Question on Buying British Rail Tickets (120 days out)

For long-distance trains you will potentially save huge amounts of money vs. buying on the day of travel. Or you can look at it the other way and say that if you wait till the last minute, you will pay a huge penalty. Whether the magic date is typically 120 days, I do not know. I just spot checked London-Edinburgh and found April 6 the latest date for which tickets are available. There are a few trains with fares of 30-32.50 GBP, though most are higher (a lot in the 60-80 GBP range). For tomorrow, the lowest fare I see is 70.50 GBP and many trains are over 140 GBP.

By going to the National Rail website, entering your travel legs one by one, and fiddling with the dates, you can probably see which trips will benefit significantly from early booking. For some of your trips, it may not matter much.

I purchased a few tickets for GB trains online this summer using my US credit card. I was traveling in England at the time and had previously notified my credit card issuer that I would be doing so, which may have made a difference. I had no problems completing the purchase, and the pick-up-from-machine process worked fine for me.

Remember that the super-bargain "Advance" fares are (as far as I know) non-refundable and non-exchangeable. Proceed with caution.

Mile per mile the British rail system is one of the most expensive railroad system in all of Europe. So advance purchases can provide substantial savings but you are locked into a date and time and non refundable much like our airline ticketing system. If committed to your schedule, no problems. If you want to be flexible, then it is not a good idea.

If you said what dates you plan to travel and where, you may get more help as some of us know places where you can split the tickets to reduce the prices - but the train must stop at the ‘split ticket’ station - even though you stay on the same train. Usually, it is about 11 weeks ahead that you will find the cheapest pre-booked specific train prices. www.nationalrail.co.uk shows the prices/schedules and you usually pay with the train company on which most of your journey will be made. They then debit your card. You then bring the same card with you - along with your booking reference number(s). Insert the same debit card in to a ticket machine and input the booking number(s) and out will come your tickets. Alternatively, go to a humanoid at a staffed station and they might do this for you.

Some tickets, particularly mid week long distance journeys will be cheaper if booked 11 weeks out. Some tickets, such as from my local station in Kent to London are considered to be commuter routes and are never discounted.

Prices vary depending on the day of the week, time of travel and the route taken. Try googling the journey for your particular dates, if within 3 months to see price options. It is usually cheaper to travel after 10am, but this isn't always the case.

British Rail ceased to exist in 1997!

best if you say which particular tickets - when and where - then you could get bespoke advice

Liverpool to York can be slow going. You may find this route is cheaper if you split the tickets at Manchester. However, I think it is better to go:> London (EUSton) > LIVerpool; LIV > Glasgow; Glasgow > Edinburgh (EDB); EDB > York; York > London (kings Cross) KGX.

If you follow my routing, you may like to see the Lake District - which would mean taking detour to Windermere or going to Penrith & bus to Keswick.
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/routemaps/nationalrailnetworkmap.pdf

All of the above advice is right on. Having travelled extensively by train in the UK over the past 15 years, I would add the following:
1) Using the ojp.nationalrail.com site, check out several trains before and after your planned departure. Sometimes a few minutes either way greatly reduces the fare. Also check the length of journey and number of changes. Sometimes saving a bit isn’t worth the time spent travelling instead of sightseeing at your destination.

2) If you plan on spending over £100 on Rail travel and there are 2 of you then consider a Two Together card. It costs £30, is good for a year and gives both of you 1/3 off all rail fares. My wife and I have used this pass for the last 5 years by renewing it each year we travel to the UK. 2 years ago we did a similar itinerary, London-Manchester-Edinburgh then back to London via Oxford. We travelled First Class for 3 of the longer segments (well worth it on 2-4 hour journeys) for a reasonable increase in price and still saved well in excess of £100 off the standard class advance tickets. Go to twotogether-railcard.co.uk site for info. You can order online by emailing a suitable photo of each of you or take a passport photo with you to a manned rail ticket office to purchase card.

As others have said, the key is to purchase your tickets as far in advance as possible, remembering of course that they are not refundable. Best of luck.

You can do further research at www.seat61.com. We've used him for years for both train and ferry assistance across Europe and the UK.

When we booked tickets last year, I think the magic window for discount tickets did not open up exactly or consistently at 12 weeks. It was something less than that but I can't say how much. Absolutely it was worth it. We didnt do any of the trips you listed, but we got London-York for something like £13 per person. Go through the National Rail site, and it will direct you to each company that runs the specific line. Some will let you print tickets at home, others offer to mail them to you, or you can pick up at any rail station. Keeping track of all the tickets was a minor nuisance. Be sure to get the seat reservations with the tickets. Some of our trains were jammed.