Help with Trains--Canterbury to Chichester

You may find that backtracking to London Victoria might be the most direct route. I'm sure someone can give a much better answer than I, but if you're wanting to avoid going back to London, you may have to dive into splitting up the ticket/route.

For example I came up with Canterbury West to Eastbourne with a change at Ashford International, as your first ticket. Then from Eastbourne to Chichester with a change at Brighton as the second ticket. It could roughly be a 3:40 journey, but I'd pad some time to transfer at Eastbourne between the two tickets incase of a hiccup getting there from Canterbury West. Since July 2023 is a ways off I used February 1, as the date I searched and also priced the cost of the two tickets on this routing at £44 for anytime tickets. Canterbury East to Chichester anytime tickets were £69.60

The U.K. rail service is London-centric and it would make more sense to travel via London than some cross country convoluted route.

You could go Canterbury - Tonbridge - Redhill - Gatwick Airport - Chichester but I would advise on travelling via London Victoria (I live in this area and know the train service well). The Tonbridge - Redhill line isn’t the most reliable. The alternative is Canterbury - Ashford - Brighton - Chichester. Two trains via London is far less hassle than 3 or 4 trains avoiding London.

There are no direct services from Canterbury that go anywhere near Chichester.

Further to what Jennifer & VAP have said, going via London = Canterbury East to London Victoria (change) & Vic > Chichester. This takes 3 hours 19 minutes and can be done for £15.90 if you book specific trains well in advance and split the ticket at VIC. (I tested it for 22 February to get this price via https://www.traintickets.com/?/ - who want £4.98 commission = Tot £20.88. (You can avoid the commission by booking the legs separately).

If you want to take the route that Jennifer says is unreliable via Tonbridge and Gatwick, you can buy a single from Canterbury to Chichester for £24.30 and this route takes 3 hours 30 minutes. Note that to get this price you need to opt for NOT VIA LONDON. See >https://www.southernrailway.com

The alternative is to take a southerly route = Canterbury West to Ashford International (change) & then Ashford Int to Eastbourne (hourly) (change). This first bit from Canterbury to Eastbourne takes 2 hours 6 minutes including a 27 minute wait at Ashford International.
Then you go from Eastbourne to Brighton (every 30 minutes) (change) and Brighton to Chichester (every 30 minutes) Eastbourne to Chichester will take around 2 hours.
If you use the southern route do this:> Buy a ticket on the day from Canterbury West to Ashford International = £8.90. Then using a pre purchased Southern Day Save (valid on SOUTHERN trains) = £22 so we get a total of £30.90 with no advance specific train booking needed. Note that trains on this southerly route are slow and make many stops & it is about 40 minutes quicker going via London.
SOUTHERN DAY SAVE >http://www.railrover.org/pages/southern-daysave.html
This site will show you the schedules and the split ticket prices. (Note that the split ticket saving for advance tickets lessens as you get nearer to today’s date). https://www.traintickets.com/?/

Making one train connection is far less stressful than trying to make three connections regardless of how much it costs.

Thank you all for your help. We will head back to Victoria Station rather than try to switch trains multiple times. When you refer to splitting the ticket, does that mean buying a ticket from Canterbury to Victoria Station and another ticket from Victoria Station to Chichester? I've heard the term but I'm not familiar with it.

==>"When you refer to splitting the ticket, does that mean buying a ticket from Canterbury to Victoria Station and another ticket from Victoria Station to Chichester?"<==

No. You're able to buy a ticket from Canterbury East to Chichester, as a single ticket/journey with the one change at London Victoria.

There is not a direct route from Canterbury to Chichester without going to London Victoria. The only way to make the journey and avoid going back to London as you originally asked, would be to link together somewhat indirect separate journeys with multiple changes and made with 2 separate tickets. Hence my example of Canterbury to Eastbourne as one ticket and then Eastbourne to Chichester as the second ticket. When I said "...but if you're wanting to avoid going back to London, you may have to dive into splitting up the ticket/route." It was a clumsy way of meaning to do research and prepare for multiple tickets.

To help you understand - go through this as an example using this website which is easier to use & can be used to book even though this is not the company that operate the trains on this route:> https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

Tu Date 24 Jan > From CBE to VIC departing at 10.30. Find Trains. You should now see a 10.47 departure which arrives VIC at 12.21 & the one way advance fare for this train if pre booked will be £12.80 per person. (You will also see that you could use the 11.47 departure at a price of £10.40).

So, let's assume you had booked the one that arrived VIC at 12.21. Now put in for VIC to CCH and you should see a departure at 13.05 which arrives Chichester at 14.37 and for this train, the advance purchase price will be £5.50 per person. So, by buying these 2 tickets (split at London Victoria) we get a total of £18.30.

Now, for the same date and SAME TRAINS, put in for CBE (Canterbury East) to CCH (Chichester) as a through ticket. You should see a price of £65.70 = what you would pay if you just showed up on the day at Canterbury station and bought the through ticket. That’s a whopping £47.40 extra compared to the way I am suggesting you do it by advance purchasing the fares say 10 weeks out and split at VIC.

I apologize if I've caused confusion. Like I said my use of the word "splitting" was my clumsy way of describing getting to Chichester without going to London. What James has described is the real and true practice of split ticketing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51077807

And from Man in Seat 61 website --
==>"Split-ticketing...
Split the journey, where two tickets are cheaper than one...

