Leicester to Birmingham International fare help

Good evening

I am sorry if I am being dim but I am struggling to understand the complexities of booking what should be a straightforward ticket.

Details:
Depart Leicester 2 Jan 2019 at 06:18
Arriving Birmingham International as early as possible. I must be at the airport by 7.50am

Depart Birmingham International 9 Jan at about 1pm
Arriving Leicester as soon as possible thereafter.

For information I have a senior railcard and want to buy a return ticket

Questions:
1 Is it likely that the first train from Leicester to Birmingham New St at 06:18 will run? On time? I am worried because it is the first day after the New Year bank holiday.
2 IF that train runs on time then I would like the flexibility of being able to catch the first train from New St to Birm Int'l. ANY train. This is a problem as most if not all tickets seem restricted on which trains I can catch from New St to International.
3 I can't find a return ticket from Leicester to Birmingham Int. I can only find two seperate returns - L to BHM and BHM to BInt. Am I missing something??
4 I want to be able to catch the first train back from Birm Int to Leicester on the 9th, hence the return ticket must be open.

Thanks for any help. If in all of this it could be the cheapest option possible that would be a bonus!

Thanks again everyone.

From the excellent BR Fares website, Anytime Day Single with a Senior Railcard £13.00 for your outbound journey, and a Off Peak Day Single, £9.90 with a restriction from 15.30 departing BHI. There doesn't appear to be a relevant return fare available

Route 00299 VIA NUNEATON
Cross-London NO
Fare Setter IXC CROSSCOUNTRY
FIRST CLASS
7DF SEVEN DAY 1ST ◊ 1ST SEASON CHILD: £106.95
FDR ANYTIME DAY 1R ◊ 1ST RETURN SNR: £33.25 CHILD: £25.20
FDS ANYTIME DAY 1S ◊ 1ST SINGLE SNR: £27.90 CHILD: £21.15
STANDARD CLASS
7DS SEVEN DAY STD ◊ STD SEASON CHILD: £47.40
SDR ANYTIME DAY R ◊ STD RETURN SNR: £13.35 CHILD: £10.10
SVR OFF-PEAK R 2V ◊ STD RETURN SNR: £12.50 CHILD: £9.45
CDR OFF-PEAK DAY R BX ◊ STD RETURN SNR: £10.10 CHILD: £7.65
SDS ANYTIME DAY S ◊ STD SINGLE SNR: £13.00 CHILD: £9.85
SVS OFF-PEAK S 2V ◊ STD SINGLE SNR: £12.15 CHILD: £9.20
CDS OFF-PEAK DAY S BX ◊ STD SINGLE SNR: £9.90 CHILD: £7.50

I was just looking at RTT, your service from Leicester arrives New Street at 07.13 and the next service to BHI is 07.33, arrives 07.45

1. No particular reason why it SHOULDN'T run, and on time, but that is no absolute guarantee.
2. The only fare I can find for your train is an ANYTIME single at £13.40 - by definition you can use any train you like (there isnt an Advance fare, because the onward train from New Street isn't run by XC)
3. There is no ANYTIME RETURN fare for the journey, only an ANYTIME DAY RETURN which is of no use, or an OFF-PEAK RETURN which is no use early morning.
4. You therefore need to buy an ANYTIME SINGLE outward and an OFF-PEAK DAY SINGLE on your return at £10.20. CORRECTION: not valid from International after 15.30 until 1815, if you are delayed you pay the OFFPEAK SINGLE fare.

Whether there is a clever workaround I don't know, but someone here might...

There is an option to change to the bus at Coleshill Parkway.
Leicester 06:18
Coleshill (arr) 06:58
Coleshill (dep bus 75) 07:08
Birmingham Intl (arr) 07:28

This avoids the need to change at Birmingham New Street, which might be useful if you have luggage. The Leicester - Coleshill train would arrive on the bus interchange side. All the stops are within 50yds step free.

If it went horribly wrong (e.g. the bus didn’t turn up), then a taxi would take 10 mins and cost about £12.

The return bus departs Birmingham International at xx:20 (hourly - note last bus is 14:20)
Train is xx:07, arriving Leicester at xx:50 - so note quite as effective

Assuming you have a concessionary bus pass, the cost is £13.05 (Lei - CEH) + £1 (bus, travel before 9:30) with concessionary pass + £9.85 (CEH - LEI) = £23.90

As Mike99 has stated, there is no one ticket that caters for your journey needs. For travel before the Off-Peak ticket is valid, there is only an Anytime Day Single or Return, no Anytime Return as there usually is to an airport station.

There are no Advance tickets on sale for the 06:43 service, and you have said you would prefer the flexibility to take any train on the way back - thus the cheapest option for that would be an Anytime Day Single plus an Off-Peak Day Single. That adds up to a total of £23.60 with the Railcard discount.

If you are able to buy your tickets for the return journey in advance at all - even just 15 minutes prior to departure - you may be able to buy an Advance fare, which may cost a fair amount less than the Off-Peak Day Single. However if you are buying an Advance on the day of travel, this would need to be done online, e.g. via mobile phone.

