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Purchasing Rail Tickets in Advance - open ticket

We arrive at Heathrow about noon on 08/14. We are headed directly to Canterbury. I know advance tickets are less expensive but I am not sure what time we will get to the train station based on actual arrival/customs/etc. How can I purchase a ticket that would be good anytime on 08/14? Which site should I use to purchase tickets? Thanks!

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14 posts

Start at the website for National Rail and go to the Planner. Plug in your route and day and the earliedt reasonable tine. It will return a list of trains from that time forward - all train companies, all routing. You can expand any of the trips to see all of the fare options. Generally in standard class there are 3 major buckets - advance for a specific time (if available); off-peak if the train is not during peak hours; and any time.

Having said that, uf you are not committing to a specific journey with an advance ticket, you can just buy the appropriate ticket at the station when you get there.