King's Cross to Aviemore

[Urban Gateline]

Yes I got the inspiration from the same-named thread in the Railway General Discussion area!

I would like to do this journey at some point in the summer months this year and I am trying to work out the best value fares.

First I looked at the PRIV fares, however it is £85.50 for a STD Class Anytime Return.

Advance fares seem to start from as low as £19 STD Class each way, so £38 if I found the cheapest tier Advances! Also with 1st Class upgrades on both legs for £95.60 total (With Y-P Railcard), even that seems more attractive than the PRIV fare considering the food and drinks included and more comfortable seating for such a long journey!

I realise that the PRIV ticket is much more flexible, however I still can't get my head around how a public ticket can be so much cheaper than the so-called "Discounted" PRIV tickets!

Has anyone done this journey before using Split ticketing? I was wondering if a cheaper PRIV fare is possible this way. I would be grateful if anyone can offer a cheaper way of doing this Journey, unfortunately Mathematics isn't my strong point!

Thank you for any insight given

 

[soil]

Generally once you get north of about Newcastle, prices from London do not increase significantly relative to distance travelled.

The longest distance fares are generally the best value, cf. something like London - Swindon, which mile-per-mile, for an Anytime fare, is obsecenely expensive.

There is therefore rarely any point in trying to split return fares from London to Scotland, since the through fare is generally the cheapest option.

Advances on the other hand are often best if booked on a change-by-change basis; so if you chose to change at Edinburgh for example you would want to search advances for London - Edinburgh and Edinburgh - Aviemore separately in addition to London - Aviemore.

Obviously it's a question of flexibility versus price and possibly comfort, just because you are getting 75% off on the Anytime fare, doesn't make it a good deal for any given train, if there are public Advances that are in effect more than 75% cheaper.

It does however give you the option to go on the spur of the moment without booking in advance.

It's worth noting also that super-off-peak returns, sold to the public, are already 60% cheaper than anytime fares for this route, so the discount is really only huge if you insist on travelling at peak times. For other flows, e.g., Wokingham - Guildford, the difference between off-peak and peak is only 15%, so here obviously the PRV fare is a much better deal. On longer journeys where Anytime tickets cost vastly more than off-peak tickets, the PRV is not so great - unless you want to travel in the peak.

 

[cuccir]

Much of the above will be true for this trip. However, a few specific comments:

• Looking at the current tickets available furthest in the future, the very cheapest fares seem only to be available on the direct 08:29 service from Aviemore to King's Cross. Here, I find it very unlikley that you'll save by splitting!
• For other times, try splitting at Edinburgh to save. There are a lot of £11 each way advances Edinburgh-Aivemore (and a few first class £22.05 advances), and a lot of £28.90 each way (£47.50 first class) tickets from London-Edinburgh. This would bring the added advantage of allowing you to book at bit of time in Edinburgh on the journey to Aviemore.

By splitting at Edinburgh on the way up and taking the direct 08:29 back, you could get a standard class return for around £59, or first class return on the whole thing for £120.05.

Standard Class Advance singles on the way up and First Class on the direct 08:29 back would set you back £90.90.

It may be that the very cheapest option will be to find well-priced Priv tickets to get one way, and then to return on that cheap-o Advance fare.

 

[Urban Gateline]

Thank you both very much for your comments, I thought as much! For the distance covered it's probably not bad value at all, I'm just a bargain hunter

It may be that the very cheapest option will be to find well-priced Priv tickets to get one way, and then to return on that cheap-o Advance fare.

This is very true, the single is basically half the return price on this flow so I could do one way using PRIV and the cheaper return bit using an Advance ticket! There seems to be availability of the £19 Advance on the Chieftain from Aviemore to London Terminals so with that and the PRIV single one way it works out at about £63...hmm

 

[reb0118]

Do you get any reciprical free travel with any other TOCs?

Have you thought aboubt the sleeper ~ staff prices are here

 

[Urban Gateline]

Do you get any reciprical free travel with any other TOCs?

Have you thought aboubt the sleeper ~ staff prices are here

Only free EMT travel, which doesn't help much! I'm not sure what EC Guards are like with other TOC's staff in giving them lifts, if you get what I mean

I wanted to avoid using the sleeper as you don't see much, prefer the journey to be during daylight if possible

 

[John @ home]

I wanted to avoid using the sleeper as you don't see much

In summer, on the Highland sleeper you can see a great deal. When it gets light, there's still several hundred miles to go.

 

[Urban Gateline]

In summer, on the Highland sleeper you can see a great deal. When it gets light, there's still several hundred miles to go.

Thank you, I hadn't considered that properly! I guess if I chose one of the longest daylight days of the year it would be more beneficial. Although its such a long Journey, I don't like the idea of missing the view so East Coast still seems the best choice!

Also made a mistake with calculation of the 1st Avance fares, it's actually quite a bit more as I had clicked "First Class Upgrade return" thinking that was for both legs of the Journey, amateur mistake I guess

 

[reb0118]

Only free EMT travel, which doesn't help much!

You'll get as far north as Leeds or Sheffield at least. Cheap anytime tickets (privable ) from Leeds to Glasgow rte: Appleby. [about £10 single]

There is a Highland Rover that would take you from Glasgow via Mallaig, Kyle, & Inverness to Aviemore. [About £20 for 4/8 days]

To be fair it is a long way for a short cut! Scenic though!

 

[Urban Gateline]

You'll get as far north as Leeds or Sheffield at least. Cheap anytime tickets (privable ) from Leeds to Glasgow rte: Appleby. [about £10 single]

There is a Highland Rover that would take you from Glasgow via Mallaig, Kyle, & Inverness to Aviemore. [About £20 for 4/8 days]

To be fair it is a long way for a short cut! Scenic though!

Thank you for all that information, it's definitely something for me to consider as it's cheap, the SOR Leeds->Glasgow route Appleby is less than £14 with PRIV! When looking this up I found the extortionate XC fare which costs four times as much!

Of course the downside as you pointed out is it's the long way round, it'd probably cost me an extra 2 nights in hotels along the way so the cost might then match that of the more direct route, albeit for a 4 day trip potentially as opposed to 2 days!
I've heard good things about the Kyle line though so the Rover could prove useful too