You'll sometimes find a situation where the cost of a ticket from A to B plus a ticket from B to C is less than the cost of a ticket from A to C. As long as the train stops at 'B', you're legally entitled to use a combination of tickets, there is no need to get off the train. Check your journey at www.trainsplit.com.

Such situations arise in two ways: First, where different pricing managers from different train companies price the various sections of route, and have not noticed the anomaly, and second, where part of the journey can be made with an Off-Peak fare even if the other part has to be done on a peak Anytime fare, which saves money over making the whole trip with a peak Anytime ticket. Anomalies are less likely to happen on obvious direct routes to and from London, as these will usually be priced by one pricing manager working for one train company who will naturally avoid creating them if he can.

For example, rather than buy a Penzance to Birmingham Off-Peak ticket you can save money by buying a Penzance to Cheltenham Off-peak ticket plus a Cheltenham to Birmingham Off-peak ticket, as all the Penzance-Birmingham trains call at Cheltenham. Under Condition 19 of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage there is no need to get off the train, as long as the train itself stops there.

How to check if split-ticketing will save you money:

Go to www.trainsplit.com and use their journey planner. You then click to buy all the tickets online as one transaction, as easily as buying one ticket. There's no booking fee unless they make you a saving, then they take a small fee out of the saving.

The benefit (if any) of split ticketing varies enormously from route to route and time period to time period. I might only save 60p on an off-peak 45-mile trip from Aylesbury to London, but if I needed to catch the 07:06 from London to Plymouth tomorrow morning I could save almost £40 using these systems."

The Man in Seat 61 says... "I have put www.trainsplit.com through its paces and have been surprised at the savings it finds on many routes when booking longer-distance off-peak & anytime fares. I checked these claims using nationalrail.co.uk, and they were correct! I'm not sure I'd now buy any long-distance flexible ticket without at least checking it.

Split the journey, to avoid paying peak fares for the whole trip...

You can sometimes save money by splitting the journey into two tickets if your chosen train starts as a peak train but becomes an off-peak train en route.  This often happens where Off-peak fares carry an 'any departure after 09:30' restriction, as they do in much of the Greater London area.  For example, if you need a train leaving at 09:15 and arriving 10:00, why pay the peak 'Anytime' rate for your whole journey, it might be cheaper to pay the peak 'Anytime' rate to the first station at which the train stops after 09:30, then pay the cheaper Off-Peak rate from that station onwards.  The split-ticketing system at www.trainsplit.com can also check to see if this will save you money."<==

The BBC article mentioned by VAP (above) mentions the Trainline as doing splits. I have tested the Trainline site and found that it does not always come up with the best prices or recognise the best split points. Trainsplit does but takes 15% commission of the saving. https://www.traintickets.com/?/ is very good at finding the best split points and lowest fares and takes 10% commission of the amount saved. If you don’t want to pay that commission - you can book each leg separately via these sites so at least they make some money out of finding the savings made by splitting.

Thanks again for all your help. I'll be checking out the links provided so I understand the process before trying to book the actual trains this spring. We've taken train trips in England at least a dozen times--mostly out of and into London--and I only remember having to change trains once, but we were using BritRail passes that trip, so it was a whole different procedure.

Usually, for short hops, people pay on the day. For longer distances, it is usually cheaper to pre-book Specific train Advance tickets which usually get loaded around 11 weeks out. Sometimes, return tickets are only £1 or so dearer than one way tickets.

A high speed (140mph) service also operates between London St.Pancras and Canterbury so you may like to use that going out to Canterbury? You have been told to take the slower route back to London Victoria because it is from Victoria that you will travel to Chichester and there would be little point in taking the high speed service to St.Pancras to then have to cross London on the underground to VIC.https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/tickets/more-ways-to-travel/high-speed

You may like to consider getting a Railcard which will get the fares down by about a third but costs £30. (Note that some are not valid before 9.30am on weekdays). You can make bookings on the assumption that you already have the Railcard.https://www.railcard.co.uk

Thanks James--I'm certain my husband would love traveling on the high-speed train, but would it make more sense money-wise to buy a round-trip ticket from Victoria to Canterbury and back, then a separate ticket to Chichester? Or are return tickets same day only? We've generally been traveling in one direction in the past, except for a day trip to Windsor last trip. Have done BritRail passes, advance booking and same day tickets on a variety of trips over the years.

We are planning on purchasing the 2 Together pass, noting its restrictions on the early morning travel. If I'm remembering correctly, the Senior passes have a similar restriction, so we should be in sync with our friends who have those passes.

there are day returns which you must return on the same day, and period returns where the return must be within 30 days.

If you pre-purchase an Advance ticket for St.Pancras to Canterbury West using the high speed service, you can do it on a direct train taking 53 minutes for £12.45* per person. That sounds a good deal to me - you just need to get your booking in at the right time and not travel in the peak. So, if I were you, I would travel out on the direct high speed service with a pre purchased Advance ticket and back on the slower service to Victoria - again with an Advance ticket. *Railcard price applied.

Note that the 2 Together Railcard is not valid before 9.30am on weekdays but the Senior Railcard is valid at all times.

The Senior Railcard does have a morning peak restriction if both origin and destination stations are within the Network Railcard area of validity, as these are

Thank you again everyone for so much good information. Lots to consider. Our train trip with our friends will actually be Chichester to Moreton-in-Marsh, so we will be coordinating trains with our friends when we buy our actual tickets.