Instead of going to Reading (29 miles away) to get the train, I would suggest going to Slough (8 miles away) to get the train to Oxford. The train ride from Oxford to Salisbury is about 2 hours, I wouldn't back track to Oxford to get the train to London. I would get the train in Salisbury to London, if buy in advance 7-10 weeks the ticket would be £9.10 pp, and you won't have to change trains. Depending on what time you get the train to Salisbury you will have to change at least once or twice. On the one change you will have to change in Basingstoke, if you have to change twice changes will be at Basingstoke and Reading.

Thank you for your help. I was on the National Rail Enquirie site and the 2 Together price from Salisbury to London Blackfriars between 16:21-17:21 was 57.30 pounds per two with the railcars. Where did you find the 9.10 pounds per person? I want that site for my other train trips as well!! Wow!!

I went to National Rail Enquiries, I entered from Salisbury to London Waterloo, I used a date that was seven weeks out leaving at 10:00 am and it came up as £9.10 pp.

There are many stations in London depending on what route you are arriving on. Don't pick Blackfriars because it's the first one alphabetically. Pick London - [All stations]] and the site will automatically find the correct one. That's probably why you were seeing such high fares.

How do you "search for your answers first"?

Search on this Forum is not ideal, but it is available. There are two ways.

1) There is a search function on this page. It's kind of hidden. On a desktop or other horizontal (landscape) screen), at the top, near the center, to the right of the dark blue Rick Steves Europe logo, there is a magnifying glass and the word "search" in very light text. On a phone, tablet, or other vertical (portrait) screen, at the top left you'll see a bunch of horizontal bars. Press that, and at the very top (over "About Rick") is the search box. You can (laboriously) uncheck everything but Forums if that's the only place you want to search.

2) Go to Google and put in your search terms (for instance, "Train Oxford London" without the quotes). You will get an avalanche of results. Ignore them all, and near the top of the page, you will see the following options:

All Maps News Shopping Images More Settings Tools

Go to Settings, and choose "Advanced Search" and scroll down to "Site or Domain." In that box, put community.ricksteves.com to search these forums, or ricksteves.com to search the whole site.

I find that method number 2 is easier. Particularly to find one of my own posts, I just search for, for instance, "Harold gluten free Italy" and then restrict it to community.ricksteves.com, and voila!

Is a Travel Card only for London?

Yes, only for the 6 zones of the travel area. So, for instance, Heathrow and City airports fall within it, but Luton, Stansted, Gatwick, and Southend airports don't. Oxford, Salisbury, and Stratford are also outside its coverage.

Using the Search function above, you need not uncheck other topics first. After you get search results, you still have the option to filter the results by type and then by time date range.

Thank you, Robin Z, Keith and Phillip for the train help. We have made a lot of changes in our itinerary planning and I have spent HOURS on the train websites (we are out of the country and couldn't get on the National Rail site for a couple of days so I started using another site. I found the Airline Bus site very difficult to use--shows from Oxford to Heathrow but finally made it. It is too early to book for July but looking for April 3, LHR to Oxford Glou.on the Green costs is 46 pounds one way for 2. Does that sound right? Guessing leaving LHR about 2:00, arriving at noon.

2 When looking at tickets from Oxford to London, any station, when I got to the basket one time it was 7.90 pounds for 2 leaving at 14:31, arriving at Paddington 15:35. Then it also showed leaving 14:37, to 16:32 arriving at Paddington for 33.80 pounds. How can this be? I also noticed when I went to the basket one time it switched me to Chiltern Railways and one time to Great Western Railways. Are these all National Railways or am I referred to third parties? And I saw from Google several other places to buy tickets--used one site before we could get back on National Railway site. Which is the safest place to buy Advance tickets?

Thank you Harold and Laura for the help in using a Search Function. I wrote down word for word what you wrote and will practice using it.

Advance Tickets are quota controlled, and every train will make its way through the quota differently. It is quite reasonable that one train has tickets left at one level and another wouldn't.

The first train, with two stops, still has very low priced Advance tickets. The later train you quote which takes double the time -2 hours instead of one - stops at every ant hill and only has Off-Peak tickets which are much more expensive.

If you see something confusing like that you can expand the result and also check the ticket types on the original result.

Chiltern is a perfectly legitimate rail operator, from London Marylebone to Oxford, Bicester and Birmingham Snow Hill to Kidderminster. Great Western Railway is also a legitimate operator, responsible for trains from London Paddington to the southwest and Oxford and the Cotswolds.

Any train operator can sell tickets to any destination in the UK via any route, regardless of if their trains go there.