I'm helping 2 friends plan their trip to England and Wales this fall. They are going in late September/October and will traveling only by train. They need 4 trips: Oxford to Cardiff, Cardiff to Conwy, Conwy to Liverpool, and Liverpool to London. Given that they are planning ahead and have fixed travel dates, I think it makes more sense for them to buy advance purchase point tickets than a rail pass. It looks like getting the "two together" railcard will get them a 30% discount on the point tickets (they don't need to travel during rush hour). Going to https://www.nationalrail.co.uk to search for the routes/tickets and then redirected to the appropriate railway to purchase. Is that correct? Anything else to consider? Thanks in advance for advice!
Posted by
Somerset, UK
83 posts
The operators are different but the ticketing system is integrated. There is no need to go to each separate operator to purchase tickets, just choose one and stick with it. It is easier to have all your bookings in one place than try and remember which website to go to to retrieve a ticket.
There are not many direct services from Cardiff to Conwy any more, it is often easier to go to Llandudno Junction, and get a bus (journey time is only 5 minutes) to get to Conwy.
Posted by
2930 posts
Olivia has given you sound advice above. Note that by splitting some of the tickets for journeys (even though you stay on the same train), the fares can be reduced. The train company websites don't tell you this. https://trainsplit.com does tell you how to reduce the price by doing ‘splits’ but note that they charge a commission on the amount saved. Put in say for a journey from Cardiff to Llandudno Junction (1 mile west of Conwy) and then select a train and click continue and then ticket details and it will show you a break down of how they got the cheaper total fare.
When going from Cardiff to Conwy, consider buying a ticket from Cardiff to Shrewsbury - have a wander around this border town and then *buy another ticket from Shrewsbury to Chester and have a wander around . Finally go from Chester to Conwy. *A buy on the day one way ticket from Shrewsbury to Chester would be £19.30 for 2 with the Railcard.
https://www.shropshire-guide.co.uk/places/shrewsbury/
https://visitcheshire.com/locations/chester
Play around with different dates onhttps://trainsplit.com to see how the fares vary.
If going from Cardiff to Caerphilly to see the medieval castle - buy train tickets on the day for the 20 minute trip (trains every 10 minutes) and it costs only £11.26 return for 2 with the Railcard. On arrival at Caerphilly, KEEP the train tickets and show them at the entry to the castle and you can both go in on a 2 for 1 deal. The same applies to all CADW (Welsh Government) castles in Wales - so do the same for Conwy Castle. https://cadw.gov.wales/2-1-entry-offer-transport-wales
(On the Caerphilly line - you could alight at Lisvane station to see Cefn-Onn-Park. Well worth seeing in springtime and good pub/restaurant just west of entrance).
Note: No buses to St.Fagans on Sundays & last bus back might be at 3pm. https://museum.wales/stfagans/
PS. Don’t forget to read past threads on the RS Wales forum for more tips.
Posted by
Warrington, England
221 posts
That's pretty much spot on. You actually get 33% reduction with a railcard. If you use www.nationalrail.co.uk it will give you the various options. If their days are set in stone then by all means book specific trains using Advance single tickets. They should go on sale for then around July/August.
I believe the rules are changing with railcards. At present, you can book a ticket with a railcard discount before you have one, just so long as you have one when you travel. I believe that it is proposed that soon you will need to insert a railcard number when booking so keep an eye on that change.
Posted by
OP
189 posts
Thank you all so much for the quick and helpful replies! I did see the info about Llandudno Junction in the guidebook but forgot about that when sending my summary. Great tip on the rail split idea. And also the recommendations of places to stop along the way. I don't think they have an intent to come back to the UK within a year so timing of buying the rail card shouldn't matter - will recommend they buy it first and have it on hand when buying the individual tickets. Thank you!
Posted by
Preston UK
1909 posts
Whilst I can see the point about buying all your tickets from one company it would certainly be better to at least buy the Liverpool to London tickets from Avanti West Coast, who operate the fast trains. It's very easy to choose your own seats on their website. Although they do have a tendency to allocate you random ones at first they can be easily changed. I don't know how much this is a factor on your other routes.
Posted by
Warrington, England
221 posts
They need to do the maths to determine whether a Railcard is viable. A Two together Railcard costs £35, but will reduce prices by 33%. I believe the breakpoint is around £105 in total. So really, it doesn't matter if they don't use it for the remaining 50 weeks of the year, so long as they save more than the £35 cost, it is worth buying.
I too would advise using the site of the actual train operator. You will find this if using www.nationalrail.co.uk
Posted by
243 posts
We're traveling Edinburgh-York-London-Bath-London via LNER & GWR. For us, purchasing the "Two Together" Card and buying individual point-to-point tickets was cheaper than purchasing the Rail Pass by about 200GBP.
Prior to purchasing and doing the math, "everyone" (not here) told me to buy the rail pass, but the numbers didn't add up for us.
Posted by
OP
189 posts
Thank you! I did the math based on June prices (since their timeline isn't out yet) and it looks like the same - the point to point with the Two Together appears to be the way to go.