Round Trips using BritRail England or London Passes

Yes it does, and I can't argue with your logic.

If you plan ahead - several weeks ahead - on many routes you can get "Advance" tickets which can be rock bottom. No change, no exchange, so be sure about your journeys, but you can often travel in First for about what you might pay for Standard, you can travel at peak times, and on many of the companies you get a seat reservation built in.

Not all lines have those; and they are capacity controlled, and the price varies depending on demand, and they do sell out; in which case you are back to your original premise.

The time when a pass might help is if you are doing several or many quite long distance journeys - such as Cornwall or the Lake District.

The advantage of these are to use peak time trains so that you get a longer first day.. If you are returning on a different day the regular off-peak returns are rather more than a single though. Off-peak day returns are the one that are very closely priced to the single (ie only a few pence more). Advances though can help although availability through peak time tends to be limited or relatively expensive.

you pay for the flexibility of rail passes - but if you want to save money they are rarely a good deal

if you tell us the journeys you're considering we can tell you how much Advance tickets are likely to cost

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Other good ways to save money on train tickets are these:

Use the old fashioned names for cheaper tickets - they won't be in the computer this way, nor will they print on the ticket this way, but old conductors and old booking clerks (we call them Retail Travel Advisors now - the folks who sit behind the window and sell tickets) will know what you are talking about....

Savers
Out one day and back within 30. Off peak only but often if you go opposite the flow of commuters (A Good Thing) the hours can be quite broad. Return just a bit more expensive than singles. Available immediately before travel, no quota.

SuperSavers
Even cheaper than Savers, but highly time restricted. On some lines not available on trains or stopping patterns or even on weekends if a very busy weekend recreation line - but always check if it is available if you haven't got something better like Advance.

Both savers and supersavers will generally be considerably less than two singles to form an overnight return journey.

Are you solo or a couple or more? Two Together, or Groupsave can help.

Depending on where you are going various Rover tickets or Ranger tickets may help.....

What's the proposed routing?

Thanks to everyone for their comments, it helps.
I will be at Cambridge University for 3 weeks and then Oxford for 3 weeks. So I have several side trips planned from the colleges
to sites within the London Pass's area including London. Since most of my trips will be either early Friday afternoon or Sat/Sun they will be non-peak fares. I am over 60 so I plan to also buy the Sr RailCard for 1/3 off non-peak tickets.

I plan to buy tickets at least a week in advance but some of the better prices require 3-4 weeks in advance.
Along with the easy of a Pass (I have used them before), I am worried about having to buy tickets so far in advance that it

increasing the chance of plan changes or just missing a specific ticketed train.

Let me ask a basic question. If I buy an off-peak ticket in advance, can I use it on the ticketed date but at a different (later) time than is on the ticket?

I am also planning a weekend trip to Bruges on the Eruostar. I read that I can use either of these passes but have to make a reservation.
Is that true? I can use either Pass to cover this trip? Is there a charge for the reservation?

Thanks for any additional help. Fran

Hi Fran,

From what you have described, it doesn't sound like a Britrail pass would be worth it for you. As others have noted, they are best used for long-distance travel over several days. With a railpass, you can take as many train rides on any given travel day and just use one day of your pass, but if you were to do a round-trip on separate days, you would use 2 days of your pass.

To answer your 2nd question, whether you can take a later train for an off-peak ticket purchased in advance depends on the type of ticket you buy. Most of the cheapest, advance-purchase tickets are non-refundable, non- exchangeable, so if you missed your train, you wouldn't be able to take a later train. I believe an off-peak ticket on the Oxford-London or Cambridge-London route for example is good for any train during the off-peak hours (outside of morning and evening rush how). I suggest looking at fares for one of your planned routes a month or so from now and reading through the various ticket options to get an idea of types of tickets available. See www.nationalrail.co.uk for details.

A railpass for Britain or Belgium qualifies you for a "Passholder fare" on the Eurostar between London-Paris and London-Brussels, but these trains are not covered by any railpass. The Passholder fare is typically more expensive than other advance, purchase, non-refundable fares. There are also Senior fares, which are also less expensive than the passholder fare. Prices for all these fares vary depending on how far in advance you buy the tickets and whether they are exchangeable or refundable. All Eurostar trains include a reservation when you buy your ticket. You can't buy a ticket without it. See www.eurostar.com for sample ticket prices and details.

Thanks for the info. Fran