Britrail pass and fees to book a train

I'm a little confused at your question? Did or do you plan on buying the railpass? If so, you don't need to buy a ticket for the train you want to take. Your railpass will cover that ticket price. Just get on board. However seat reservations may or may not be required. You may want to go to the train station before your journey to get a seat reservation. They do not cost anything. We purchased a raiilpass for our trip in September. I think we should have purchased advanced tickets, we would have saved money! I know there are experts on here that will probably address this. Sorry I don't have specific answers, but I'm sure you'll hear from the experts on here!

Advance tickets from Southampton to York start at £36 and go on sale about 12 weeks before your travel date. Tickets are bought from one of the train companies for example https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/

You can get a further discount with a Senior Railcard http://www.senior-railcard.co.uk/

Rail passes are an expensive way of having the flexibility to take any train. You don't need to pay anything more once you've bought a pass. Seat reservations are not compulsory on British trains, but if you don't have one you may end up standing at busy times.

If you haven't bought the pass yet and want to save money, then simply buy Advance tickets as explained above.

The Britrail Pass means that you don't pay for any tickets - you just show up at Southampton Station, flash your pass and board the relevant train. However, you may well find that you can do it cheaper by buying Advance tickets for specific trains. It is usually best to book these with the train company on that particular route. The XC means that you would like to use a Cross Country train which will take you all the way from SOU to YRK with no change.

I find that using www.nationalrail.co.uk is the easiest way of finding the fares/routes for any train in Britain. When you click 'details', it will show you the company & route. So, try it for SOU > YRK & up will come a variety of fares. Only those trains with no changes will be the Cross Country route via Birmingham & Derby. Other fares involving crossing London = no a good idea! Now, the fares appear about 11 weeks ahead & that is the best time to nab the lowest prices. I just checked for Tue 2 February & found a direct Cross Country train leaving SOU at 9.46 with a fare for 1 to York for £36. How much per day would the Britrail Pass work out? You don't need to pre book for short trips. So, I would check your fares for the entire trip to see if the Britrail Pass is worth having.

If you find the through ticket fare for your desired train to be very high - try buying SOU to Derby & Derby to York - having first established what time the train is at Derby - click 'details'. (You do not leave the train). The nearer the date of travel, the higher the Advance fare rises. However, even buying the day before can save you money.

If you pre-book, you get a booking number. You can then use this to pick up tickets in the UK - but make sure you bring the same debit/credit card. You may be able to print tickets at home.
http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

Hi Jim,

If you are planning on using two of your days of pass in getting from Southampton to York, and York to wherever you leave from (maybe a London airport?) what are you using your other 2 days for?

If you share with us we can help with a custom answer.

BTW - usually, RailEurope is not your friend. You can be misled and sometimes overcharged, and not all trains are shown.

Use the link above to National Rail - it is the official portal to all the different train companies in the UK.

Each of the 26 companies has its own website, too, so if you know which company will provide your train you can go to their websites. Sometimes you will find even cheaper special fare promotions there.

Stay away from third party ticket sellers. They don't always make clear to the traveling public which tickets they need on the train, sometimes don't post (mail) everything required, and they are difficult to go back to if there is a problem.

The Britrail pass may be the best solution for you, or it may not be.

pfresh,
Not only are you a little confused but certainly I am too, but I think I'm starting to get it.
The plan was to purchase a BritRail Pass for 4 days. As you stated, I don't need to buy a ticket that the pass will cover it. This is exactly what I expected. But, When I went to the RailEurope web site to search for a train and filled out the selection boxes one of the selections asked if you had a rail pass. I selected yes and selected BritRail. Then found a list of possible trains. Now here's the confusing part, the train I wanted had a price for the ticket. $162. To me, this implies my BritRail pass doesn't cover the fare. Now I don't know what to think. It you repeat the selections again without the Britrail pass the fare is double. So the selection is doing something but not what I expected. $0 because the Britrail pass covers the fare. Try it on there website please and straighten me out.

ramblin' on,
Thanks, got it. Advance tickets are much cheaper. I just need an exact plan and I don't have one yet.

James,
Thanks for the info about XC.

Nigel,
Agreed, RailEurope hasn't been a friend. It has my head spinning.
Yes, I owe you all more details about the trip. For now, I'm only concerned with the UK.
Arrive Southampton from a transatlantic cruise in early May.
Stay in York for a week.

Train Day 1. Southampton to York.
I'll be getting off with 2-3 thousand other people. I'm concerned about getting a seat on the train.

