British Train Travel...What is Cheapest?

Alisa - What cities are you looking to visit?

It may be too early to get the best discount fares. They usually are posted about 10-12 weeks in advance. Beyond that all you'll find are full fare prices. When will you arrive in the UK and what is your itinerary?

Ideally I'll go to Bath right from the airport with daughter #1. We then want to go to Salisbury and Winchester. Then to London to collect daughter #2, and off to Canterbury. Next, with only daughter #1, up to York, over to North Wales, and back to London. As I said, we are flexible. I am very glad to hear that discount fares are not yet published! Oh...I arrive on November 7th.

To see discount train rates, I pop in a variety of dates. Today, August 20, try around October 20 and every couple of days after that. If you don't see any substantially lower prices, maybe there aren't any.

For complete flexibility you might consider either 4- or 8-days-in-2-months BritRail flexipasses. Your ride on the Heathrow Express to Paddington would be included and you could jump on the next train from there to Bath Spa. See the Railpasses section on this site for details. If you get 4-day passes, you could buy point-to-point tickets as you go for shorter, cheaper routes and still maintain flexibility.

Just a smidgeon of info; The trains between Bath and Salisbury are direct and frequent. We hit these quite often on one vacation when we HQ'd in Salisbury. London /Salisbury and London ?Winchester are pleasant and quick.

Alisa - The advice you've been given to keep checking is good. Last year, by buying well in advance and being willing to take a particular train, we travelled on First Great Western from London Paddington to Bath for 9.5 pounds. This year, I booked the train from Paddington to Penzance (a 6 hr. trip) for 20 pounds, the same way (taking a specified train). On the FGW website, you can only do this so far in advance - I believe it's 12 weeks. Good luck!

Not sure if you can access this site from USA, but look at Trainline. Uk train booking is fiendishly complex - nobody bothers trying to understand it >;o)

I bought advanced tickets from York to London recently on the East Coast line for about 15 GBP each. I bought about 3 months before the trip. When I bought these I also bought tickets from Edinburgh to York for about 11 GBP. The direct to London from Edinburgh was pretty close to 26 GBP. There doesn't seem to be a penalty to make a stop. If you go to the National Rail website with Rick's link (shown below): http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ it won't show you prices more than about 3 months out. Tickets for the first 2 weeks in November are shown. I've noticed that sometimes the discounts don't appear for about a week after the site shows the trains available. Various trains will either have multiple stops and sometimes you have to change trains to reach your destination. Look at the details before you buy. Prices are usually higher for the more desirable travel times and the non-stop trains. Your trip to North Wales from York is going to be one of the more "interesting" train trips you'll have. I looked at that but found there to be at least one train change and sometimes more in the times I was interested in traveling. I ended up deciding to drive.

Thanks to one and all for your advice. I will continue to poke around on the suggested sites, and will hold off on purchasing for a bit.

There are special fares for older travelers. I think over 60 is the age for "concessions." Or, retirees can buy a special pass that allows generous discounts. The pass isn't always required to get the concession rate. This spring I pre-purchased train tickets for England online. Then picked up my reservations at train stations there. I saved a bunch over same-day purchases. The ticket for Bath to London was about 1/2 price.

The pass isn't always required to get the concession rate. Its supposed to be. The only discounts to pensioners on national railways in Great Britain are: Free travel during off peak on local buses when displaying a photo-card for pensioners issued by local government. Some local governments (in various PTE (Passenger Transport Executive) areas) also permit their local card holders local train travel off peak - such as London and West Midlands. Holders of Senior Railcards (purchased for £28 per year) get 1/3 off most fares. That's the lot. Look at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/railcards-discounts/ for more detail.

Well, I am in my early 50s, and my daughters are in their 20, so I fear we will receive no discounts! Alas.