whole journey, instead bizarrely buying tickets for its constituent parts separately can slash the price – even though you’re travelling on exactly the same train, at the same time, possibly in the same seat.
It’s perfectly allowed within the National Rail Conditions of Carriage and the only rule is that the train must call at the stations you buy tickets for. I’ve built a tool
www.mse.me/ ticketysplit that searches for variants for you to see if you can save.
One of the best ever examples I’ve seen of this was on a direct London to Durham return when the cheapest ticket was £301. Yet buying four singles for the same journey: London to York, which was one of the stops, York to Durham, and then in reverse, was £82 for the same train at the same time - possibly even the same seats. However, it’s important to understand that this is an example - the savings vary train by train. Even an hour later the same split may not work, so you need to check each time or use the various web tools available to find your split.
Look for hidden promos Lots
of train companies have hidden
promotions buried on their websites – which you won’t find if you’re going through a ticket booking website, such as
TheTrainline.com or
Redspottedhanky.com. For example, at the time of writing East Coast has 10% off some advance online fares and 50% off selected super off-peak tickets to London, while on Southeastern up to four kids can travel for £1 off-peak with an adult. For a full list of hidden
@MoneySavingExpert
promos go to
www.mse.me/traindeals.
Buy rail tickets when not travelling by train to get discounts This sneaky trick sounds bizarre but it works. National Rail offers 2for1 discounts on a host of attractions across the UK – you just download and print out a voucher and present it with a train ticket. Attractions include Ascot Racecourse, Alton Towers and Madame Tussauds. For example, if you wanted two tickets to London Zoo, as an adult ticket costs £24, providing the train ticket is less, it’s worth buying one even if you won’t actually go by train (just pop to a station on the way). Though of course it’s an even better saving if you’re actually using it.
Know your train refund rights You may be entitled to money back for delays over 30 minutes, every operator has different rules. Technically the delay or cancellation needs be the operators fault, such as train or signal failures. Yet even when not, such as weather, strikes or maintenance work, some firms will pay out if you claim (as for a claim form when you arrive). More help in www.
mse.me/traindelays.
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