How on earth do I get REASONABLY PRICED train tickets from Sheffield to London?!?

Question

My girlfriend and I want to go on a Friday evening, come back on Sunday afternoon. However www.thetrainline.com just seems to want to s***w us for over a hundred quid even when we want to buy a month in advance!

What kind of incentive is that to use public transport?!

Any advice welcome. :-)

Answer 1

Friday is peak travel day so no discounts as a rule. Try going a day earlier/later

Answer 2

sometimes 2 singles are cheaper than a return and avoid peak times. also if you are under 26 you can get a young persons railcard, it costs £20 but saves you a third off rail travel for a year, i go to newcastle from norwich a few times a year and it pays for itself

Answer 3

....check the classifieds in the newspaper or the Buy and Sell or .....phone around to a couple of travel agents to see if anyone is wanting to cancel then your ticket price would probably be discounted.

Answer 4

Travel after 9:30 is cheaper on trains. If you go on Saturday you can pay an extra £6 on the train and go first class. That's if Midland Bloody Mainline's guards a. know about it b. can find it on their stupid machines c. can speak English or d. can speak any language other than gruntese.

Answer 5

Best bet is an antiquarian book seller or specialist railway memorabilia dealer.

They should have tickets from LNER or Great Central days when ordinary people could afford to travel on trains.

Otherwise no idea.

Answer 6

Have you thought about taking a coach? They are much cheaper than rip off trains. I'm sure there will be plenty of coaches from Sheffield to London. It's slower than the train of course...

Answer 7

Get a paltform ticket and hide in the loo.

Answer 8

I understand your frustration in this matter so how about checking out the reasonably priced air tickets these days available virtually anywhere for about £20?

Answer 9

Try the train companies web site. For that journey then midlandmainline.co.uk is propably the one. And yes you need to be booking well in advance. Midland Mainline do offers from Nottingham to London for about £10 return so may help?

Answer 10

It's a question of Yield Management, just like airlines.

The train companies know that they can fill a train on Friday and Sunday at £50 a ticket just as easily as they can fill them at £6 a ticket, so that's precisely what they do. Same applies for busy times like Easter, Bank Holidays, Christmas and New Year.

If you want a cheaper ticket, you need to avoid travelling at busy times. Late morning on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays tends to have reasonable availability for cheaper tickets and reservations for Midland Mainline are currently open up to Christmas Eve.

Answer 11

Try phoning up for a ticket - but the days you want travel are always expensive

Answer 12

book 2 one way journeys - you will save about 30% my aunt and uncle saved £60 travelling Norwich to Edinbuirgh doing it that way and booked their return tickets on their arrival on the Friday for going back on the Sunday

Answer 13

have you tried booking outward and return separtely on trainline? it sometimes works out cheaper.

Answer 14

Midland mainline. I use them all the time. If you book in advance its only £6 each way. www.midlandmainline.co.uk