The complications of the Brit railroad ticketing system continue to amaze!After hours of effort I finally booked a round trip from London to Stoke on Trent. Unfortuately my journey 2 ticket is my London to Stoke and my journey 1 ticket is Stoke on Trent back to London. I hope this won't matter in the sequence of travel! I attempted to phone Virgin Trains but finally gave up. Any experience with buying rail tickets on line? Do the prices vary minute to minute on the same route for the same time? I will be amazed if I travel anywhere in Britain. Mistakes are partly my fault. I just realized that my evening before Italy departure from Heathrow was for the wrong month! Warning to others, check the dates of tickets, hotels reservations, etc. Thanks
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33592 posts
Mercedes I'm a little knowledgeable about British train tickets. I could help you but I don't understand your question. What exactly does it say on each of your tickets? Who issued them, and on what fare-basis? It should have the fare basis written across the top.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
I don't know quite what you mean by "journey 1" or "journey 2". Maybe the order you ed them on the website? But it shouldn't make any difference as long as the dates and times are what you wanted and in the right order.
Posted by
OP
Newport, RI, USA
42 posts
Sorry for the confusion. I booked on Virgin Trains and was finally successfulin receiving booking confirmation to pick up my ticket at Fast TIcket self service machines. First I thought I had to get both round trip tickets in Stoke. Now, calmer, I see that even though they say journey 1 for Stoke to London and journey 2 for the return, both advance singles, the times are ok leave London at 9 a.m and return at 15:50 to London. Sorry for my panic! I guess it will work. What ever happened to buying a ticket at the station as it was when I first went to UK? The dizzing array of prices is scarry. Thanks to all.
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5435 posts
Advanced tickets have been around in one form or another for a long time. Although rarely quite the bargain they used to be they can represent a significant discount. The model is the same as for airlines, ie there are so many per train at particular fare points and the cheapest are sold first. The general advice is to avoid buying from trainline.com and anywhere else where you are charged a fee. For journeys within London & SE England in the Network Card area, there is no advantage to buying in advance except for reservations.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33592 posts
Just be sure that as you are using Advance Tickets (a ticket type, not just one bought in advance) that you take the exact train on the ticket. If you take one before or after the time on the ticket, or get on the wrong train (say a London Midland one) your Advance ticket will be worthless and you will have to buy another full priced ticket as if you had had none in the first place.
Posted by
Grain Valley, Missouri, USA
20 posts
On my last trip to England, I booked all my travel on www.raileasy.co.uk and found them to be a great bargain, easy to use, and picked up my tickets at a kiosk at the stations.