Hello can anyone please give me some help with the following route:
Friday 21 October Leicester to Kew Bridge BUT including a break at Blackfriars and then from Blackfriars to Piccadilly Circus( or Oxford Circus) then on to Kew Bridge
Sunday 23rd Kew Bridge to Cromer
Tuesday 25th Cromer to Leicester
What is the cheapest way to do this three part journey? It would be useful but not essential to have some flexibility on the journey from cromer to leicester (maybe weds 26th instead of 25th). But not essential.
Confusion. Sunday is showing as bus replacement for the ipswitch to norwich section BUT shows via cambridge - is the route via cambridge also bus replacement??
Many thanks for any help
Kind regards
Unfortunately, the fact that walkup single tickets generally cost only £1 or so less than a return means there's an effective 'tax' on triangular journeys if you want flexibility. Accordingly you will likely be best served by buying Advance tickets, as these are priced as individual journeys and so don't carry the same premium of walkup singles.
You haven't said what time you'd like to travel on any of these journeys so I'll quote a few options.
For your first leg of the journey on the Friday, you'll be best off buying an Advance to London St Pancras. The cheapest Advance at a sensible time is £12.50 (with your Railcard) on the 13:13 from Leicester, which would get you to St Pancras at 14:27. If that's too late, the 09:12, 10:13 or 10:32 are all £20.45, the 11:13, 11:32, 12:32, 12:43 or 13:04 are £17.45, and the 11:43 or 12:13 are £15.15. All have journey times of between 1h04m and 1h14m. More expensive Advances are also available on other services, but those are the ones worth considering in my view.
You would then use a contactless or Oyster card for the remainder of your travel that day - you'll hit the daily Zones 1-3 cap with the journeys you make. It would be slightly cheaper to get your Railcard applied to an Oyster card (you can have this done at any Underground station), as that would mean the daily cap would be discounted from £9 to £5.95 - but you can also just use a contactless card if you don't mind paying the undiscounted price.
For the second leg of the journey on the Sunday, as you say, the normal route from Liverpool Street to Norwich has replacement buses between Ipswich and Norwich. You can alternatively travel via Cambridge, Ely and Thetford if you prefer - this avoids the replacement buses, although it doesn't save any time because it's a longer route.
If you want to avoid the replacement buses, it looks like Advances are available for just £10.45 on pretty much any itinerary, if you are happy to change at Clapham Junction, Victoria, Kings Cross, Ely and Norwich. TrainSplit suggests this when you select 'value' mode. The reason for the (theoretically unnecessary) change at Clapham Junction is that none of the other trains in the journey have reservations available, and you need at least one reservation to be issued when you buy an Advance ticket. It doesn't cost you any extra time though, it just means an additional change.
You'd otherwise have to pay at least £22.40 to travel via Liverpool Street and Cambridge, or £31.40 to travel via Kings Cross and Cambridge/Ely. In my view the significant saving justifies the slight inconvenience, but that's obviously for you to decide.
For the third leg of the journey on the Tuesday, it will cost you quite a bit extra to have flexibility - a through single is £40.30, and even if you buy a combination of tickets splitting at Norwich and Stamford, it will cost you £35.30. By comparison, through Advances are available from £14.50 - on the 05:53, 06:42, 10:58, 12:58, 14:58 and 17:00 departures from Cromer - changing at Norwich and Ely. Slightly more expensive Advances are also available on other departures.
Overall, you can make your triangular journey from as little as £43.40 if you choose Advances and go for the cheapest trains. I'd say that's pretty good value for money!
