How far can you get on the least amount of money?

[RailwayDan]

Hi all,

I'm wondering how far you could get for the least amount of money. Our current fares system throws up a lot of quirks and I'm very interested in finding out a few more of these

For the purposes of this, I'd like to discount megatrain fares, as these are quite limited (although I think a winner could be made for a combined London-Birmingham, Birmingham-Edinburgh megatrain ticket for £1 each leg plus 50p)

If this kind of thing interests you, it'd be great to hear your routes. I'd like to suggest two different categories, one for Advance type tickets and the other for Super Off-Peak/Off-Peak type tickets.

Dan.

 

[Clip]

at the moment you can get from Haddenham to either wendover or stoke mandeville and probably great missenden for 10p on way.

 

[Intermodal]

Tell us some example journeys you may be interested in and we'll have a go.

One of my favourites is the £20-30 advance seated fares on the sleeper. Usually 550+ miles, very cheap!

 

[RailwayDan]

Tell us some example journeys you may be interested in and we'll have a go.

One of my favourites is the £20-30 advance seated fares on the sleeper. Usually 550+ miles, very cheap!

Well I'm based in London at the moment, so anywhere circular from there.

Doing my first sleeper next month, I got a berth for £29 so in that price range which I thought was good value!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

at the moment you can get from Haddenham to either wendover or stoke mandeville and probably great missenden for 10p on way.

Overpriced imo

 

[AlterEgo]

The London Midland Great Escape takes some beating. At £10, you could easily cover 1000 miles plus in a day. It'll get you unlimited travel on any of their trains.

 

[142094]

Did Inverness - King's Cross for around £30 1st class last year.

 

[philjo]

I did Kings Cross to Inverness & Aberdeen to Stevenage last month - for £25 each way on the east coast first class flat fare offer.

 

[Scooby]

My daughter & I, with a railcard, have managed Grange over Sands to Portsmouth return for £32.40 on an advance an Grange to Dover single for £15.70.

 

[pemma]

Southern are offering Hastings to London Victoria for £3.70 single plus £2.52 cashback, which makes it £1.18 to get between Hastings and London Victoria.

However, if you have a railcard it's £2.45 single plus £2.52 cashback so Southern will pay you 7p to go between Hastings and London Victoria!

 

[All Line Rover]

Birmingham to Edinburgh at £2.50 return with Megatrain? That's about 500 miles.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The London Midland Great Escape takes some beating. At £10, you could easily cover 1000 miles plus in a day. It'll get you unlimited travel on any of their trains.

And that's really exciting when there is a football match on in Wembley.

 

[IanXC]

However, if you have a railcard it's £2.45 single plus £2.52 cashback so Southern will pay you 7p to go between Hastings and London Victoria!

I think we may have a winner!

 

[Cherry_Picker]

East Coast will pay you about £60 to travel between Kings Cross and Leeds.

(Assuming you drive the train for them of course. )

 

[Zoe]

East Coast will pay you about £60 to travel between Kings Cross and Leeds.

But then you have to travel immediately back to London.

 

[EM2]

I've done King's Cross to Edinburgh for a tenner, two years ago.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

But then you have to travel immediately back to London.

And claim another £60!

 

[All Line Rover]

East Coast will pay you about £60 to travel between Kings Cross and Leeds.

(Assuming you drive the train for them of course. )

When you put it that way, train drivers don't get paid that much, do they? Just 1 passenger is likely to have paid more for their ticket than the train driver gets!

I say that train drivers should get paid the full SOS/SDS fare for each journey - in this case, £119.50! (Or £87.60 on Super-Off-Peak trains.)

 

[MidnightFlyer]

When you put it that way, train drivers don't get paid that much, do they? Just 1 passenger is likely to have paid more for their ticket than the train driver gets!

I say that train drivers should get paid the full SOS/SDS fare for each journey - in this case, £119.50!

And what about freight drivers?

 

[All Line Rover]

And what about freight drivers?

Oh yes a slight oversight there.

To be honest I know very little about being a freight driver.

 

[BigVince76]

I got from Stoke-on-Trent to Penzance in first class with a rail card for £34 pounds last week, bargain!

 

[Statto]

Although i haven't been able to buy one, as i haven't visited the area for a couple of years, i think the Southern DaySave ticket is great value at £12 for one day[off peak i think] travel on any Southern services, unfortunately you can only buy them online on the Southern site at least a week before you travel.

Also think the GMPTE Wayfarer is good value, valid on any train after 9:30am on a normal weekday, you can also go to places outside the GMPTE area with a Wayfarer.

 

[graham43404]

The best value I have booked recently for us was £14.40 each in standard class on East Coast from Leeds to Aberdeen and the same back down again. Not bad for a journey of 6 hours at all.

 

[philjo]

I did one trip Stevenage to Darlington & return 1st class for free.
(GNER had sent me a free 1st class return voucher to exchange for booked seats via their telesales as I had completed a survey on their website regarding the then prototype WebTis booking engine. By the time I actually travelled it was National Express running the trains!)

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Chiltern are doing £1 singles online between bmo/Solihull/warwick parkway and london

 

[Mutant Lemming]

No railcards, no discounts, no booking in advance or online deals just old fashioned walk up to a ticket office and buy the ticket there and then - I don't think your £'s would take you too far.

 

[pemma]

No railcards, no discounts, no booking in advance or online deals just old fashioned walk up to a ticket office and buy the ticket there and then - I don't think your £'s would take you too far.

I'd guess at it being a local fare in West Yorkshire. PTE areas fair best and the West Yorks PTE area tends to fair better than other PTE areas.

 

[dvboy]

Any two stations within the West Midlands, return after 18:30 = £2.
http://tickets.networkwestmidlands....cketID=128&TicketOptionID=15148&resultsPage=0

I assume the longest distance possible would be Wolverhampton-Coventry.

 

[Southern]

Penge West - Hastings 50p Advance Single when Southern had that big sale back in May.

First Off Peak Day Return (Child) from Folkestone Stations - Charing X for just £5.65. It was only ever that cheap on one occassion and I remember being quite suprised.

 

[Deerfold]

Any two stations within the West Midlands, return after 18:30 = £2.
http://tickets.networkwestmidlands....cketID=128&TicketOptionID=15148&resultsPage=0

I assume the longest distance possible would be Wolverhampton-Coventry.

Pfft, in GReater Manchester for just 20p more you can ride round as much as you like after 1830...

http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning/tickets_rail.cfm?submenuheader=1

 

[pemma]

Pfft, in GReater Manchester for just 20p more you can ride round as much as you like after 1830...

http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning/tickets_rail.cfm?submenuheader=1

Restrictions apply. For example, Heald Green to Manchester United FC return will cost you £5.70 in total even if you start your outward journey after 18:30.

 

[Deerfold]

Restrictions apply. For example, Heald Green to Manchester United FC return will cost you £5.70 in total even if you start your outward journey after 18:30.

OK, I'll rephrase that...

Pfft, in GReater Manchester for just 20p more you can ride round as much as you like after 1830... *betwen stations shown on the map at http://www.tfgm.com/upload/library/10-1085_Rail_Ranger_Leaflet_web.pdf which does not have MUFC station on it*

The Evening Ranger would cover you for part of your journey though.