What is the best way to buy rail tickets from London to Hastings?
Posted by
Grain Valley, Missouri, USA
20 posts
Another poster recommended http://www.raileasy.co.uk to me and wow did it ever save me money when I bought train and ferry tickets. I spent less on 3 train and 3 ferry tickets on this site than I would have spent on ONE retail ferry ticket -- I even upgraded to first class on one train segment and still saved over buying them at the station.
Posted by
NC, United States
970 posts
Buying online for retrieval at the departure station is the cheapest. You charge tickets to a credit card, and get a magic number in return. You retrieve the tickets by stuffing that credit card into a machine at the station and entering the magic number.
The earlier you buy, the cheaper the tickets. I just checked on trainline.com, a site I like to use, and round-trip London-Hastings tickets for tomorrow range from 34 to 78 pounds, depending on time of travel, etc.
London has several stations. You want to leave from the station that entails the quickest trip and fewest stops.
Posted by
Fredericksburg, VA, USA
409 posts
Trainline.com is taking me to a site for the musical group "Train".... :)
Should be thetrainline.com
Posted by
Tempe, AZ, USA
1266 posts
Bruce - If you know your travel dates, and can purchased your tickets in advance the fare can be as cheap as £39.80
round trip. Click Here to check out East Coast railways.
I used them last year and was able to save quite a bit.
Bob - Thanks for the info. When I specified London Victoria on EastCoast they showed the £5 fare. When I went generic and selected London the fare was £25.10. Thanks for the heads up.
Posted by
London
291 posts
Hastings trains leave from London Victoria.
The cheapest fare is the 5 GBP ticket that you can buy from the train station ticket office up until the day before travel, but its only for designated trains.
Outside this there is no advantage in purchasing in advance on this route on-line, just hassle and stress hoping the ticket machine you get your tickets from ordered online works when you can buy the same ticket at the same cost from the ticket office on the day.
If the 5 GBP fare dosen't work for you you're best to study all the travel options on the complex ticketing tariffs, peak v peak, 4 travel for the price of 2 etc.