I desperately need help on purchasing advance train tickets. On my previous trips to England, I have purchased point to point tickets. This time, we are covering more cities & read it's cheaper to buy tickets 12 weeks in advance. We land at Heathrow 9/10/14 at 0700AM. I know we can catch the Piccadilly line to Kings Cross Station for a train to York. Then on 13/10/14, we need to go from York to Bath Spa and on 19/10/14, we need to go from Bath to London. Before, we just bought our off-peak tickets a few days in advance & the prices were reasonable. My questions are: Should I just buy an advance ticket to York & on the day we arrive in York, buy the ticket to Bath, and the day we arrive in Bath, buy the ticket to London? Or should I just buy them all at once in advance? On going from York to Bath, do we have to go to Kings Cross, then Paddington to Bath Spa or is there an easier/faster way? I do hope t his all makes sense! Any assistance you can give or any suggestiona would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
Buying the tickets in advance will be significantly cheaper.
It is possible to get a ticket from York to Bath avoiding London. You will travel via Birmingham and possibly change once or twice. However, if it's significantly slower or more expensive than travelling via London, getting from Kings Cross to Paddington is one of the easiest inter-station trips in London - it's a single train journey on the Circle Line, which is one of the shallowest below ground, and Kings Cross and Paddington tube stations have both been recently reconstructed with elevators for heavy luggage.
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5466 posts
London-York-Bath-London is a triangular journey, which would be expensive booking non advance tickets. Via London though it is two separate returns (London-York and London-Bath), which if bought on the day at super off peak rates would be £91-£101 and £55 respectively in round terms depending on operator. The Two Together rail card would payoff as well.
Even with advances the via London fare might turn out cheaper as Cross Country advances tend to be expensive in my experience.
Posted by
2599 posts
Lets start with Heathrow > London (Paddington). You can pay on the day for this journey which will cost £21 one way if you use the Heathrow Express but only £9.90 if you use the half hourly 'Connect' service (Leaves x27 & x57 but not Terminal 5). It takes a fraction longer to do the same route because it makes a couple of stops.
Now, rather than pay for the underground from PAD > Kings Cross separately, I would advance buy one through ticket. Go to www.nationalrail.co.uk and put in for PAD > YRK for your date (9 Oct). The cheapest I can see (as of now) is only £16.60 for the entire trip - including the underground. That would mean leaving Pad at 10.51 but I think it would not make any difference if you caught an earlier underground train to Kings Cross. When you click 'Details' it will tell you that this fare applies to the 11.21 from Kings Cross (KGX) and you MUST be on this train to use this cheap ticket. The train company is East Coast so you might wish to pre-book with them.http://www.eastcoast.co.uk
You could pay more for other services. It is up to you to reckon on price v timing. (If you have time to kill at Kings Cross, you could always wander around the newly upgraded station or even pop next door to see St.Pancras). However, sometimes they may let you board an earlier service. The person that matters is the 'manager' on the train so you may wish to ask staff rather than hang about but you won't have a reserved seat.
Now for York > Bath. I completely disagree with suggestions of travelling via London. Go to www.nationalrail.co.uk and put in for YRK > BTH on 19 Oct. As of now, you can leave YRK on the 9.45 or 10.45 and the single fare is £43.60 with 1 change at Bristol (Temple Meads) for the short (15 minute) run to Bath. However, do this & you can reduce the fare. BTH > CNM (Cheltenham). For both the above departures from York, the fare (as of now) to Cheltenham will be £26.50. The 9.45 from YRK leaves CNM at 13.00 with a CNM > BTH fare of £6.70. So, by buying split tickets, we now have the YRK > BTH fare down to £33.90 - even though you are on exactly the same trains and you don't have to get off at Cheltenham! The 10.45 from YRK is slightly dearer for the CNM > BTH leg at £8.40 (14.00 from Cheltenham) making a total YRK > BTH of £34.90. The train company for York > Bristol is Cross Country with First Great Western for the short hop from Bristol (Temple Meads) to Bath. You should be able to buy all the tickets via the East Coast site who I think will let you have a print your own. Alternatively, you can pick up on arrival in the UK but you MUST use the same debit card = bring it with you.
You should have no problems pre-booking your Bath > London (Paddington) journey but if not going to London, you may prefer to go to Reading and use the Heathrow bus link.
Also consider a 2 together Railcard. http://www.twotogether-railcard.co.uk
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
It would certainly be much simpler for you to buy a BritRail England pass covering 3 days of travel within 2 months for $235 per adult. When you purchase before August 28, you'll automatically get an extra travel day free. With this pass, you need not lock in departure times. You can hop on any train, or can make an optional, free seat reservation up to about a day before departure in stations there. The Heathrow Express is covered on your first travel day, as well as the train to York. If you don't find a better use for the free fourth travel day, then you can use it for the Heathrow Express ($30 value) on your return.