Headed to Scotland in July and making travel plans by train. Want to get a "two together" travel card to take advantage of the discounted fares associated with it. The best discounts are for booking early. But, when I tried to order a travel card online at the national rail site, it appears you need an address in the UK to ship to. Does anyone have experience with this? Can I order such a card from the US or do we need to wait until we arrive in Scotland to purchase?
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8876 posts
You can go ahead and purchase your tickets now as if you had the pass. Then, you simply buy the pass upon arrival in the UK before you start your first train journey so that you have it with you if the conductor asks to see it.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33818 posts
Yup, as long as you have it to show the chap or chapess as your ticket is checked that is all you need to do. Go to a staffed rail station booking office with your photos with sufficient time - a few minutes - to make up the card, pay your money and you are good to go.
Don't try to get the Heathrow Express booking office at Heathrow to make the card - they can't as they are not a National Rail station.
Posted by
Columbus, OH, USA
2081 posts
Because we had limited time, we had the downloaded application for the railcard completed and our passport photos from home in hand. We then traveled on all the advanced tickets we had already purchased based on the Two Together price. No problems whatsoever. Safe travels.
Posted by
Nederland, CO
1529 posts
Nigel, just to tag on to this question - this makes me wonder if you can get a rail pass validated at Heathrow? We are planning on taking the Heathrow express then on to Canterbury by train using a rail pass.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33818 posts
Not at Heathrow. There is not a National Rail train station there.
Heathrow Express is owned by the owners of the airport, not a part of the national network.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks everyone. We'll go ahead and make our reservations now, and be sure to bring along a couple of photos for our travel card application when we are on the ground in Edinburgh.
Posted by
Nederland, CO
1529 posts
Just as an FYI....i've been digging to get an answer about validating a railpass at Heathrow and this sight which seems to be legit says you can...
https://www.railplus.com.au/uk-by-rail/britrail-passes/britrail-england-flexi-pass/factsheet.htm
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33818 posts
I've done a bit more research on this, looking at the Heathrow Express website.
Although they are not a National Rail company they say that they do validate Britrail passes and that they are accepted by them.
From the "Railcards" link on their website:-
BritRail Passes
Holders of the following passes can use them on Heathrow Express,
providing they have first validated them at a Heathrow Express ticket
office or a main-line rail station.BritRail Pass + Ireland BritRail
Consecutive Low Season BritRail
England Consecutive BritRail
Flexi Guest Pass
BritRail FlexiPass
BritRail Party Flexipass
BritRail Consective Eurail Passholder
Britrail Euro BritRail Point to Point (must state London-Heathrow and vice versa)
Passes marked UNDERGROUND cannot be used