Penzance to reading

[AmeralGunson]

Hello everybody, I do hope you can help me. My son and his girlfriend live in Penzance and are hoping to come to visit me next month. I have tried to make sense of various websites for train tickets and they are all a bit confusing to me as well as quoting what seems like extremely - even allowing for Britain's expensive train fares - expensive fares. People keep telling me that if they book early they can secure a bargain. How does one do this, what I'm trying to ask is how early is early.
They are looking to travel from Penzance to Reading on Thursday July 10th and return from Reading to Penzance on Tuesday 15th July. Neither of them drives and I don't really want to drive to Penzance to collect them. The coach is cheaper but I'd feel happier of they were on the train.
Thankyou.
Ameral.

 

[causton]

The cheapest fares are released roughly 12 weeks before the date, so that is "early". What time of day will they be travelling each way?

Perhaps a Two Together Railcard could help them, it costs £30 and gives them a third off travel after 09:30 on weekdays for a year when the two of them travel together

Edit: At a quick look, the most flexible ticket they would probably want is a Super Off Peak Return, costing £122.80 for both of them (so call it £150 and then they get 1/3 off the rest of their travel together for the year as a bonus) and lets them travel on almost any train (not during peak times, obviously) on those days. This is quite short notice, as far as the railways are concerned, and that is quite a good deal.

Cheapest offer on Advances (tickets which tie them to a specific train) cheapest I can find is £58.60 and £51.40 each way for both, meaning £110 cheapest (plus the cost of the Railcard) but they have to be sure what time of day they're travelling!

 

[Urban Gateline]

Advance fares can be booked up to 12 weeks in Advance, so the answer is that it would have been far cheaper to book about 9/10 weeks ago for this Journey!

The cheapest I can find (without railcards) seems to be £155.60 for two people, with a choice of quite a few trains on the return but only the 14:52 outward on 10th July.

However if they were to buy a Two-together Railcard for £30 then it brings the total down to £102.80 (£132.80 if you include the Railcard, which can be used again on other trips for up to a year).

There are also Super Off-Peak returns available for £61.40 each if they get a two-together Railcard (£152.80 all inclusive). These are valid on nearly all the trains on this Journey and it means they aren't tied to specific trains!

I'm guessing that the coach will be cheaper in this case? Maybe other forum members could suggest and splits for this Journey but it might be too complicated for the passengers concerned if they don't travel by trainoften!

 

[AmeralGunson]

Thankyou for your replies. I think I might advise them to get one of the two together railcards. Booking ahead by twelve weeks is not always possible because of what he does for a living means that he often doesn't know what days he will be working until three weeks or so before. I'm beginning to understand now when people tell me that travelling on trains is so awkward as far as fares go. I used to travel by train a lot when my sons were little, the fares seemed so simple then but nowadays it's such a complicated business it seems.