Derby to Liverpool, splits ands routes help!

[RailwayDan]

Hi everyone,

This is my planned journey, for which I hold a 16-25 railcard.

Derby to Liverpool, leaving Derby around 1pm on Wednesday.

Liverpool to Derby, leaving Liverpool around 4pm on Friday.

The Off Peak Return is priced at £28.60 (with a railcard), however I have got this down to £20.85 with a split at Crewe. Splitting at Sheffield increases the price.

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any better (cheaper) ways to do this and what the permitted routes on that flow actually are.

Thanks in advance!

 

[yorkie]

My standard advice:

"Splitting" the journey into a combination of tickets may work. Use a WebTIS website (e.g. EC, LM etc) and click the info (i) button next to the itinerary you want, then tick 'show all calling points', this shows the places where you could "split" the journey into a combination of tickets (note the train must call on the return journey too).

Note that if you want to return a different day (as in this case), then unless singles are sensibly priced (unlikely in the case of shorter distance singles) it will not be cheaper to split at stations where only Day Return tickets are available. Therefore, it is generally only best to look at longer distance tickets, where Off Peak Return (SVR) fares can be combined.

Travelling at "peak" times (which varies by route and ticket held) can be reduced by purchasing tickets with more favourable restrictions and either splitting and/or starting/finishing short. Again, some TOCs do not like this and can take action.

You can take advantage of Routeing Guide anomalies by looking for 'over-distance' tickets which you can then start/finish short, though ATOC and some TOCs are keen to remove such anomalies so if they get mentioned* here that can mean the end of them. Finishing short/breaking your journey is not permitted with Advance tickets though, so this technique is only valid when using "walk on" tickets.

* I have one in mind. I won't mention it here for the reasons posted above, you'll have a PM shortly

 

[RailwayDan]

My standard advice:

"Splitting" the journey into a combination of tickets may work. Use a WebTIS website (e.g. EC, LM etc) and click the info (i) button next to the itinerary you want, then tick 'show all calling points', this shows the places where you could "split" the journey into a combination of tickets (note the train must call on the return journey too).

Note that if you want to return a different day (as in this case), then unless singles are sensibly priced (unlikely in the case of shorter distance singles) it will not be cheaper to split at stations where only Day Return tickets are available. Therefore, it is generally only best to look at longer distance tickets, where Off Peak Return (SVR) fares can be combined.

Travelling at "peak" times (which varies by route and ticket held) can be reduced by purchasing tickets with more favourable restrictions and either splitting and/or starting/finishing short. Again, some TOCs do not like this and can take action.

You can take advantage of Routeing Guide anomalies by looking for 'over-distance' tickets which you can then start/finish short, though ATOC and some TOCs are keen to remove such anomalies so if they get mentioned* here that can mean the end of them. Finishing short/breaking your journey is not permitted with Advance tickets though, so this technique is only valid when using "walk on" tickets.

Thanks yorkie, I was hoping you'd reply good advice as always.