Train Day 2. York to Edinburgh.
Spend the night at a hotel and explore the area.

Train day 3. Edinburgh to York.
Back to home base.

Train day ?. Possible day trip to Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, and others

Train day 4. York to London to stay at another flat for a week.

Train day 4+ Visit to Oxford, Bath.

Now on to Milan for 2 nights then Sorrento for a wedding.
Back to Rome 5 nights, Paris 5 nights, Hamburg 2 nights, cruise back to US.

The Britrail pass can only be purchased outside of the UK and you need to use www.nationalrail.co.uk to get some idea of the prices for your journeys - assuming you were pre-booking about 11 weeks in advance. Having done that, compare that with what the daily rate would be on the Britrail Pass. I am not sure if you can pre-book seats with the Britrail pass - Nigel will correct me if I am wrong. You can certainly pre-book seats with the Advance purchase fares for specific trains. (Don't forget that short journey prices stay the same - so no need to advance book).

You may like to purchase a 2 together Railcard = £30 but has the restriction that you can't travile before 9.30am Monday to Friday. If on the National Rail website or any of the UK train company's websites, you can select a drop down box to include such a Railcard in the fare calculation - you usually get a third off. Senior Railcards (over 60) are also available and these do not have the 9.30am restriction but you would need one each = £60 - so might not be worth it.
http://www.railcard.co.uk

Your train from Southampton to York actually passes through Oxford. You may like to consider going from SOU to Oxford and staying 1 night before proceeding to York on the following day. You could also consider taking a direct train from SOU to Bath and doing that at the start of your Uk tour. (Bath to York can be done with 1 change at Bristol).

You could go from London (Paddington) to Bath for the last bit of your UK vacation and stay say a couple of nights. No need to back track to London as cheap flights go from Bristol to Milan - but only on certain days. (Beware of baggage in hold charges). You can find the flights on this site - select month & monthly view. Click on the flight and it will tell you the airline. I would book on the airline site having double checked the fare.http://www.skyscanner.net/transport/flights/brs/mila/cheap-flights-from-bristol-to-milan.html?adults=1&children=0&infants=0&cabinclass=economy&rtn=0&preferdirects=true&outboundaltsenabled=false&inboundaltsenabled=false&oym=1605

This site has advice on train travel:>http://www.seat61.com
https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/britrail-gb-pass/

During one of your days in York, you might like to take a ride on the North York Moors Railway to the seaside town of Whitby. The railway starts at Pickering. Use this site to find out how to get from York to Pickering:> www.traveline.info
http://www.nymr.co.uk
http://www.visitwhitby.com

if you can pre-book seats with the Britrail pass - Nigel will correct me if I am wrong

No he won't. I know English rail tickets backwards, and most of the nefarious restrictions and penalties, but Brit Rail passes are a black hole to me. I know how to check a pass for validity, but the Operating Company I work for no longer issues seat reservations to anyone so I know nothing about Brit Rail reservations.

What I will say is that in the vast number of cases the pass is much more expensive than Advance or other discounted tickets so it is rare that it saves money. Therefore people buy them for the convenience of being able to pop on and off trains at will so surely having to arrange reservations takes away the spontaneity. So, if they are more expensive (usually) and you don't want to just hop on, what is the benefit? I'm confused.

On the pass website it says

Do I need to make seat reservations?

It is not essential to reserve seats on all trains. Generally speaking
it is only really necessary to make reservations if you plan to travel
on a popular route (e.g. London to Edinburgh) at a peak time (e.g.
Friday at 18.00). To make a reservation with a BritRail Pass you need
to take your BritRail Pass to the station that you are going to travel
from and the travel centre will make the seat reservations for you
(for a small fee).

If your heart is set on getting a BritRail pass and you are a AAA member, go through their website to check the price. You may get a cheaper deal on the fare.

so if I want to go from London to Salisbury and then to Bath and back to Heathrow the cheapest way would be to pay 30 pounds for Senior pass and then buy point to point tickets? thanks for the help

I have not heard of "a small fee" to make a daytime seat reservation with your BritRail Pass. For years, these reservations have been both free and entirely optional. Deadline to make them may be one day ahead. Rail Europe does not handle these; you do take care of it in a British train station, for instance when you first have the pass activated.

Thanks to all.
Like you said, the BritRail pass is expensive. Well I knew it was but didn't realize to what degree. I'm not getting a BritPass anymore. Just gonna take a little planning and use the Virgin website.