for itself in a couple of journeys.
- If you know in advance when you need to travel, consider advance tickets. Even peak time tickets can be cheap if you buy them a few weeks in advance, less than half the price.
- Sign up for delay repay and find a website where you can look up how many mins late your trains were to make claiming easier
- Learn how to optimise what carriage you sit in to exit the train near to the platform exit you want. Where to stand on the platform when waiting for the train so you are likely to be near a door and more chance of getting a seat etc.
- Learn how to look up trains and figure out what platform they are likely to come in on. E.g. often the train you want leaving the station won't have a platform, but sometimes you can see what platform a train coming the other direction will arrive at, and often that's the same train.
- Learn what trains run 4-seat wide carriages vs 5-seat wide. 4 is much more comfortable. The Portsmouth line you will be on tends to have a lot of fivers
- Get a sense of when a train is likely to be more busy than usual e.g. previous train cancelled. In these cases you may wish to sprint up the platform as soon as it is announced to get ahead of people and more chance of getting a seat or at least a standing spot on the train.
- Midweek is typically busier than Mon/Fri
- Airline seats typically give more legroom than if you are facing somebody
- Season tickets prices typically go up on 2nd Jan. So if you are buying an annual ticket buy it on NYE. You'll save loads of money not only on this ticket but also on the renewals in future years.
Apologies, I forgot to thank you for this post, very helpful, thanks!