Manchester to London on train

Depends on the type of fare. The least expensive ones restrict you to that particular train only. Miss it and you’re out of luck. Those work well for tourists but not necessarily business travellers.

There are three main types of British rail tickets: Anytime, Off-Peak, and Advance.

Anytime tickets are what they sound like: Valid for any train leaving at any time. They're the most expensive - looks like GBP 180 for the Manchester to London route.
Off-Peak tickets are almost as flexible as Anytime ones: They're generally valid for any train after the morning rush hour. They can be considerably cheaper, but still quite expensive: GBP 91.10 for Manchester to London.
Advance tickets are valid only for a specific train. There are several price tiers, and the prices for each train gradually go up as the cheapest tickets sell out. In a quick search I'm seeing prices all the way from GBP 25 to GBP 81. The fare conditions (i.e., buy in advance, commit to that specific train) are the same for all of them.

(All of the above numbers are for standard-class tickets. First-class tickets also come in the same three varieties, and sometimes it happens that there will be first-class Advance tickets available that are cheaper than any available standard-class fares, and they'll turn up in your search too.)

So you can save a lot of money if you can commit to a travel time in advance, and if you can schedule your travel at a time when not many other people want to travel. Whether the cheapest option is also the "best" depends on your situation and how much flexibility you need with your travel.

Use nationalrail.co.uk, not a 3rd party website.

All about British train travel, and elsewhere:

www.seat61.com

To get one of the cheapest Advance fares you often have to buy the ticket shortly after your travel date goes on sale. It's definitely the case of "the sooner, the better". The Advance tickets are limited in number, and once other passengers have bought the cheap ones, only more expensive tickets remain.

On some trips--and I have no clue whether Manchester-London is one of them--you can sometimes save money by splitting the ticket (buying it in two segments). I think maybe that happens when all the cheap Advance tickets for part of the journey have been sold, so a single ticket can only be offered at the Off-Peak or Anytime fare. But I may not have that quite right. I hope one of our UK posters will clarify and comment as to whether this is something you even need to think about.

Thank you for your replys. It is now clear to me how this works

Then in addition to the excellent advice above, there is also the additional complication of different train companies will sometimes charge different prices - fast trains generally cost more than slow trains, such as the fast trains from Avanti (formerly Virgin) will cost way more than the slower trains from London Northwestern.

To get one of the cheapest Advance fares you often have to buy the ticket shortly after your travel date goes on sale. It's definitely the case of "the sooner, the better".

While this is true, reasonably priced Advanced tickets are also often available on relatively short notice. For example, there are a lot of GBP 42 fares still available on the Manchester to London route for travel tomorrow.

If time isn't too much of an issue you can save a lot of money using Northwestern rather than Avanti.

Am I missing something, or does London Northwestern not go all the way to Manchester? It looks like you could cobble together a cheap ticket by booking Crewe to London on Northwestern, and Manchester to Crewe on another carrier. But I'm not sure I'd recommend that for a UK train novice unless they were really desperate - especially since Advance tickets on Avanti seem pretty reasonable.

True, London Northwestern would require a change onto Northern at either Stoke on Trent or Crewe.

Thanks to all who responded to my question.

HI Linda, I'm traveling in England in September and have also noticed the incredible range of ticket prices. One thing I've found is the segment trick. I priced a trip from Portsmouth to Canterbury (change of trains in waterloo) for 137 gbp. However if I buy a single ticket from Portsmouth to Waterloo for 18 gbp and a 2nd ticket from Waterloo east to Canterbury gbp 22.40 - my ticket is 40.40 gbp. I don't really understand why its so crazy but it looks like a little investigative work can save money. Hope you have a great trip!!