How do you get cheap train fares in advance?

Question

I am travelling from Weymouth to Southampton airport on 20/10 in evening to come back tue 24th....I was told book in advance and it is cheaper but prices look same as if I was travelling today...so no cheaper! Anyone got any ideas? I'd be very grateful as every penny counts!

Answer 1

If you need to buy a flexible ticket then it won't be any cheaper, but if you can specify what train and at what time, you can usually find reductions. There are only a set number of reduced price tickets per train, so trains travelling at busy times will probably have sold their cheap tickets by now, but you could look around different times. Remember to check the prices for single tickets as well as returns.

Answer 2

yeah cannot find any cheaper than £22.80 for a saver return, does not seem to be any advance purchase for this journey, unless you have a railcard like Young Persons which i believe costs £20 for the year and gives you 34% off all standard tickets and is valid for a year so maybe worthwhile if you use the trains a bit

Answer 3

I think the only breaks you get with train fares are if you have a commuter ticket or something

Answer 4

www.thetrainline.com

Answer 5

try the trainline.com  

Put in your journey and it will come up with the relevent trains - then check the fares availability which you get to via one of the links near the bottom of the page (sorry can't be more specific but not been on that site for a while)

It may be that your travel dates are not far enough in advance to make any real savings.

Answer 6

You are not going to get Apex cheap tickets on such a short journey, your cheapest option is a Saver return for £22.80. The only way to get a reduction is to purchase a Network Railcard (£20 per year) which gives a discount of one third for groups of up to 4 people.

Answer 7

Its because there are no advance fares for that journey - if you have a look at

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/NR/rdon...

That shows where the advance fares are availible between. From Weymouth Advance is availible to the London area

Generally Advance fares tend to be for journeys over 100 miles and £22 seems reasonable for the length of journey

Answer 8

You're supposed to get a discount if you get an APEX in advance, but for some unknown reason there seem to be certain dates when it's more expensive to travel, than others.  You'd still be better off getting an APEX so that you are guaranteed a seat.  This coastal train could be a busy one.  Happy travelling.

Answer 9

The possible fare types are shown in the link below. Normally you'd be eligible to get an APEX (return) ticket, because you can purchase sufficiently long enough in advance (at least seven days). However APEX tickets are available for selected journeys only.

There does not seem to be an APEX option for this journey. I'd advise you to contact your ticket office at Weymouth and ask if it's true that you can only get a saver return at £22.80 (just in case there are some special offers exclusive to passengers of South West Trains).

Answer 10

Rail pricing structures are a complete nightmare and it's high time the government did something about it.  I used to travel from London to Bath on a Senior Railcard for £18.50 and it went up to £29.50 overnight.  If you book online sometimes two single fares are cheaper than a return.  Is that logic?