This page is primarily intended to give information regarding train ticketing and travel to other people in my department. It may not be very relevant to anybody else, but feel free to read it anyway.
Sales
For Students
For Families
Other Benefits
Buying Online
Advance tickets and buying on the train
Breaking your journey
'Splitting' your tickets
Travelling to London
On the Underground
First Class tickets
Connecting to Eurostar / Europe
Rovers and Rangers
Delays
PlusBus
Catering
If you have children, consider and Friends and Family railcard instead or as well. This will also give discounts on the child tickets, as well as the 34% discount on adults, but you must all stay together on your entire journey. There is an additional benefit, that an accompanied 16 year-old can buy a child ticket with this railcard, provided that they were under 16 when the railcard was purchased. If you only have a child under 5 then you can buy them a ticket in order to get the discount on the adult tickets.
If you are familiar with theTrainLine, try booking with First Great Western, the sales site is run by theTrainline and is pretty similar but without the extra charges. Some train companies have special offers when you buy tickets from their own website Transpennine Trains have an ongoing offer for 50% discount for advance tickets with 16-25 railcards, instead of the usual 34%. Crosscountry trains give 10% on advance tickets for NUS Extra card holders. Eastcoast and East Midlands trains offer some discounts on Advance tickets. Currently London Midland have 50% off off-peak tickets and Southern Trains 25%; there may be others from time to time.
To see if they are available yet for your journey, you can check the Booking Horizons
If the ticket office is open, you are expected to buy a ticket before you get on the train. If you don't, you may have to pay the full standard fare, without an off-peak or railcard discount. (A full-priced single ticket to London is currently £122.50.) If you are travelling on Merseyrail or London Midland, you will likely have to pay a penalty fare of at least £20. Northern Rail are generally much more reasonable!
If you are buying an off-peak or anytime ticket, and you don't wish to reserve a seat (or can't), then there is little advantage to buying in advance. If your travel plans change and you wish to get a refund this will normally be reduced by £10 as an 'administration fee' (unless you buy online from Southern Trains, then you can get a full refund, subject to some conditions).
One other reason could be that you are beginning a journey at peak time, but part of your journey will be during off-peak hours. In this case, it may be cheaper to purchase an Anytime ticket for the first part of your journey, and an off-peak ticket for the remainder. (Although peak and off-peak times vary by route and by type of ticket, so this may not always work).
It is also sometimes cheaper to buy a ticket to a different station. The easiest way to check is by buying your ticket online (www.eastcoast.co.uk is a good place to use) and selecting a 'via' station. For instance, an Anytime Day Return between Liverpool and Preston is valid for travel via Manchester. You are allowed to stop your journey at Manchester, and the ticket is cheaper than a Liverpool to Manchester Anytime Day return. Although I have not had a problem, the railway staff may possibly not understand the rules and could try and charge you for a new ticket; so only do this if you are confident about it!
If you may possibly return off-peak, there is little benefit to buying an Anytime return (unless you want to break your return journey for more than 5 days!); the return to Euston is the same price as two singles. If you find yourself returning at off-peak then you will save money. (This does not apply from Liverpool to Stafford, in that case just buy the return).
There are also some very cheap tickets available on London Midland trains. Sometimes there is a 50% offer on off-peak return tickets, only available by booking online. These usually take between 3 and 4 hours to London, and involve changing trains at Stafford, but are much cheaper than Virgin trains. To find these, you can go to LondonMidland.com, search for your journey then click on 'show other routes' which is on the left, and then choose 'London Midland trains only' (See end of page). They are also available at Lime Street station - but only from the (red) Virgin trains machines and not the (blue) Northern Rail machines. A super-off-peak return is available on the day of travel, with a railcard for £16.15 - but remember to check that the time restrictions are suitable.
They are also limited cheap tickets available on Virgin services through Megatrain. (They also have other journeys, mostly to/from London)
For travelling on the London underground, if you might make one or two journeys a day then an Oyster card is by far the cheapest way to do it.
This is a prepaid,electronic, card. You can pick one up at Euston Underground station for a £5 deposit. You then add money to it at the machines or ticket office, and touch it to the card readers when you start and end your journey. Even if the barriers are open, it is still important to touch the card-reader on the way out, or you may end up with a £4 charge.
If you are making more journeys in a day, you can buy a Zone 1-6 travelcard (off-peak) for £5.30 with a railcard discount. You can buy this from the machines or ticket office in Euston Station. You can also add your railcard to your Oyster card - this means that you won't be charged more than £5.30 a day. However, you need to do this at a London Underground ticket office and fill in a registration form.
There are often cases, when buying Advance tickets, that first class is similar or cheaper than standard. The quality of first class service differs greatly between train companies; Virgin have an at-seat service giving free drinks (including beer and wine) and snacks. At certain times of day they offer a hot meal service, although this isn't really more than a snack (breakfast is worth having). Transpennine express will give you a hot drink and a biscuit, if there is a trolley on the service. The catering service is usually limited or removed at weekends, but they do usually offer 'Weekend First' upgrades for a reasonable fee. It is currently £6 on Transpennine trains, and £15 on Virgin (who still provide drinks and biscuits). This may be worth considering if you find yourself on a packed train full of rowdy football supporters and you would like some peace! Eastcoast now offer an included meal service for first-class ticket-holders but have, sadly, removed their restaurant cars. (First Great Western still have them.)
