I will be purchasing a Brit Rail flexi pass (second class) to cover 4 days of UK travel within 15 days. I understand I have to have the pass "activated" in a railroad station before first use, but I'm wondering if it's necessary to make an advance reservation for each train I plan to use during the life of the pass? Or can I just show up at the station on the day of travel and get on any train heading to my destination(s)?
Would appreciate any advice or insights. Thanks!
Assuming that you have compared buying Advance tickets http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ to buying the pass (rarely a bargain), then reservations are not compulsory on trains in the UK.
If you want a guaranteed seat then a reservation may be advisable on busy, long distance trains. Otherwise you can just show up and take any train.
That's great - thank you for the info about reservations. I am able to get the second class Brit Rail pass from the AAA using the senior discount pricing for about $221, which equals the cost of just one of the tickets I need if I bought it point to point. So in this instance the rail pass is a money saver for sure!
$221 is £142, which is a very expensive ticket
If you can tell me what the journey is and the date I can check on http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ to see if you can buy a cheaper ticket
With a BritRail Pass, reservations are not required on any daytime train, so you can just show up. You can get a seat reservation for free up to a day ahead at the train station. If you make a few reservations at the same time that you activate the pass, there's no loss if you later change your mind or miss a reserved train.
BritRail Passes only offer senior discounts in 1st class. If you're buying a 2nd-class pass, you're paying the regular adult rate. A pass for 4 days of travel within a month in just England currently costs about $281 and for the whole island costs $351. Be sure that you are not buying a cheaper consecutive-day pass, unless your travel does fit into the shorter time period.
$221 is the total price I would pay through my Auto Club for the cost of the flexi-pass covering all the days and places I need to travel - London to Glasgow, Edinburgh to Leeds, Leeds to Cardiff and Cardiff to London.
When I checked on the nationalrail.co.uk site, the point to point prices for all these journeys totaled more than the fexi-pass would cost. However, I can't yet input my exact travel dates, because they are upcoming in October and the national raid site won't permit price checking for my dates just yet. So I am basing these point to point price estimates on using the same days of the week in September that I would be traveling in October. I'm assuming there won't be much difference between the last week of September and the first week of October.
By using the Rail Europe link here on Rick's site, the fare for London to Glasgow alone is $229. That sort of convinced me that the $221 I would pay through my Auto Club for the flexi-pass would be more cost-effective.
London to Glasgow from £30
Edinburgh to Leeds from £15
Leeds to Cardiff from £34
Cardiff to London from £22
total £101
Ignore the Rail Europe link that's giving you full price tickets. Look for Advance tickets direct from the train operating companies.
The easiest site to use is https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/ and you can see the prices I gave above for dates in September. Advance tickets go on sale about 12 weeks before your travel date. If you're able to commit to specific trains you could make big savings over buying the pass.
Also a Senior Railcard costs £30 (over 60s) would give you a further 1/3 off the prices above
http://www.senior-railcard.co.uk/
Thanks everyone for all the very helpful information! I truly appreciate the time and effort.
I didn't know about the Virgin Trains web site, so I will need to look at that.
Are you making the train journeys on your own or with a travel partner? If you will have a travel partner who will make all those - or most of those - journeys with you then you could buy the Two Together Railcard which is the same price as you alone would pay for the Senior Railcard (£30) and when you are together you can both save a third off those low ticket prices. You will both have to provide passport sized photos which will be scanned onto the pass.
Advance fares progressively get more expensive as the quota at each price level is reached. To get the bottom level you may need to buy as soon as they become available. Some routes fill up quicker than others - Cross country trains seem to be the quickest on average.
I am traveling solo to meet up with friends and a tour group, so I only have to worry about buy one set of tickets. That saves some of the expense!
