25% off a 16-25 Rail Card until Midnight tomorrow.
http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/sale1625/
http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/sale1625/
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ModernRailways
Established Member
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- 21 Apr 2011
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Normally August isn't it? More of an end of summer sale.
Butts
Veteran Member
BRX
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- Joined
- 20 Oct 2008
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How reliably does it appear in August...? Trying to decide to book advance tickets for the end of the month now, or wait in the hope that EC announce a sale in the next week or two.
Qwerty133
Established Member
Good to see no one fell for EMTs Leicester 'sale', sale is in quotation marks as £12.50 is cheaper than £9, apparently it's also appropriate to charge the same price as the recent Sheffield sale which is double the journey length, or £7.50 MORE than Derby which is further away as well.
ModernRailways
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I'd suggest you just book now. If you wait, they may not have a sale until September, and if you do wait and they have the sale you may not save overly much.
I have a sneaky suspicion it may begin at the end of this week as this week is their '#ILOVETRAINS' week isn't it?
Do we have any context for this?
Qwerty133
Established Member
IanD
Established Member
London mIdland having a sale next week on tickets to/from Brum:
http://www.londonmidland.com/days-out-and-offers/attractions-and-offers/flashsale/
http://www.londonmidland.com/days-out-and-offers/attractions-and-offers/flashsale/
London Midland said:
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Did anyone else get an email from Southeastern offering 10% off?
http://tickets.southeasternrailway....ng?id=PINpromotionsummer2014&&isAllowed=False
http://tickets.southeasternrailway....ng?id=PINpromotionsummer2014&&isAllowed=False
No. But I had to opt out from their email updates because I kept getting the same 'great value fares online' email every day.
Me too, I opted out after getting 9 emails in a week.
Easy way to lose a customer - there are plenty of other rail ticket web sites.
9 emails and still their deals are the worst of all London area TOC's, except perhaps FCC. I was thinking of going to the coast - looked at returns to Ramsgate/Margate and no advances. I then went to southern to book a far cheaper ticket to Sussex. It's the same 99% of the year.
Here's a common example for 2 weeks time. Southern are offering quite a few London to Brighton for £5 on 2 Sept at good times. Southeastern London to Ramsgate £32.80 single. Nothing cheaper at all, and that's on 'classic' services from Victoria. Off-peak on SE is not exactly packed so why not offer some decent deals?
Here's a common example for 2 weeks time. Southern are offering quite a few London to Brighton for £5 on 2 Sept at good times. Southeastern London to Ramsgate £32.80 single. Nothing cheaper at all, and that's on 'classic' services from Victoria. Off-peak on SE is not exactly packed so why not offer some decent deals?
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Kite159
Veteran Member
Southeastern do have some cracking deals, the £10 return fares offers when they run, from London to selected locations, including HS1 are good value for money (compared to their regular fares, which are quite pricey compared to Southern/London Midland)
In the life of their franchise (7 years?) that offer has run for all of about 2 weeks on 2 occasions. It's nothing compared to other TOCs with offers on either continuously or very frequently.
They put them on at times when not much use (the coast in mid winter for example). Southern have cheap advance coastal fares in summer and school holidays. Southerns deals apply from London suburban stations too. Southeastern's deal did not. Central London only so someone in, say Bromley, had to go all the way into central London to head out again.
I've been on cracking deals from Chiltern, SW trains, Southern and GA in the past year due to frequent offers. I would have liked to have gone to Kent more but SE make it unaffordable a lot of the time. A shame as empty off peak trains could be filled up with good advance deals.
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alex17595
Member
I agree, the fares are pretty expensive. The only time I have been to Kent was on advance tickets priced by Virgin (and a BZ6-Gravesend last week).
LM do the Great escape fairly regularly and Southern have the day save (not really an offer).
Southeastern doesn't? offer any advance tickets either, making it even more expensive!
Southeastern don't have any competition so they cannot offer the same kinds of fares as either London Midland or Southern since it would cannibalise their revenues.
