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Wrexham General to Cardiff Central - 02/06/12

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Cestrian

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Hi

I'm looking to travel with my partner, my brother and daughter to watch Wales v Barbarians game on Saturday 2nd June.

None of us have any railcards and we're looking to travel from Wrexham General to Cardiff Central between 6am and 9am returning back to Wrexham after 7pm the same evening.

Haven't been able to find anything cheaper than £64.70 return each.

My daughter is 13.

Can anyone help with any cheaper options? Don't mind a break in journey so long as in Cardiff by 12 noon at latest.

Thanks
 
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MKD

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Your £64.70 appears to be Adult Off-Peak Return (ie valid for 1 month return, with no cheaper "DAY" options offered from Wrexham General [[stn]WRX[/stn]]).

No expert here at all, but I believe IF you split the tickets at Shrewsbury [[stn]SHR[/stn]] means you can get
Off-Peak Day Return (CDR) from there to Cardiff [[stn]CDF[/stn]], ie. cutting round cost to £9.70 Anytime Day Return (SDR) WRX-SHR + £40.10 CDR SHR-CDF = £49.80
and I believe a 13y/o is a Child (ie age 5-15) = half fare
= £174.30 for 3A+1C
Can still use the same through train - because it stops at Shrewsbury.
That's my amateur attempt to help save £ anyway.
And if you book currently via TopCashBack site via Southern Rail you can get 6% cashback too ie another £10 potential saving.
MKD
 
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emoaconr

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20 Apr 2009
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305
Location
Merseyside
Hi

I'm looking to travel with my partner, my brother and daughter to watch Wales v Barbarians game on Saturday 2nd June.

None of us have any railcards and we're looking to travel from Wrexham General to Cardiff Central between 6am and 9am returning back to Wrexham after 7pm the same evening.

Haven't been able to find anything cheaper than £64.70 return each.

My daughter is 13.

Can anyone help with any cheaper options? Don't mind a break in journey so long as in Cardiff by 12 noon at latest.

Thanks
I can get a return from Wrexham General to Cardiff Central for £14 return (with a railcard).

If you book two advance singles for both halves of your journey, you are looking to pay around £24ish in total for an adult (£12ish for a child).

I bought advance tickets for next week to Cardiff Central and I managed to pay only £18 for a return trip.

Be careful with advance tickets because you MUST stick to the times of the trains you have purchased, and do not lose the reservation.

If you are unsure what to buy online, go to the Wrexham General ticket office and specify you want Advance Single tickets and they will do what you tell them.

I would advise using London Midland to buy your tickets - its far better and easier to use than Arriva's site and doesn't charge like Thetrainline or Raileasy do.



Your £64.70 appears to be Adult Off-Peak Return (ie valid for 1month return, with no cheaper "DAY" options offered from WG).

No expert here at all, but I believe IF you split the tickets at Shrewsbury means you can get
Off-Peak Day Return from there to Cardiff ie cutting round cost to
£9.70 Anytime Day Return WG-S + £40.10 OPDR S-CC = £49.80
and I believe a 13y/o is a Child (ie age 5-15) = half fare
= £174.30 for 3A+1C
Can still use the same through train - because it stops at Shrewsbury.
That's my amateur attempt to help save £ anyway.
And if you book currently via TopCashBack site via Southern Rail you can get 6% cashback too ie another £10 potential saving.
MKD

Don't do the split - it works out more. There are no Shrewsbury- Cardiff advance tickets. I would only do this if its an emergency on the day.

Wrexham - Cardiff advance is available.
 
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extendedpaul

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Split at Shrewsbury or Hereford saves about £15 on adult day returns.

Definitely worth buying a family railcard to save one third on all three adult tickets and 60% on your daughter's fare, with opportunity to use it for the remainder of 12 months. You will cover the £28 cost on this trip alone.
 

MKD

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22 Feb 2012
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Wrexham - Cardiff advance is available.

I think you'll find they aren't anymore for Sat 2/6 - ie OP is too late as others have bagged all of them already. 19:44 is showing as the first available down = probably why OP was asking in the first place?

I would advise using London Midland to buy your tickets - its far better and easier to use than Arriva's site and doesn't charge like Thetrainline or Raileasy do.
No fees @ Southern website either [and uses same easier engine as LM] + potential for their 'Rainyday Guarantee' even on some of other TOCs fares as long as you choose TOD + potential 6% cashback wins over London Midland for me. Though of course using LM to buy LM ONLY fares with their current 50% sale = no brainer + they have been achieving free delivery within 24hrs! Defiitely DO agree with you that the Arriva ticketing engine = one of the nastiest interfaces online [think East Midlands use it too, ghastly!].
 
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emoaconr

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305
Location
Merseyside
I think you'll find they aren't anymore for Sat 2/6 - ie OP is too late as others have bagged all of them already. 19:44 is showing as the first available down = probably why OP was asking in the first place?

Oops, I just searched myself. :roll:

Looks like Advance Tickets are not available on that date, I apologise.

You have another option - to travel via Birmingham New Street and then change onto CrossCountry services for Cardiff. This will take about an hour more but will cost you about £42 return. This involves buying:
  1. Day return from WRX-BHM (£15.30)
  2. Advance single from BHM-CDF (£13.50)
  3. Advance single from CDF-BHM (£13.50)

You would then have to do the following:
  1. Wrexham General - Birmingham New Street (AW) [ or Wrexham General - Shrewsbury (AW), CHANGE, and Shrewsbury - Birmingham New Street (LM/AW)]
  2. Birmingham New Street - Cardiff Central (XC)
  3. Cardiff Central - Birmingham New Street (XC)
  4. Birmingham New Street - Wrexham General (AW)[ or Birmingham New Street - Shrewsbury (LM/AW), CHANGE, and Shewsbury - Wrexham General (AW).]

Its up to you whether you want to do this route or not - I've done this a couple of times in the past due to engineering works and I've not had a problem. If you're not familiar with trains or can't be bothered with the longer duration, I wouldn't bother :P

Of course you can also do the Shrewsbury split, but only if you're certain there are no Advance Singles for WRX-CDF that day. This is the most direct route and will cost you £49ish.
 
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MKD

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Joined
22 Feb 2012
Messages
148
Split at Shrewsbury or Hereford saves about £15 on adult day returns.

Definitely worth buying a family railcard to save one third on all three adult tickets and 60% on your daughter's fare, with opportunity to use it for the remainder of 12 months. You will cover the £28 cost on this trip alone.

Very good advice there: The Family Railcard pays for itself and Hereford [[stn]HFD[/stn]] idea saves a further 5p!

With suggested Family Railcard for 3 Adults + 1 Child shows as:

WRX-SHR-CDF = £21.05 SDR +£86.95 CDR = £108.00

WRX-HFD-CDF = £62.50 CDR +£42.45 CDR = £107.95 +£28 card = £135.95 + a year's further use of the Family Railcard
+ potential for another £6.47 back if buying via TopCashBack+SouthernRailways

Don't know how long the TCB+SR 6% will run for but still on today 1/4 so has survived a month-end. Can pre-buy the tickets for TOD assuming will have got a Family Railcard at the last moment to carry with you on the day (eg buy the day before when you collect the tickets, not leaving everything to the last moment on the early morning start).

MKD
 
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