How do I get cheap fares from London to Manchester by train?

Question

I travel up on Friday evenings and come back on Sunday evenings. I don't always know in advance when I'm going and so never qualify for the £12.50 single tickets on Virgin. Is there another way?

Answer 1

You can only get a railcard if you are a student/OAP etc, they dont do ones for regular travellers.

The only way you might find is if you go some random route and book each seperate bit individually

Answer 2

You could get a railcard. It will save you 1/3 on rail fares... I think they are about £20 per year.

Answer 3

Buy a ticket to Birmingham and then get a Chiltern ticket from there into Marylebone - Chiltern are slower but cheaper then Virgin.

Alternativly buy a ticket to Crewe, and then a ticket on the Central/Silverlink stopping service

Answer 4

Excuse me, but I think that is fairly cheap already. Otherwise why dont you hitch-hike.

Answer 5

You could try buying the the ticket from Virgin Trains, by using the following links:

http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/default.as...

Or:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fare...

or

http://www.mytravelguide.com/rail/cheap-...

I am sure that you will find a cheep ticket on one of these sites.

Answer 6

Hide in toilets

Answer 7

I can't think of a cheaper way, as the cheapest tickets are only available when booking in advance.

Have you investigated the possibility of travelling by coach (National Express, for example)?  That's supposed to be pretty economical.