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birmingham to london

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Phoenix

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Hey just wondering what do you recon is the cheapest fare you can get to london at short notice.
ill be travelling down tuesday morning and have time to book tomorow or sunday.
sorry if this is abit novice.
 
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me123

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Assuming no railcards:

For the first deaprtures of the day, £27.50 is the cheapest (Advance single C) and is available on the 0530 only. Advance B and A tickets cost £41 and £47 respectively and are available for the rest of the morning.

Travel from 10am onwards is £14 maximum if you book just now for an AP single, with some fares showing as little as £10.50. All SC fares.

For future reference, www.thetrainline.com is a very useful website showing all available fares. You can book on this site and collect at BNS station on the day of travel or beforehand, but you need a credit card to book.
 

matt

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Might also be cheaper going from Moor Street or Snow Hill to Marylebone on Chiltern
 

Phoenix

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Aparently if i leave at 10.05 and return at 18.00 it says it will only cost £18.00 is that correct or would it have to be booked right now.
 

David

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For future reference, www.thetrainline.com is a very useful website showing all available fares. You can book on this site and collect at BNS station on the day of travel or beforehand, but you need a credit card to book.

I wouldn't use Thetrainline to book tickets though, as they have the following charges....

  • £1 Surcharge for using a credit/debit card.
  • £1 charge for sending your tickets by 1st class post.
  • 50p charge for collecting your tickets at a fast ticket machine/

Your best bet is to use NRES or any TOC's website to check fares and times, then book your tickets through them.
 

1D53

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I find National Express East Coast's website best for picking out cheap fares where every cheap fare on that day is shown on one page.
 

yorkie

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£5 each way with Virgin if you use the Daily Mail promo (no-one ever asks for vouchers), even has availablilty on the Class 90 back (1650) :D

If you purchase a Route High Wycombe ticket, the Super Off Peak return is £11.90 with a Y-P Railcard.

If you want to travel at peak time, purchase a route Any Permitted Saver, this is valid on all Virgin trains at any time and is priced at £26.05 (Note: if Virgin follow XC's lead by removing this easement in future, the cost of travelling at peak time would increase to £81.20 for a SOR - a staggering 312% increase)
 

me123

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I wouldn't use Thetrainline to book tickets though, as they have the following charges....

  • £1 Surcharge for using a credit/debit card.
  • £1 charge for sending your tickets by 1st class post.
  • 50p charge for collecting your tickets at a fast ticket machine/

Your best bet is to use NRES or any TOC's website to check fares and times, then book your tickets through them.

I find that thetrainline is the simplest to use, even though the technology is used by many of the TOCs. The charges are minimal, and I personally don't mind paying an additional £2 given that it costs me more than that to get to a point where I can pick them up!

I actually prefer to book in person after using thetrainline, as I can ask them exactly what I want: if I make a mistake on thetrainline, it's harder to rectify.
 

yorkie

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I find that thetrainline is the simplest to use, even though the technology is used by many of the TOCs. The charges are minimal, and I personally don't mind paying an additional £2 given that it costs me more than that to get to a point where I can pick them up!
Why not use the FSR site (identical to thetrainline) and donate the £2 each time to charity? ;)
 

me123

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^Because I don't have a credit card and my thick parents won't let me give their details to FSR! :roll:

Given that my father travels and his work pays, he doesn't really give a damn how much money he spends, and I use the same account when I buy them. As I said, I'd rather buy in person anyway and I can ask for exactly what I want and if there is an error, it;s much easier to correct.
 

Tom B

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My experience with trying to buy even moderately complex tickets in person is not good!

On trying to get a ticket from DON to GBL with a YPR traveling tomorrow, it took about five attempts to get a ticket which was correct...
 

yorkie

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^Because I don't have a credit card and my thick parents won't let me give their details to FSR! :roll:
But how is that any different to using Thetrainline?

I don't see why anyone doesn't "mind paying an additional £2" to use Thetrainline rather than a site that is identical to Thetrainline :-?
 

Tom B

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You don't need a credit card anyway, you can do it with a debit card.
 

me123

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But how is that any different to using Thetrainline?

I don't see why anyone doesn't "mind paying an additional £2" to use Thetrainline rather than a site that is identical to Thetrainline :-?

But, you can't use both with the same account, can you? :?

And I don't have a debit card in my name, either.
 

yorkie

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So basically the only reason why Thetrainline is "simplest to use" for you, and you are happy to pay the extra costs, is because you're using your parents account?

I don't think that really applies as general advice for most people ;)

Although that does bring us back to the original question: why are they so happy for Thetrainline to charge them extra penalty* charges?

I think David's got this spot on, it's strongly adviseable not to use Thetrainline.com

* I know they don't admit that they are penalty charges, but they are charges that would not be incurred if you used any of their other affiliate sites, and they place those charges on you for 'extra' services, rather like the banks penalty charges, so I would say I am entirely justified in calling them penalty charges.
 

me123

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They never travel for abything other than business, so their work pays whatever "needs" to be paid, including this "penalty charge". (Of course, they can't go FOR when they can go SVR return unless they can justify the cost, but that's irrelevent).
 

paul1609

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If I'm spending more than £25 and booking in advance i try and use Ledbury Station http://www.ledbury.plus.com/order.htm Its not very high tech and you have to send a cheque through the post but i just like the principal of the one man railway station business.
John is a rail enthusiast and very helpful.
 

djw1981

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I like the NXEC site - clear pricing, no supplements. Trainline is clunky, poor searching, and full of annoying adverts, and last time I used it, the insurance was opt-out not opt-in.
 

RJ

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I use the National Railway website to book tickets then pick them up at Waterloo Travel Centre or any FastTicket machine.

I signed up for a debit card the day I turned 16, its advisable to have one.
 

matt

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I use the National Railway website to book tickets then pick them up at Waterloo Travel Centre or any FastTicket machine.

I signed up for a debit card the day I turned 16, its advisable to have one.

As far as I know you can't book tickets from nationalrail or at least you didn't used to be able to
 

Phoenix

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Cheers for all the information guys I eventually opted for london midland Birmingham international to Euston with a Travel card for London for the day.
 

class 313

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As far as I know you can't book tickets from nationalrail or at least you didn't used to be able to

Indeed, last time I checked you cant/couldn't.

I have always used The Trainline apart from when I went to Dawlish. I booked that via fGW.
 

RJ

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As far as I know you can't book tickets from nationalrail or at least you didn't used to be able to

You can use the NR site to choose which tickets you want then choose a vendor to buy them from after.
 

matt

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So you don't actaul book tickets on national rail, you still have to use a TOC or thetrainline etc to buy the tickets
 

Max

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I can't actually understand why anybody would use thetrainline. What's the point in getting charged fees and having to put up with their abysmal customer service when all of the TOC sites are identical, there are no fees and no little tricks (like the opt-out insurance djw mentioned)? I just don't understand! Meanwhile, the NXEC system is far clearer. To be honest, it's pot luck as to which site I use. Sometimes NXEC, sometimes Transpennine Express, sometimes Scotrail...just depends what mood I'm in! Never thefarce...*ahem*...I mean thetrainline though.
 

djw1981

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But FSR is just a rebranded front end onto the trainline software......or at least it acts like it is.

The NXEC site is very nice, and remembers my card details. Rather handy indeed.
 

Max

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But FSR is just a rebranded front end onto the trainline software......or at least it acts like it is.

...but without any sneaky fees! ;)

djw1981 said:
The NXEC site is very nice, and remembers my card details. Rather handy indeed.

Indeed, and they accept Solo too!
 
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