Train Tickets...?

Question

Does anyone know what happened to the Apex advance train tickets you could buy? A couple of years ago I booked to from Leicester to Motherwell and with an Apex it cost me £45 return, Ive been checking out the different websites and the minimum I can find is £93!!! No mention of any discounted tickets? Surely the price of tickets cant have gone up that much in two years?

I know it can be chaeper to buy singles sometimes, but I can only find a ticket for the journey to, and never one from?

Whats going on?

Answer 1

I think any of the cheaper fares have either all been taken in the run up to Crimble or were never there in the first place. I have been looking for a similar decent price for a run from Lancashire to the South and I got one earlier this year for a trip next week, but never saw a thing for December. Let's see what January brings.

You've probably already tried these, but JIC here they are again.

Answer 2

I've just had a very quick glance at my UK rail fare manual, and typed your journey into it. It appears that (when available), the cheapest return ticket when booking in advance, is £36. (2x£18 singles)

The price you quote is a few pounds shy of the "Any Permitted" Saver Return, £97.80.

*Hope this helps*

Answer 3

Have you seen how much the cost of gas has gone up in 2 years? The cost of transportation and employee raises is passed onto the consumer. Yes, the world is getting to be a more expensive place to live in by the day. Sad, isn't it? btw, I tried the above link and got more than your estimate, so maybe that was  a decent price.

Answer 4

After faffing around on line, I gave up.

However....

Go down to your local station, like I did.  

I asked the guy behind the ticket desk what deal he could do me for a day return to London, on a particular date in a few weeks time.  After a few minutes, he ended up with two singles at a very good price, reserved seats too!

Great service.

Answer 5

try looking here http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Answer 6

APEX tickets still exist but in different names. All TOC's went to a private system with class 1 to 4 advance tickets, (1 being cheapest) and increased the amount of tickets you could buy at a discount, however the system became a lot more complex as now Virgin, Virgin XC, GNER, GWR, ScotRail all have there own tickets which are non transferable to other user services, so for example if you had a Virgin XC (cross country) you could not use it on Virgin Mainline or any other local TOC'c service, even though it is going to the same stop.

Again it is best to book 6 weeks in advance of travel, enquire about the restrictions and conditions of carrage from the clerk that sells you the ticket and take note of where you brought it from because any problems means you must go back to that supplier for a refund or change.