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Advice please: Crewe to Totnes

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6Gman

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A local Crewe charity needs to send 2 people on a training course in Totnes. Out Monday morning, back Wednesday evening.

NRE fare quoted is £109.70?

Any suggestions for inventive ways of cutting costs?
 
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Romilly

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Even if it is just for this trip, buying a Two Together railcard in the names of the two staff members (cost £30) would save 34% off the £219.40 - I'm assuming that they don't need to leave before 0930 (the railcard is not valid before then).

Second, buying them offpeak returns for Crewe-Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton-Cheltenham, and Cheltenham-Totnes, would reduce £219.40 to £190.20

So my suggestion would cost £190.20 plus £30 for the railcard less approx £64.60 by way of the 34% discount, giving a total of about £155.60 which is a saving of about £64.

[Or for a journey of just over 5 hours (instead of just over 4 hours) leaving on the 1008 on a Monday, an Anytime return via Hereford is £120 with the Two Together discount, i.e. a total of £150 including the cost of the railcard.]
 
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jkdd77

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If the first part of the outward journey is made just before 9:30, and hence is not eligible for the Two Together discount, Virgin apparently offer 20% discount on their own advances for certain charities, as per: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/prd47a6bc35ce741019b6b75f6258ae9.aspx

I don't know if Virgin still offer an easement allowing 'peak time' use of Off Peak tickets by charity employees, but, if they do, all travel with that portion of that ticket would need to be on Virgin trains only, as would also be the case for eligible railcard holders (note- this easement does not apply to Two Together railcard holders).
 
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6Gman

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There's a complication. They now need to set off early morning Monday, so definitely not off-peak!
 

Romilly

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How early? Splitting tickets is still likely to help, as that way you can end up with Anytime tickets just for the first part of the journey, and offpeak tickets for the rest.
 

yorkie

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Yes, before 0930 when the fare is set by CrossCountry (XC) is generally not going to be valid on an Off Peak ticket, so you're looking at £229.20 for an Anytime Return (SOR), or an eye-watering price not far short of that for some expensive through Advance fares.

This is because XC want to charge a premium for longer distance passengers at a much higher price than many short distance passengers would pay to occupy the same space.

However you may be interested to learn that a forum member has created a booking engine - Trainsplit - that will sell a combination of tickets at the best price it can find (this is not guaranteed to be the cheapest, though it often will be).

In this case it will sell you tickets at £109.62 (each) if you depart, at 0649 and return at 1850, simply choose your desired times and the site will do the rest.
 

Romilly

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Alternatively, for £181.80 (i.e. £90.90 per person) the staff members could travel via Hereford on an Anytime Return without any railcard discount. The times of the first three options are (Crewe dep/Totnes arr): 0449/1013, 0555/1117, 0708/1216. But with this ticket they would also have to come back via Hereford. The journey involves changing at Newport (South Wales), and Bristol Temple Meads (except that the penultimate return journey which is on the 1650 involves changing at Taunton instead of Bristol: the last return journey via Hereford involves leaving Totnes at 1850 but there is a tight connection at Newport).
 
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6Gman

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I don't think the ladies would fancy changing at Newport and Bristol/ Taunton, but thanks for all the suggestions. :)

Looks like splitting at Cheltenham may be the best option - just waiting for details on when exactly they need to get to Totnes.

Many thanks.
 

6Gman

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I have an added complication.

One lady needs to travel from Stockport, rather than Crewe.

The peak/ off-peak rules seem to be harsher from Stockport. Any ideas?

(Still needs to be in Totnes around noon, so 0917 from Birmingham)
 
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