Two years ago many of you helped us with our train travel plans since we were such novices. It worked well. We will be going to the UK again in May. I have to ask again. I guess I'm a slow learner. We leave on May 8 and will spend the first night in London. Then we want to leave from Kings Cross station to Newcastle. We will be spending a bit of time in Newcastle and touring around the area. From Newcastle we will take a train to Nottingham and spend time in that area. Finally, we will take the train to London and finish out there. I'm assuming that about in the March timeframe (?) we should get our train tickets. Is that right? We will get them for each leg of the trip? Which site should we go to in order to do this? Thank you very much for your guidance on this!!
Posted by
Royaume-Uni nul points, pas plus
2597 posts
Advance tickets from London to Newcastle are currently available for travel up to and including Friday 12 April, so possibly another month before your May dates open up.
https://www.lner.co.uk/travel-information/early-bird-ticket-alerts/
LNER will sell you tickets for your other journeys as well. Saves you signing up for different websites.
Posted by
Virginia
877 posts
The website for the Man in Seat 61 is always a great place to start for good background information about and the ins-and-outs of the UK train system -- https://www.seat61.com/
After the Man in Seat 61 the National Rail website is always the best starting point to plan train travel -- http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
All train operating companies offer all tickets for all routes, so you do not necessarily have to purchase a ticket directly from the ToC that operates the route you intend to travel on. I think that this is important to keep in mind as many have reported difficulties buying UK train tickets from the States. I have had ticket purchase issues with Southeastern and Southwestern Trains, so personally when I purchase my UK train tickets i get them through the Virgin Trains website -- https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/ -- with a pick-up from a fast ticket machine. Virgin does not have the issues handling US cards that the other ToCs seem to have.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17427 posts
The lowest-cost tickets on most routes are the Advance tickets. This is the actual name of the fare; it does not mean any tickets bought ahead of time. The Advance tickets are generally released 11-12 weeks ahead, the tickets are non-refundable and cannot be changed. (compare to Anytime tickets which can be used, as the name suggests, "anytime."
I like to start with the National Rail website, http://www.nationalrail.co.uk
Put in your start and end points, a date and time. If you see a route and fare you like, click on that and it will take you to the rail company providing that service to book.
Posted by
OP
Santa Rosa, CA, USA
1446 posts
Thank you Ramblin'on, VAP and Lola for getting me back on track again!
Posted by
Tunbridge Wells
6113 posts
I presume you are referring to Newcastle upon Tyne. There is also a Newcastle under Lyme in Staffordshire and there maybe other “Newcastles”. Just make sure you book the correct destination!
Posted by
OP
Santa Rosa, CA, USA
1446 posts
Yes, Jennifer, Newcastle on Tyne. Thanks for that - I'll watch out for it.
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8880 posts
Don’t forget to price out if a “two together” railcard would make sense for you.