For example, the £10 to the coast off-season is designed to attract custom when they would not otherwise have it. You'll recognise that this offer has never been available to Canterbury. Reason - they feel they are extracting the right amount of revenue for that journey.
I would expect fares on Southern to revert to more normal levels (ie the same as Southeastern and South West Trains) once the FCC / Southern duopoly is removed.
Thats not quite true. The Portas pilot scheme ran just about every weekened to Margate with HS1 included from Noevermber to Easter the following year.
Ah yes I forgot that one but it was extremely limited. Only Margate wasn't it and weekend only which wasn't much good to me. Plus throughout winter and early spring and as soon as the weather warmed up it stopped! Clearly to increase patronage at quiet times but there's empty trains in spring/summer too. Also it was only available at stations and not online wasn't it, perhaps with a limited number making it difficult to know if any available? Could be wrong but I do recall when it was on that I was thinking of using it and it just wasn't much use with the excessive restrictions compared to other TOC advances. I wish they would do a limited amount of advances throughout the year for journeys across the week and easily available online like most other TOCs.
I do doubt southern will remove advances when it merges properly with FCC. £5 to say £35 (as SE would charge) would be quite a jump and leave empty trains running off peak. Plus South west trains often do tickets for £1/£5/£8 to Weymouth, Southampton etc where they don't have much competition. GA do good deals to Norwich etc too.
SE clearly feel they are happy enough to not offer them. Having seen how empty off peak can be I'd suggest they could carry more passengers and make more money if they tried it. The problem, as ever with SE, is not being innovative enough to try offering a decent amount of advances across the week from various stations to see what happens. Kent coastal resorts (many are struggling) aren't benefiting from the policy either. SE just don't try many new things compared to other TOCs, including bizarrely their sister company southern where there MD worked (and is now going back...).
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Possibly it would but then again it could well increase passenger numbers substantially and tap people who wouldn't consider it at current prices thus revenue increases. I know that I almost never use them due to the prices, along with quite a few people I know. Anecdotal yes, but at such poor value compared to other TOC's and destinations it may be widespread. With cheaper advances I would take more trips undoubtedly.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
FGW also do good value advances too throughout the year. SW do through megatrain. GA do as well quite often. Currently the Stansted Express is also very good value too with £8 advances which is ideal during the summer. Chiltern have very good offers frequently. Virgin & east coast too etc. So many TOCs do. I really can't think of one with as little as SE.
Many will be on routes that have competition but many aren't. SE must be working with a different economic model. Another thing I've thought of is could it be the franchise agreement with HS1 prohibit it? Also, aren't SE in revenue support? Does this mean they don't need to attract more people with 'cap and collar' as this sees income go to gov so little incentive to seek it?
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I agree that was a fantastic deal which I just managed to take advantage of during its last 2 days whilst in London at the end of May. I enjoyed a great late afternoon/evening trip to Broadstairs via HS1 and then a day out in Hastings via Tonbridge Wells. Both unbelievable value at £10 for a Day Return.
However, this has been the one and only occasion, when I've been down staying with friends in the London area, that I have ever seen any good value fares to travel off peak with Southeastern.
I'm there again next week, but as usual, nothing available from Southeastern to enable me to have a reasonably off peak day out on their trains. Therefore as in past visits I will be making use of Southerns excellent Daysave Ticket to visit various resorts and attractions along the south coast. This enables me to travel from South London down to the south coast using all Southern routes from Ashford/Hastings right across to Portsmouth and Southampton. Also trips to East Grinstead and Uckfield are well worth doing. This time I've purchased the 7 Day version, which for £90, with no time restrictions is fantastic value if you make use of it for a full week. Some great places to visit and lines to travel over, but I've done it 2 or 3 times now and being able to travel around Kent would be a nice change.
