Slough - Winchester Split

[CarltonA]

Planning a day trip to Winchester from Slough. Is Basingstoke the place to split ticket? Thanks.

 

[JonathanH]

Planning a day trip to Winchester from Slough. Is Basingstoke the place to split ticket? Thanks.

Does splitting at Basingstoke actually save any money relative to buying a through ticket (unless the section from Basingstoke is after midday, or on a Sunday)?

 

[CarltonA]

Does splitting at Basingstoke actually save any money relative to buying a through ticket?

That's what I'm trying to establish, I think it does. Splitting at Reading will likely be more expensive.

 

[JonathanH]

That's what I'm trying to establish, I think it does. Splitting at Reading will likely be more expensive.

Yes, it saves money to split at Basingstoke, but only if you leave Basingstoke after midday, or travel on a Sunday, where the second ticket is an 'Evening out' or 'Sunday out'. Otherwise, the through off peak day return is cheaper than splitting.

 

[CarltonA]

Thanks, I did it a few years back and that was a Sunday possibly.

 

[swt_passenger]

Isn’t there also the Saturday reduction in XC calls to watch out for? Will be no good getting a small saving from a split if the obvious through service between Winchester and Reading can’t then be used.

 

[Haywain]

Planning a day trip to Winchester from Slough. Is Basingstoke the place to split ticket? Thanks.

If only there was a website that provided answers to such questions and sold the tickets. With a link at the top of this very page!

 

[CarltonA]

If only there was a website that provided answers to such questions and sold the tickets. With a link at the top of this very page!

Message taken on board. I am working on a small and cheap phone which struggles with some websites. Otherwise I could have looked it up for myself. Thanks for all help received.

 

[Mark J]

Micheldever is also a good split point.

One I've done a few times.

Depending on what time you are traveling.

(All fares listed below are with Railcard discount).

Slough to Micheldever is £14.90

Micheldever to Winchester is £4.55 off peak, £3.10 with an Evening Out Return.

Total is £19.45, £18 with Evening Out.

Slough to Basingstoke is £12.90

Basingstoke to Winchester is £7.95 off peak rtn.

With Evening Out ticket, £5.50

Total is £20.85, £18.40 with evening out.

Of course, you have to be on a service that stops at Micheldever.

 

[TUC]

Why don't your just let Trainsplit, or the equivalent Forum site, work it out for you?

 

[Mark J]

To add to the above.

You can also do a split at Bramley on the Reading to Basingstoke line.

Slough to Bramley - £11.60.
Bramley to Basingstoke - £2.70
Basingstoke to Winchester - £5.50 (Evening out)

Total = £19.80

Why don't your just let Trainsplit, or the equivalent Forum site, work it out for you?

Although these sites work quite well, there are times you can work out cheaper splits by yourself.

On a recent visit to Cambridge, I was able to beat Split ticket site prices by doing a 15 minute walk between two London stations.

Something the various split sites cannot compute.

 

[Haywain]

On a recent visit to Cambridge, I was able to beat Split ticket site prices by doing a 15 minute walk between two London stations.

Something the various split sites cannot compute.

You didn't use Trainsplit then?

 

[FenMan]

Why don't your just let Trainsplit, or the equivalent Forum site, work it out for you?

There are plenty of instances where it can be cheaper to buy walk-up flexible tickets that have validity before your actual originating point and/or beyond your actual destination.

An example: I'll be using a split tomorrow to get from A to C, splitting at B.
However the 2nd ticket will be [X] to C as it's cheaper than the B to C ticket, is perfectly valid for travelling from B to C and has no prohibition on break of journey.

Reasons why this happens include "break-points" where the pricing of flows moves from one TOC to another (also useful for finding off peak tickets with less onerous time restrictions) and tickets permitting travel by various routes where one of the routes includes sections where point to point tickets are more expensive (some might say overpriced!).

I'm not aware of any split-ticketing site that can do this.

 

[MrJeeves]

On a recent visit to Cambridge, I was able to beat Split ticket site prices by doing a 15 minute walk between two London stations.

The forum's site/TrainSplit has an option to not use tickets that include cross-London travel, which would do this too.

It's worth noting that if you know a cheaper split than the website can find, feel free to get in touch with customer support or post it in the forum site ticketing thread and it'll usually be picked up and show on the site the very next day.

I'm not aware of any split-ticketing site that can do this.

Indeed, because no accredited retailer is permitted to sell over-distance fares like this.

 

[Mark J]

There are plenty of instances where it can be cheaper to buy walk-up flexible tickets that have validity before your actual originating point and/or beyond your actual destination.

An example: I'll be using a split tomorrow to get from A to C, splitting at B.
However the 2nd ticket will be [X] to C as it's cheaper than the B to C ticket, is perfectly valid for travelling from B to C and has no prohibition on break of journey.

Reasons why this happens include "break-points" where the pricing of flows moves from one TOC to another (also useful for finding off peak tickets with less onerous time restrictions) and tickets permitting travel by various routes where one of the routes includes sections where point to point tickets are more expensive (some might say overpriced!).

I'm not aware of any split-ticketing site that can do this.

Thanks for this post.

It is something I've not considered before.

Do you have an example journey of the method you have described? I am curious to know.

One abnormality in my area is that a ticket from my local station to Bicester Village costs exactly the same as a ticket to Oxford. Even though Bicester Village station is another 10 miles (or so) further from Oxford, and requires changing train at Oxford for the Chiltern Trains service.

Needless to say, when East West Rail finally opens, this may well be a split point for onward services.

 

[FenMan]

Thanks for this post.

It is something I've not considered before.

Do you have an example journey of the method you have described? I am curious to know.

One abnormality in my area is that a ticket from my local station to Bicester Village costs exactly the same as a ticket to Oxford. Even though Bicester Village station is another 10 miles (or so) further from Oxford, and requires changing train at Oxford for the Chiltern Trains service.

Needless to say, when East West Rail finally opens, this may well be a split point for onward services.

I'm reluctant to provide specifics as pricing managers will be keen to know about them too.

There's a fairly well-known one, albeit a bit niche, where a period off-peak return from [X] via London to [Y] is significantly cheaper than the period off-peak return from [X] to London. The anomaly exists because the two flows are priced by different TOCs. BR Fares is your friend here.

Likewise, it's also fairly well known there are off peak tickets valid from GWR land via London to destinations elsewhere where there are no afternoon restrictions when using the return, which can save a significant sum compared with the prices of peak tickets from Paddington. That said, there is a history of Paddington gateline staff attempting to deny travel when these tickets are used ...

 

[yorkie]

Although these sites work quite well, there are times you can work out cheaper splits by yourself.

On a recent visit to Cambridge, I was able to beat Split ticket site prices by doing a 15 minute walk between two London stations.

Something the various split sites cannot compute.

Did you try specifying the desired change points on the forum's site, and choose the option to exclude cross-London ticketing?

If so, and it still didn't find it, can you either send me the details, or do as suggested by @MrJeeves:

The forum's site/TrainSplit has an option to not use tickets that include cross-London travel, which would do this too.

It's worth noting that if you know a cheaper split than the website can find, feel free to get in touch with customer support or post it in the forum site ticketing thread and it'll usually be picked up and show on the site the very next day.