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Round trip same day tickets to Cambridge

My husband and I are going to be London for six days in June and would like to make a day trip to Cambridge on Tuesday June 18. My preference would be to be able to come back when we prefer but what I have found are advance tickets which require commitments to specific trains and anytime tickets which are quite expensive. Is there any other alternative that I have not seen? My understanding is anytime tickets allow you to travel before 9:30 am which we do not need to do. I just would prefer to not to have to decide how long to stay ahead of time, although not at any price. We will have Two Together cards.

Thanks!

Posted by
32523 posts

Do you expect to take the faster service from Kings Cross; or the slightly slower Thameslink from London Bridge, The City or St Pancras; or the slower service from Liverpool Street?

Posted by
2462 posts

I had been looking at Liverpool because it was cheaper. I care more about price than the extra 15 minutes.

We are staying at a Premier Inn County Hall near the London Eye so expect would have to take tube to either location.

Posted by
811 posts

the off-peak time ticket is what you need. just came back from london, i took the train from slough to Cambridge, one way cost is the same as return, off-peak, you can come back to the train station any time you want. train is pretty frequent, maybe about every 30-60 min at most. From slough to cambridge is about 20 pounds.

Posted by
8889 posts

I had been looking at Liverpool because it was cheaper.

I hope you weren't. Liverpool to Cambridge would cost a lot more.
Liverpool is a city in North-West England. Liverpool Street is a station in London. Please use the correct full place names, if you put "Liverpool" into a rail website, you would get totally the wrong result.

Posted by
2462 posts

Thanks to responses I have found the off peak return tickets from London Liverpool Street to Cambridge on Greater Angela train line. It appears that I would have to pick them up from a self service machine at the station. Would it be easier for us to just purchase them on the day we want to travel? Would there be a person? I have to admit I am having flashbacks to the machines in Rotterdam I could not figure out a few years ago. The advance tickets I have purchased have been delivered in a pdf file to my email address which I was hoping for here as well.

Posted by
8889 posts

It appears that I would have to pick them up from a self service machine at the station. Would it be easier for us to just purchase them on the day we want to travel? Would there be a person?

Picking up tickets at the machine is easy. Pick any machine, put in the card you used to buy the tickets (this is for ID purposes only) and type the alphanumeric code you get when you buy. It spits out the tickets.

Posted by
2462 posts

I bought the tickets and hopefully it will be smooth picking them up, as some of you suggest. But I realized if it is not, we can always take the next train, since we have off peak day return tickets.

Thanks for all the help!