A little cunning goes a long way
Make the most of the tracks that criss-cross Great Britain and beyond.
Ihad fallen asleep on a pile of cold and soggy chips in one of the world’s saddest food courts. I jolted up for the fifth time by an announcement to go back below deck as we were pulling in to some port town in Northern France. This first English Channel hop had been a nightmare, not just because I had tomato sauce on the side of my face.
With near-empty bank accounts, we decided a trip to Brussels would be best done by bus. An overnight bus at that. The near constant wake-up calls for English border control, baggage inspection, boarding the ferry, forcing us above deck, and getting off the ferry, put paid to any chance of a solid sleep. Why didn’t we take the train? The famed Eurostar and the UK’s other railways are often touted to tourists as the best way to see the continent – but they can also be expensive, unnecessarily complex and monopolistic.
Here are some ways to make rail travel easier.
Online and off-peak
As with nearly all travel nowadays you are best to book online and off-peak to secure the best deals. Many UK train routes run as effective monopolies and you can’t really rely on market competition to bring prices down, so travelling on Sundays or in the middle of the day will offer savings and you won’t be fighting commuters for a seat.
Split the difference
The fare structure, complexity and lack of competition in UK train fares does throw up some anomalies, which offer windows to nab savings. One of these is known as fare splitting, which could work on almost any route. This is where you buy two individual tickets, from A to B then B to C, which ends up cheaper than a single fare from A to C even if the journey is run by the same company and at the same times. Raileasy.co.uk takes the confusion and time-wasting out of split-ticketing.
Hog the window
Learn the operator of the route you want (for example, Virgin to get from London to Edinburgh or Great Western Rail to get to Cornwall), and log on around 12 weeks out from your trip to make the most of earlybird savings, while avoiding booking fees. When the bookings window opens, lock in savings or use fare compare site trainline.com, which sometimes gives you prices for even further out (small fees apply).
All hail (unreliable) market forces
In some (sadly infrequent) cases, more than one train company can offer tickets from A to B, and if you’re travelling from London to Oxford, Exeter, Edinburgh or Birmingham you’re in luck, so compare companies (they may use different departure/ arrival stations within the same city).
Buddy up and save
If you’re travelling with a buddy, investigate a National Rail discount card. These are valid on nearly all rail lines when used off-peak, and you don’t have to be a resident to buy one. A Two Together rail card costs £30 ($53) in total but saves you each a third when travelling with your buddy. Similar discount cards are available for those aged 16-25 and over 60.
Snap
Fancy an overnight soiree in Paris or want to chow down on waffles and frites in Brussels, Eurostar Snap is a low-cost way to do either, if you’ve left it to the last minute and are feeling flexible. After registering through Facebook or Twitter, you simply choose your route and outbound and inbound dates, and whether you would like a morning or afternoon train. The fares are a relatively low £25 ($44) each way (Eurostar journeys a couple of weeks out often top £100 each way). However, you won’t be notified of your exact train departure time until 48 hours before you’re due to leave. Email if you have a travel issue you’d like Josh Martin, a London-based travel journalist, to write about.