You could then either use an e-ticket or collect the tickets at the station. If you are intending to do the latter, you would be well advised to use a site such as TransPennine Express or Southern that uploads ticket booking details to the system immediately. Sites that are based on The TrainLine, such as CrossCountry or Virgin, can take anywhere between some minutes and a few hours to do this, which obviously isn't much help if your train is in 15 minutes!

Alternatively, you could book for a specific train now, as Advances for certain trains back are really quite cheap. If you make that train, great - if not, you can, before the train is scheduled to depart, change the ticket without a fee, to either a different train Advance or to a flexible ticket, if you have booked via the CrossCountry website (NB not the app). Obviously in that case you would want to select an e-ticket.

I think in this case, however, an Advance for the way back would be quite complicated if your plans are subject to change, so given the relatively small difference it is probably not worth the hassle.

30907 said:

1. No particular reason why it SHOULDN'T run, and on time, but that is no absolute guarantee.
2. The only fare I can find for your train is an ANYTIME single at £13.40 - by definition you can use any train you like (there isnt an Advance fare, because the onward train from New Street isn't run by XC)
3. There is no ANYTIME RETURN fare for the journey, only an ANYTIME DAY RETURN which is of no use, or an OFF-PEAK RETURN which is no use early morning.
4. You therefore need to buy an ANYTIME SINGLE outward and an OFF-PEAK SINGLE on your return at £10.20. CORRECTION: not valid from International after 15.30 until 1815, if you are delayed you may need to pay the Anytime fare.

Whether there is a clever workaround I don't know, but someone here might...

Click to expand...

For the way back, the Off-Peak Day Single is all that is required if travelling at 13:00. If the passenger is travelling between 15:30 and 18:14 inclusive, they would only need to excess to the Off-Peak Single, which is valid anytime after 09:30.

Simple, isn't it

ForTheLoveOf said:

For the way back, the Off-Peak Day Single is all that is required if travelling at 13:00. If the passenger is travelling between 15:30 and 18:14 inclusive, they would only need to excess to the Off-Peak Single, which is valid anytime after 09:30.

Simple, isn't it

Click to expand...

Well spotted, I've corrected my original post AGAIN. But as it's a walk-up fare, you just buy at the relevant time.

You could consider leaving Leicester at 0520, arriving into Birmingham International at 06:15, using National Express from St Margarets Bus Station, the cost is £7.10 single.

Easy for your luggage, and gets you to Birmingham International in plenty of time.

Many many thanks everyone. I am considering the coleshill parkway route using the bus. Never done it before. Is it reliable and is it running on the 2nd? Couldn't find it online.

Presumably my free bus pas won't work on that route ?

Thanks again everyone and merry christmas to you all

Yes, you can use your concessionary bus pass on the Route 75 bus.

https://www.diamondbuses.com/west-midlands/bus-services/

Can I get off train early? I plan to go on the Coleshill parkway route. But.... if my train is running late from Leicester then I would stay on the train to New St and then get the train to Birmingham International.

So, if I buy a ticket from Leicester to BHM or BHI can I get off early at Coleshill? Or would I be stopped at the barrier. Thanks again

bb21 said:

Yes, you can use your concessionary bus pass on the Route 75 bus.

https://www.diamondbuses.com/west-midlands/bus-services/

Click to expand...

won't the bus pass only be valid after 09.30,

suzanneparis said:

Can I get off train early? I plan to go on the Coleshill parkway route. But.... if my train is running late from Leicester then I would stay on the train to New St and then get the train to Birmingham International.

So, if I buy a ticket from Leicester to BHM or BHI can I get off early at Coleshill? Or would I be stopped at the barrier. Thanks again

Click to expand...

Yes you can as it isn't an Advance.

30907 said:

Yes you can as it isn't an Advance.

Click to expand...

Not being an Advance is not always sufficient, as some off-peak walk-up tickets also forbid break of journey. However, I believe that Anytime tickets cannot ever forbid break of journey, so getting off at Coleshill Parkway is fine.

dave4jackie said:

won't the bus pass only be valid after 09.30,

Click to expand...

Yes, apologies, subject to the normal time restriction. Missed that one.

dave4jackie said:

won't the bus pass only be valid after 09.30,

Click to expand...

Diamond charge £1 for concessionary pass use before 09:30

suzanneparis said:

Can I get off train early? I plan to go on the Coleshill parkway route. But.... if my train is running late from Leicester then I would stay on the train to New St and then get the train to Birmingham International.

So, if I buy a ticket from Leicester to BHM or BInt can I get off early at Coleshill? Or would I be stopped at the barrier. Thanks again

Click to expand...

There are no barriers at Coleshill...a manual barrier is a rare sight.

muug1982 said:

Diamond charge £1 for concessionary pass use before 09:30

Click to expand...

ok that's good valu

When I said stopped at the barrier I meant either by an automatic barrier or a manned barrier. Presumably automatic barriers stop people getting off the platform if they think the ticket isnt valid???

Anyway, in the end I didn't do the Coleshill route. I decided to go straight through.