BritRail Pass

I don't know anything about Britrail other than I sometimes saw them presented on trains.

But you don't need a pass, Britrail or other, to get flexible or last minute tickets on the trains in the UK.

Welcome to the Forums!

If you share some or all of your itinerary several of us here can help you get the best deal, probably not a pass. But let us know and we can see which is better for you...

One of the things we are constantly trying to preach is that on many rail lines it is all but impossible to pay full fare (the fares you see quoted on Rick's charts) due to the post Covid change to last minute advance fares. The word 'advance' now being a bit of a misnomer.

So you can be flexible, but still buy really good value fares until midnight the day before travel, or even as turn up and go fares on many lines.

Unless you are trying to really screw down costs hard, the days of booking months ahead are gone.

Usually in my experience, the sweet spot for fares on many routes is around two weeks before travel unless factors such as a major event are causing local demand spikes.

OP - it is very rare that Britrail pass turn out to be a real value. Plot out the train journeys that you'd intend to take and compare the total cost of each individual ticket to the cost of the pass to see how you'd come out with one or the other.

You might find the website of The Man in Seat 61 useful to begin to gain an understanding of the UK rail system -- https://www.seat61.com/

You may find the National Rail website useful for looking up journeys and fares. Though National Rail does not directly sell tickets, the site will also forward you the train operating companies selling tickets and operating the route the you may make a journey on. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Thank you all for your helpful comments. Based on your advice, I will probably forgo the BritRail pass and look at getting point-to-point tickets with reserved seats closer to our travel dates. With BritRail passes, you eventually have to buckle down and pick an exact time anyway if you want reserved seats. The Man in Seat 61 is excellent!
Our month-long trip will unfold as follows: one week in London, two days in Cambridge, three days in York, one week in Edinburgh, two days in Oxford, and a final week in London. We want to take trains so as to see more of the countryside, so plan on going up the east side and down the west side. Any suggestions as to trains and routes would be most helpful. Also, which side of the train should we sit on?
Many thanks for the warm welcome to Rick's forum. We have done seven of the Rick Steves' tours!

From Cambridge to York, rather than going back to London, I would catch the East Midlands train to Peterborough, then change onto LNER to York. A chance to see fens country. That journey either side will do.

From York to Edinburgh sit on the right side of the train for the view of Durham Cathedra and City, the crossing of the Tyne Bridge and the coastal scenery in Scotland.

From Edinburgh to Oxford take an Avanti service from Edinburgh to Birmingham via the Lake District, change there for Oxford.

But if you are willing to take all day and want something special, get off the train at Carlisle, and take the Carlisle to Barrow to Lancaster coastal train, sitting on the right hand side. This is a local train with no assigned seating. Depending on your train you may have to change at Barrow or the train may go straight through to Lancaster. Back on to Avanti at Lancaster to Birmingham.
This would need to be booked in 3 parts- EDI to CAR, CAR to LAN and LAN to OXF.

I will declare an interest here, it is my local line, but it really is a great journey.

From Oxford you could go straight down to Paddington. But I would suggest taking a slightly slower Chiltern train to the less well known Marylebone station. Take in the history of a station which never grew to it's full potential of 16 platforms, has been very sympathetically modernised, and do look into the wonderfully preserved Refreshment rooms there.

This is not written to save you every penny, or at times for speed, but to appreciate our trains and our countryside.

Just been looking at fares for 2 weeks tomorrow-

London Liverpool Street to Cambridge- any off peak train after 0958- £14.50 each
Cambridge to Peterborough at 1000- £14.70 each
Peterborough to York- £16.90 each
York to Edinburgh 0955 train £36 each
Edinburgh to Carlisle at 0852 £11.60 each, or to Birmingham New Street £45
Carlisle to Barrow in Furness £4.50
Barrow in Furness to Birmingham New Street £22.50 (under 400 yard walk to Moor Street)
Birmingham Moor Street to Banbury £12.80
Banbury to Oxford £7.80
Oxford to London Marylebone 1019 train or every 1/2 hour thereafter £10

TOTAL £152 each. Buy a Two Together Railcard for £30 and you get 1/3 off all these fares except EDI-CAR- so £100 each + card at £30=
£130 each.
Now you may not get those exact fares due to dynamic pricing, but not too far off it. If you went straight from EDI-BHX (avoiding the Cumbria Coast) on the 1052 train you would get your 1/3 discount.

From Cambridge to York, rather than going back to London, I would catch the East Midlands train to Peterborough, then change onto LNER to York. A chance to see fens country. That journey either side will do.

I agree on the route, but EMR (my local rail company) do not serve Cambridge. Only via a connection from Cambridge at Ely off the Great Northern or Anglia.

The only company providing direct service between Cambridge and Peterborough, just over 40 minutes usually, is Cross Country as part of their Birmingham New Street to Stansted route. Pretty much hourly on the hour.

Enjoy your journey over the fens, unique.

Wow ... that is unbelievably helpful. It is going to take me a while to sink my teeth into all this information, but our trip is going to be so much more interesting because of all your help. I'm already a fan of Michael Portillo and I just may become a railroad buff!

I have just finished buying train tickets for our trip to the UK in May, as described above. I really want to thank those of you who commented so helpfully. As a consequence of your excellent advice, I bought senior railcards instead of the BritRail passes I was originally planning on getting. I was able to buy cheap advance tickets by watching for them to show up, as you advised. The prices I paid are similar to those quoted above. I booked excellent seats on the LNER train from York to Edinburgh and also booked seats on most of the other journeys. I was able to put in my preferences, so am hopeful of getting good seats on those legs as well.
Many thanks from a grateful Canadian!

so glad that that worked out. Now you can put the money saved to something else!

By the way anyone looking to book the Carlisle to Barrow via the Cumbrian Coast we have no advance fares currently while the bus replacements are running round the bridge failure at Workington.
When the bridge is fixed (hopefully mid April) advance fares will be re-instated. They have been withdrawn to control capacity on the buses.
The bus and train plan on that route is changing on a weekly basis.