Train Tickets in Advance

I've bought a few train tickets in advance directly from the train service in the country I'm traveling to. Much, much cheaper than the walk-up-to-the-window price. In Scotland, you can buy advance tickets up to the evening before, but the cheapest ones may be sold out--I'm not quite sure how that works.

I only needed two train trickets, and I know where I'm going and when, so I'm saving a lot by having bought them in advance. The advance tickets I've bought are for a specific train and time, though; they are nonrefundable, but the time can be changed for $15+fare difference. I'd say do it if you have specific enough plans and are someone who doesn't feel the need to change plans at the last minute.

You might ask your friend if the price one pays at the window is the Anytime price; if it is, you might save 50% or more on your tickets by buying in advance.

RS's advice might be to buy them at the station as opposed to buying point-to-point tickets from Britrail or Eurail, where you will pay the absolute highest price for the tickets in exchange for the flexibility of traveling on that train line at any time on any day. You can still buy such tickets from TheTrainline.com if you wish, though.

Trainline are agents therefore there can be additional fees. In the UK use National Rail Enquiries who, when you have decided on your ticket, will direct you to the relevant train operator for the purchase. NRE was set up by the train operators in order to provide a portal to their services. No extras.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Confusingly you can still go directly to any of the train operator's sites and buy tickets for any of the other companies. Go figure!

Definitely book early if you can, big savings to be made eg for a trip to York in August it is £21 if bought now against £82 off peak fare or £115 standard (Anytime) fare bought on the day.

By booking in advance with savings of that magnitude, what would the advantage be of a Britrail pass?

I was originally thinking of getting a Britrail pass, but calculated the savings by booking now to 4 different cities on our trip and we would pay half of the cost of a Britrail pass.

The advantage of the Britrail pass is that it is the equivalent of the anytime train ticket. You can just get on any train you want to, although if you want a seat you will probably still need to pay a fee for a reservation. That might work for someone who wants to just take each day as it goes and plans to do a lot of long distance train travel.

I think if you plan your major destinations in advance, it's probably always cheaper to buy advance tickets for specific departures.