Ne1 know a good web site for cheap rail travel?

Question

hi. i googled train tickets and got a load of sites and searched about a dozen of them all saying they were the cheapest and they all came out with exactly the same price of £83 for me, my wife and lad for a return from southampton to waterloo. so is it a waste of time searching for a cheaper price are all of them going to give the same price.

Answer 1

Southampton to Waterloo is non advanced fare being in the south east of England.  The cheapest way to travel if you are going on single or same day return, is purchase a 3 for 2 ticket cheap day return if your boy is over 16, or if you are likely to use the trains a lot, then purchase a family railcard again as long as your son is below 16 and this will cover you over the whole country for discounted ticket.

If it is a one off, then a cheap day return for both you and your wife and obtain a child travelcard for £1 as long as he is under 16 and accompanied all day.

Other ways of getting a cheaper ticket, if your willing to take a little extra time to get to London, get a Southern Day Travel (after 10am) from the internet for £10 per adult (purchased 7 days in advance) and a child travelcard for the £1 when you get to the ticket office, this is only valid to London Victoria via Southern (direct via Horsham and Gatwick Airport) there and back again, but a ticket from Clapham Junction to London Waterloo if you have to go there is only a couple of pound for each of you (Check on the www.southernrailway.co.uk website).

If you are staying there longer than one day, then there is the problem of Saver Tickets (not valid until 09.30) and not much possible discount on them.

Or you are going earlier in the morning in which case you will be paying Peak Fares for everyone.

Sorry I cant be much more help.

Answer 2

All the sites will quote you the same fare another site will you wont get any cheaper ticket on any other site once the advance fares thats the cheap tickets have sold out on one site there sold out on all of them the standard fares quoted a regulated and are set by the train operating company and all websites sell that at the same price they have to so if they say there the cheapest there telling a lie as all charge the same price you best going to the train operators website and getting your ticket there book early and get a cheap advance fare most of the train ticket selling sites are powerd by the trainline.com

Answer 3

Unlike air travel, rail travel is not fare deregulated.

That is to say, there is no way you can get tickets cheaper than by going to a particular website.

I find thetrainline.com the best and easiest to use.  Most other sites, including train companies' own sites use a re-branded version.

The price of tickets is very much dependent on how far in advance you book, the time of day, if you are prepared to be fix times of travel and who is travelling.

You may want to consider a family or network rail card that you can buy and get 33% discount on most tickets - it pays for itself in 12 months if you do about 3/4 journeys.  They are usually valid for up to 4 people travelling together...