Halifax to Taunton return

[caroline]

Leaving halifax on sunday 11th dec am returning tuesday 13 dec 2 adults must keep to dates flexible travel times. 1 passenger male aged 63 can he get railcard. novice to this, can anyone recommend cheapest tickets/splits.

 

[bb21]

Senior Railcard is available to people over the age of 60.

Are you happy with going the long way round if a cheaper split is available, or would you prefer to be on a more direct route (and generally speaking taking less time)?

As a benchmark,

Halifax - Taunton
Route Not London
Off-Peak Return
£112.20 (£74.05 with Senior Railcard) (Restriction 8X - Valid after 0500)

is almost fully flexible and has virtually no restriction on when you can travel (except a nominal restriction on trains departing before 5am).

Doing a series of splits along the direct Cross Country route saves a small amount. This is composed of:

Halifax - Sheffield
Route Not Doncaster
Anytime Return
£16.00

Sheffield - Derby
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£17.80 (Restriction 2O - Valid after 0900)

Derby - Birmingham Stations
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£14.80 (Restriction 2V - Valid after 0930)

Birmingham Stations - Cheltenham Spa
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£21.10 (Restriction 2V)

Cheltenham Spa - Bristol Temple Meads
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£15.50 (Restriction WG - Valid after 0833 with some small local variations)

Bristol Temple Meads - Taunton
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£17.50 (Restriction WG)

Total: £102.70

All tickets are unrestricted at any time at weekends, and remember that your train must call at the station where you change from one ticket to the next. The combination above should be valid on the majority of through trains on the Cross Country route between Taunton and Leeds, so potentially only involves one change of train in each direction.

There is a cheaper way to get to Birmingham via Manchester, using these tickets:

Halifax - Manchester Stations
Route Any Permitted
Anytime Return
£10.90

Manchester Stations - Stoke-on-Trent
Route Virgin Trnsonly
Anytime Return
£11.00
or
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£14.00 (Restriction 2V)

Stoke-on-Trent - Birmingham Stations
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£15.00 (Restriction 2V - Valid after 0930)

These, plus the same tickets above between Birmingham and Taunton, bring your total down to £91.00.

Railcard fares are approximately one-third cheaper than the full fares quoted above.

 

[wintonian]

I would replace the following in option 2:

Birmingham Stations - Cheltenham Spa
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£21.10 (Restriction 2V)

Cheltenham Spa - Bristol Temple Meads
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£15.50 (Restriction WG - Valid after 0833 with some small local variations)

Bristol Temple Meads - Taunton
Route Any Permitted
Off-Peak Return
£17.50 (Restriction WG)

With a Birmingham - Worcester off-peak ticket (valid after 09:00 mon - fri all day weekends/ holidays) £13.10 (£8.65 with railcard)

and a Freedom of Seven and Solent Rover ticket.

This allows unlimited travel with in the area defined on this map. This costs £40 or 26.40 with a rail card and is valid for any 3 days within a period of 7 consecutive day after 09:00 mon - fri and all day at weekends/ bank holidays.

This generates a small saving on the 2nd option above and gives you a free days travel and your train does not need to stop Worcester due to the tick type, but you would still need to be on a train that stops at the other stations where you change from one ticket to the other.

First Great Western used to have information about it including a leaflet on their website but I think it has been removed now. However there is a limited amount on the National Rail website.

 

[bnm]

I would replace the following in option 2:
This generates a small saving on the 2nd option above and gives you a free days travel and your train does not need to stop Worcester due to the tick type,

But you would need to travel via Worcester which for a small saving may not be worthwhile over a direct Birmingham-Cheltenham service.

 

[wintonian]

But you would need to travel via Worcester which for a small saving may not be worthwhile over a direct Birmingham-Cheltenham service.

In that case you could go to Cheltenham and pick up the rover there for roughly the same price as the split, don't know if it would save anything though.