Why can't Southeastern do a similar ticket for their area? Just the day version would be enough. The 3 Day Kent Rover seems a good value ticket but as it does not include travel to or from London becomes very expensive when you have to pay fares to get to and from the boundary. Also it doesn't include their line down to Hastings.
IanD
Established Member
Well, it's not in Kent is it? It does include Tunbridge wells though (despite the NRE map saying otherwsie).
I used one last year, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in August. It was quite cheap to get to the Kent boundary using a combination of 1 day travlecards and BZ6->Kent tickets (particularly on the Sat/Sun when I could use my Network Railcard).
£35 for the rover plus:
Friday Oyster + London Terminals to Longfield c £12 (turns out due to timings, I could have done this cheaper with a Travelcard + BZ6 ticket as I set off later than expected).
With a railcard:
Saturday £5.40 for travelcard + £4.70 BZ6-Tonbridge (so I could travel via Redhill).
Sunday £5.40 for travelcard + £2.25 BZ6-Swanley.
Covered the whole of Kent (with time for sightseeing and some Heritage Railways) plus I took the opportunity to cover some unchartered bits of the travelcard area.
That doesn't look bad value but without a railcard it does work out expensive for 3 days in comparison with Southerns Daysave Ticket. I can afford it but I just object to paying Southeasterns high prices especially for Day Returns to the Kent Coast with no advance tickets. It only costs me £9 each way to travel down to London from Mansfield with a change at Nottingham with an EMT advance ticket.
I'm glad you had a good time. I'm hoping to visit The Bluebell and Spa Valley Railways next week. I also know that Hastings is in Sussex but meant that if Southeastern did a rover covering all their services that would be included.
Of course, that was paid for out of money awared via the scheme - thus it didn't matter how successful or useful it was, to SET it was a nice bit of extra cash.
Ahh interesting. Should have guessed that almost the only decent offer they ever had (even with far more restrictions than other TOCs) was not their doing.
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Mind if it change the subject?? 
anybody any experience of finding the seamingly ilusive Scotrail Bargain Biths on there booking engine? Havnt bothered with them for a while but planning a mega bash and attempting to keep cost down, but can I fin one? No! Add to that, screenreaders that I need to use due to my lack of vision make Scotrails website pritty awquard at the best of times!
anybody any experience of finding the seamingly ilusive Scotrail Bargain Biths on there booking engine? Havnt bothered with them for a while but planning a mega bash and attempting to keep cost down, but can I fin one? No! Add to that, screenreaders that I need to use due to my lack of vision make Scotrails website pritty awquard at the best of times!theshillito
Member
Mind if it change the subject??
Typically, you want to try 12 weeks in advance on a Thursday as that's when they go online, but they do go very quickly, especially Fort William.
scottish rider
Member
- Joined
- 27 Jan 2012
- Messages
- 38
Sadly Southern are stopping the Downlander Ticket, a pity as I found them great value to explore the south coast.
From the Southern Railway website:
"Downlander tickets are being discontinued
From Monday 8 September 2014 Downlander tickets will no longer be available for travel on Southern Railway.
Downlander tickets will remain available for purchase up until Friday 5 September, with the final available travel date of 7 September 2014.
Customers who wish to purchase tickets for unlimited Off-Peak travel on Southern Railway only, will be able to do so from our main website at www.southernrailway.com/DaySave
DaySave tickets are not valid for travel on any bus services or the services of any other rail company."
From the Southern Railway website:
"Downlander tickets are being discontinued
From Monday 8 September 2014 Downlander tickets will no longer be available for travel on Southern Railway.
Downlander tickets will remain available for purchase up until Friday 5 September, with the final available travel date of 7 September 2014.
Customers who wish to purchase tickets for unlimited Off-Peak travel on Southern Railway only, will be able to do so from our main website at www.southernrailway.com/DaySave
DaySave tickets are not valid for travel on any bus services or the services of any other rail company."
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Thanks. Was looking for EUS>GLC in Mid Nov, just been opened today according to FSR and but wasnt showing anything at all. Maybe im doing something wrong.