Rail pass in england

The Brit-rail pass. See here.
https://www.britrail.net/passes

You need to compare the cost of the Britrail Pass per day v the cost of actually buying the train tickets. For short trips, it is usually just as cheap to buy on the day. For longer trips, it is usually cheaper to buy Advance tickets (non refundable) for specific trains and these usually get loaded around 10 weeks ahead. On some journeys - especially off you have to change trains/ company en-route, it can work out cheaper to split the ticket. These 2 sites will tell you if splitting is cheaper. Suggest you play around with your journeys and dates and see what they tell you:> https://www.traintickets.com/?/
https://v3.trainsplit.com

You may also like to consider getting a Railcard which will knock about a third off the fares and cost £30. Note that some Railcards
do not permit travel before 9.30am on weekdays. https://www.railcard.co.uk

You can also buy various Rover Tickets in Britain:> http://www.railrover.org/index.html

Come back & let people know if the Britrail Pass is a good deal or not regarding price.

You should not necessarily believe what the split ticket websites tell you- nothing beats personal experience and knowledge. As an example I have just booked a journey from my home in the English Lake District to London (a 340 mile journey) for 4 weeks time for £13.95 with a railcard, an outstanding bargain I found without any effort at all. The split ticket websites won't split in the right place. As a result they quote either £20.84 or £31.65, which is a huge difference on a very simple journey.
I admit that both are very good fares for the journey (which is just under £100 walk up fare) but the £31.65 I can find on the websites of the two operators anyway. It's not magic.
This is not an isolated example. Next week I am going to Manchester- the correct best value fare is £16.50 for another simple journey. The split ticket websites give me between £23 and £35. The £16.50 fare is a walk up fare, valid on any train and I can break my journey anywhere on route as many times as I please and it includes a Manchester area rail rover- the other fares are advance, train specific fares to Manchester only.
I am travelling solely on Northern Rail, yet their website and ticket machines won't offer me the £16.50 fare either, only the train conductor from my unstaffed station, because I know what to ask him/her for.
I could quote example after example like that, around the country.

Before you jump to using a third party site as has been mentioned above, look at the official rail website for schedule and fares. You may find that buying directly from the rail companies is no more expensive than adding a third party.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk

I second the recommendation to start at the national rail site, using their Journey Planner. If you can commit to a specific train departure, generally the advance fare will be the least expensive option. The downside is that if you miss that specific train, you're out of luck. No refunds.

I'm no expert, but have done some UK rail travel - with and without a BritRail pass. If saving money is your top priority, the BritRail pass may not work for you. A lot depends on the length of the trip and its cost. For instance, I'm currently planning four rail trips during my UK visit in May: London - Edinburgh; Edinburgh - York; York - Birmingham; Birmingham - London. The dates are still too far out to get prices for them on the National Rail site, but using the same days of the week for March or April, I found lowest advance fares totaling £180 (US$223) for all four trips. The BritRail Flexipass for 4 journeys within a 30 day period costs $275 (£223) - I think that's with the senior citizen discount. Given the flexibility the BritRail pass provides, I'll probably get it vs. booking those advance tickets. In the past I've found that the BritRail pass saved me money, because I changed my itinerary on the ground in Britain, and I was able to reschedule a couple of long distance train trips at no cost. Had I not had the pass, I'd have had to pay a lot.

Your trip is close enough that you can price - and buy if you wish - your tickets now. I don't know if you'd qualify for a railcard, but if you do that could also save money. I think you can apply online and pick up the card at a UK rail station. I believe that you can buy your train ticket(s) at the railcard discounted price, as long as you have the card in hand when you pick up the tickets or board the train. https://www.railcard.co.uk/

In my limited experience, although there are exceptions of course, shorter trips - for example, Glasgow - Edinburgh - can be relatively inexpensive even on a walk-up basis. I'll probably buy my BritRail pass just for those 4 major journeys and do my best to get good prices on shorter/day trips.

You do have to purchase the BritRail pass before you arrive in the UK. They do offer a digital version of the pass, and I don't know how they monitor your whereabouts if you purchase that one, vs. the paper version that they have to send you in the mail.

For what it's worth I am off to Carlisle soon and the split ticket App shows up fares about 30 percent less than the exact sane train than by going via National Rail for me
Granted I don't have any rail card but would assume they are also valid in the split ticket App as well as National Rail

If you walk up after 9:30(I believe that's the correct time) and buy a ticket for that day, it's usually not a bad price and it gives you flexibility in your plans.

On weekdays, fares are usually cheaper after 9.30am and you can buy on the day. This is OK for short return journeys but for one way - especially longer journeys, it is usually cheaper to book ahead for specific train Advance tickets.

If you have a Railcard that is not valid before 9.30am on weekdays and you want to go earlier, buy a ticket to the first place that the train reaches after 9.30am; then buy a ticket for the continuation of your journey using the Railcard with the 30% discount.

Some posters say use the National Rail web site and nothing else. Sure you can use that but I suggest you test that out against what the split ticket websites come up with. Here is another of the split ticket websites in addition to the 2 I mentioned earlier.https://www.splitmyfare.co.uk