Would be grateful for help to find the cheapest way to complete the above journey.
We can help, but finding the cheapest cannot be guranteed and sometimes the cheapest can be quite slow (if it avoids taking slow trains and/or a longer route).
The Off Peak Return (SVR) costs £56.90 and is valid to return within 1 month.
Advance Single fares are available at suitable times for £19 each way , though not at the exact times you specify, but I see Advance fares are not suitable for you as you need flexibility...
I want to travel on Saturday 26th November and return the same day.
I won't be able to specify trains but would be looking to leave Cardiff around 9am and begin the return journey around 6pm.
Is there a "Split Ticket" option?
Thank you in advance.
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).
In this case there are a lot of stations to choose from: Newport, Cwmbran, Abergavenny, Hereford, etc...
As you want to return the same day day (as in this case), then
Day Return tickets are suitable for you.
For example Cardiff - Hereford is £18.10 for an Off Peak Day Return (CDR), Hereford to Leominister is £5.90 CDR, Leominister to Crewe is £19.70 CDR. That totals £43.70, a saving of £13.20. This is just an example and
not a guarantee that it is the cheapest, however depending on how much time you can spend researching, you may well be able to find the cheapest combination of tickets for this journey (and before you ask, no there isn't a computer program that calculates this as it is very complicated - but people are working on it).
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, however that does not apply for travel on a Saturday.
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, but that's unlikely to be problem as you won't be using Advance fares (there are very few walk-on tickets that do not allow this, on the outward portion, and are unlikely to apply in your case).
