We will be taking the train from London to Edinburgh at the end of August. We will be spending three nights in Edinburgh and then taking the train to York for a three night stay. We will then return to London. I'd like to take the high speed train to Edinburgh. I'm not sure if we can buy a round trip ticket that would allow us to stop in York for the three nights on the return trip. If this is a possibility would we save money by buying the train tickets on line from home before the trip? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Lake District, England
8134 posts
The East Coast Main Line is the only line in the Country not to have return fares. That started sometime last year.
All fares are now single fares.
It will certainly save you money to book ahead of time, if you can commit to specific trains with Advance Fares.
Especially for Edinburgh to York you can often save a lot of money by breaking that into Edinburgh to Newcastle, and Newcastle to York. More often than not that involves a change of train at Newcastle, and is usually with Transpennine, rather than LNER- but the difference in fares is considerable.
For different scenery (through Birmingham and the Lake District) and almost always a much cheaper fare (but a 1 hour longer journey) you could do the outward journey to Edinburgh on Avanti trains every 2 hours.
As you say 'we' if you can travel after 0930 (on weekdays) you will save 1/3 off all fares by buying a Two Together Railcard for £30.
With a railcard it is not unusual to get Euston to Edinburgh for about £25 each, and Edinburgh to York (with the Newcastle change) for £11 each- on the 0934 train you have 25 minutes between trains at Newcastle, for instance.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
Thank you for the information! I bought the "Two Together" rail pass and I'm in the process of buying advance tickets.
I do have another question. On the National Rail site when I put in August 30th for a a trip from Kings Crossing to Edinburgh it changes the date to August 29th. It will not put in anything for the 30th. Could it be that they haven't released the schedule as far as Aug 30th?
I had the same problem booking a train from London to Moreton In Marsh on Aug 29th for a Go Cotswold tour. It gave only information for Aug 27th and 28th, not Aug 29th. It said "your outward arrival time overlaps with the return departure time". I had entered: Aug. 29 Paddington/Moreton In Marsh Arriving by 09:15 and Aug. 29 MIM/POD Departing after 18:00
I finally ended up purchasing the rail tickets from The Trainline via a link on GoCotswalds site. They did not have a place to enter the rail pass but at least I was able to get the tickets.
Posted by
Lake District, England
8134 posts
The issue with the times on National Rail is a known one, to do with the time zones difference.
Fares are released. 30 August is the last Friday of the summer school Holidays, so fares are not at all cheap that day. They are what they are, and none of the standard split fares tricks brings them down, much if at all.
I don't use Trainline- but have just looked at it re- railcards
Where it says number of adults click on that, then choose the number of travellers, below that you will see 'add railcard', click on that and scroll down to find your railcard then click on the + symbol.
Coming back south on Monday 2 September is a lot cheaper, and the split ticket trick across Newcastle to York is working that day, if not as cheap as it would normally be.
Posted by
2599 posts
Mina - I just can't understand why you jumped ahead and purchased the tickets without waiting for advice first. You are now in a situation where you have paid out money for a Railcard that would have got you 30% off the fares but went ahead and purchased the tickets without the discount because you did not know how to do it on the Trainline website.
You need to give time for responses as the Brit’s with the knowledge are asleep and awake earlier than N America.