Only 106 days to Christmas . . . so it’s time to sort your train ticket!
WITH the summer holiday season only just over, it may seem premature to be thinking of Christmas. But if you are planning to take a train over the festive season to visit family or friends, you should consider booking right now.
By sorting out train travel this month you can make huge cost savings. Here, The Mail on Sunday shows how to get the best price for a train journey – meaning you have more money left over for spending on all those Christmas gifts. BOOK EARLY RAIL companies sell a limited number of discounted ‘advance’ tickets for journeys over the yuletide period. These are up to a tenth of the price of an ‘anytime’ ticket though the seat is exactly the same.
In the smoke-and-mirrors world of ticket pricing, it is fiendishly tricky to track down the cheapest seat. The best value advance tickets are sold in batches released up to 12 weeks ahead of a trip. Train companies keep the number and dates of these advance ticket releases a closely guarded secret. But it means that if you are planning to travel during December then you can buy tickets this month.
Those returning from a vacation in the New Year also benefit from booking ahead because rail fares are due to rise by 3.6 per cent in January. This hike is based on the annual increase in the Retail Prices Index – a measure of inflation – that prevailed in July this year. If you book before January you will not pay the extra rail fare increase.
Megan French ,29, from Chelmsford in Essex, is already planning her trip to enjoy Christmas with her family in Manchester. By planning ahead she expects to pay less than £40 for a return journey from work in London rather than more than £300 if she left it late and bought a ticket on the day.
She says: ‘I have learned the best way to save is to prepare early. First, asking the boss when you might be able to take time off – and then hunting down the best fares.
‘ Ticket websites such as Trainline allow me to tap in my journey details and they then email back when cheap advance tickets come on sale. Being flexible on times and days helps get the cheapest prices. Travelling on a Saturday morning rather than a Friday night cuts my rail fare by at least half.’
The marketing assistant has also found buying two singles rather than a return can also work o ut c heaper. This is because the lowest cost seats get snapped up as soon as they are released so waiting until the return journey tickets are available means losing out on an outbound bargain. SPLIT TICKETS CONSUMER website MoneySavingExpert is an advocate of ‘split ticketing’ – the art of buying tickets for specific legs of the journey while remaining on the same train. Through a quirk of the way timetables are set and train companies work out tariffs, it is possible to save more than £200 on some journeys.
For example, a return ticket from London to Durham for £301 can be broken into four singles – London to York and then York to Durham and then back again – for a total charge of just £82.
MoneySavingExpert has a split-ticketing app TicketySplit that can do all the calculations on your behalf. Websites such as Trainsplit can also help. GET A RAILCARD THERE are numerous railcards that can knock at least a third off the price of an off-peak ticket price. Unfortunately the cost of peak time travel – often before 10am and between 3pm and 7pm – is not automatically covered by such cards. But for those that take at least three trips by train a year, the initial £ 30 investment for a Railcard will soon be recouped. The 16-25 Railcard is for young adults while the Senior Railcard is for those 60 or over. Both offer discounts of a third off a standard ticket price. A Two Together Railcard is for two named people and offers a similar discount while a Family & Friends Railcard for up to four adults and four children travelling together offers a third off for adults and a 60 per cent discount for those under 16. SURF FOR DISCOUNTS AN ‘advance’ ticket is usually cheaper than buying at the stat i on and can sometimes be bought online just 15 minutes before a journey begins.
The National Rail Enquiries website offers details of advance discounts as well as other special deals through its ‘cheapest fair finder’ tool.
Specialist train ticket websites such as Trainline, MyTrainTicket and Redspottedhanky also trawl the market in search of the best priced deals. But be wary of their hidden charges. For example, Trainline has an online booking fee of up to £1.50 and applies a 2 per cent charge if you pay by credit card.
MyTrainTicket demands £1.50 and has a 2 per cent levy for paying by credit card. Raileasy has a £2.50 booking fee and 4.5 per cent levy for using a credit card. Redspottedhanky has a £1 booking fee but does not charge credit card users.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of industry watchdog Transport Focus, says: ‘ You should also always check the website of the train company you are travelling on for special offers. You can find which rail company runs a particular service by visiting the National Rail website.’
Transport Focus offers advice on finding the best value tickets on its ‘rail fares’ website link.
Advanced train tickets – including those purchased through specialist websites – are free to collect from the station you start the journey at. It usually involves being emailed or texted a collection number you can present on the day of travel to the ticket office or type into a machine. BRACE YOURSELF CHARITY Campaign for Better Transport points out that Britain has some of the most expensive train fares in the world – and prices are still going up.
The headline grabbing figure for rail fare rises is 3.6 per cent from the start of January but you might end up paying even more. This is because the capped rate – linked to inflation in July – is only for ‘regulated’ fares, which includes most standard day and season tickets.
But train companies still have freedom to ramp up fares for ‘ unregulated’ journeys – including many advance ticket sales and both peak and off-peak journeys booked in advance – by a higher amount. This meant increases last year as high as 7 per cent on some journeys. Details of unregulated fares are not released until near the end of the year.
Richard Watkins, a spokesman for the Campaign for Better Transport, says: ‘It is unacceptable the way rail companies overcharge – and disgraceful that the only way you can get a decent price is by booking often months in advance rather than turning up and paying a walk-on fare.’
The charity has launched a ‘fair fares now’ campaign demanding more clarity on ticket prices so people can find better value journeys. It also believes the Government should only allow price hikes to be linked to the Consumer Prices Index – not the Retail Prices Index, which is normally higher. In July the CPI was 2.6 per cent and RPI 3.6 per cent.