1. Book in advance see www.thetrainline.com and avoid peak hours 6-30 to 9-30 am & 3-30 to 6-30 pm
2. Buying two singles is often cheaper than a return
3. A free bite card gives 20% discount on food and drink at train stations around the country www.bitecard.co.uk/register.asp
4. Use a rail card such as Young Person’s Rail card or Senior Citizen’s Rail Card or even a Network Card available in the south east.
5. Instead of buying a straight through ticket to your destination e.g. London to Edinburgh. You will often find it cheaper to buy two sets of tickets for your train journey. First buy tickets for the London to York section of your trip and then for the second section York to Edinburgh leg of your trip.
6. Ask your train company if it is part of the 'group save' scheme, which allows you to buy three or four adult tickets for the price of two on the day of travel. Children with the group pay just £1.
For an off-peak day trip of over 50 miles, say Oxford to London. It is often cheaper to buy a 'cheap day return' than a 'saver ticket', if you plan to return the very same day. Other ways of saving money on a trip to London from Oxford is to take:
The express coach from Oxford to London,
Drive and or even take the Arriva bus to Thame Haddenham rail station and catch the Chiltern Trains service into London Marylebone. See http://www.arrivabus.co.uk
Also Thame Haddenham Rail Station offers a better train service to Birmingham than Oxford rail station does, I find. See chilternrailways.co.uk
Continental Travel Advice
How to save on rail fares in Europe- Eurostar tickets from London to Paris, London to Brussels All Eurostar fares and schedules
IDTGV.co.uk - Low cost train travel to south of France,
Marseille, Bordeaux, Provence, Montpellier, Toulouse, iDTGV, iDzen, iDzap, iDTGV
- German Rail - Cheap rail tickets to Germany and beyond
- Rail Pass Direct.
- The Man in Seat Sixty-One... A guide for traveling by rail or ship
- Thomas Cook rail timetable for train travel times and details for traveling in Europe and the rest of the world