For tickets in Europe, have a look at the Man in Seat 61 website. If travelling to Germany you may also wish to look at bahn.de, they sell (some) through tickets from London that you can print at home. It may cost less to buy a ticket through to Cologne (via Brussels) than just the Eurostar to Brussels.
If you want to see some of the country, there are Rangers (day tickets), and Rovers (usually longer), that allow unlimited travel within an area.
You may want to consider the 'Freedom of the North West' 4 in 8 day Rover - which costs £37.60 with a railcard. This is valid for any 4 days out of 8 consecutive days, (or £46.20 for 7 consecutive days). This gives unlimited travel (after 0845 on weekdays) to anywhere in the North-West of England (see the map). The Settle - Carlisle line is particularly scenic; other nice lines are the West Coast main line to Carlisle, from Carlisle to Hexham (and Newcastle isn't far), and the line around the Cumbrian Coast.
There are similar tickets for many parts of the country, the 'Freedom of the South West' allows travel from Worcester, Cardiff, Swindon, Portsmouth, all the way to Penzance. There is a list on the National Rail website.
Virgin trains have a shop on-board (in coach C) which sells a reasonable cup of coffee for less than £2. London Midland have withdrawn all catering services so you will need to buy before you travel. Both Boots and Marks and Spencer sell simple sandwiches for £1. You can get 20% off most in-station catering (including many station pubs) with a free Bite card. There is a Pret a Manger at Euston which sells filter coffee for 99p (it's usually fine, but can be slightly bitter at times). The Friends Meeting House directly across Euston Road does a nice cup of tea for £1 and has a pleasant, quiet, courtyard. If you like genuine Austrian sausage you can get a Käsekrainer at the Kipferl kiosk in
Gordon Square.
Sales
For Students
For Families
Other Benefits
Buying Online
Advance tickets and buying on the train
Breaking your journey
'Splitting' your tickets
Travelling to London
On the Underground
First Class tickets
Connecting to Eurostar / Europe
Rovers and Rangers
Delays
PlusBus
Catering
Sales
Many companies have sales at different times of the year, usually for buying online from their own website. The London Midland sale is currently selling half-price off-peak return tickets on their website for any journey that they run. This doesn't mean you have to travel on a London Midland train; so an off-peak return from Liverpool to Stafford is half price, even on a Virgin train. (Although it is cheaper to buy a ticket to Tamworth - more on that later in 'Breaking your journey'). This also makes it cheaper to buy an off-peak return to Stafford, and another one from Stafford to London (or Kensington Olympia). (See 'Splitting your tickets'). For Students
If you will spend more than £77 in a year - then get a railcard. It costs £28 for a year, and gives a 34% discount on most rail tickets in the UK. (There are some exceptions - Sleeper berths, Heathrow Express, London Underground and most First-class tickets, except First Advance tickets). If you are under 26, you can probably order online, or take a picture with you and buy one at the station - it only takes a few minutes. If you are 26 or over, you will need to fill in the form, take your picture, and get them signed and stamped by someone at the university (Helen did mine for me!).For Families
If you have children, consider and Friends and Family railcard instead or as well. This will also give discounts on the child tickets, as well as the 34% discount on adults, but you must all stay together on your entire journey. There is an additional benefit, that an accompanied 16 year-old can buy a child ticket with this railcard, provided that they were under 16 when the railcard was purchased. If you only have a child under 5 then you can buy them a ticket in order to get the discount on the adult tickets.
Other Benefits
Having a railcard has an additional benefit for journeys on Virgin Trains - they accept an off-peak ticket with a railcard even on peak-time trains. Virgin Trains also allow people with 'Anytime' tickets to upgrade to First Class at weekends for free. You should get free tea / coffee and biscuits provided, either at your seat or from the buffet car. In many cases this would still be very expensive, but it is worth checking. For instance, a Liverpool to Lancaster Anytime return is only 20p more expensive than an off-peak return, and Liverpool to Stafford is about £4 more.Buying Online
Despite their advertising, don't buy your ticket from theTrainLine - they charge fees for postage / collection / credit cards that you can avoid by simply buying from the website of any train company.If you are familiar with theTrainLine, try booking with First Great Western, the sales site is run by theTrainline and is pretty similar but without the extra charges. Some train companies have special offers when you buy tickets from their own website Transpennine Trains have an ongoing offer for 50% discount for advance tickets with 16-25 railcards, instead of the usual 34%. Crosscountry trains give 10% on advance tickets for NUS Extra card holders. Eastcoast and East Midlands trains offer some discounts on Advance tickets. Currently London Midland have 50% off off-peak tickets and Southern Trains 25%; there may be others from time to time.
Advance tickets and buying on the train
The cheapest tickets are usually 'Advance' tickets, which must be booked at least a day in advance, are not always available, and restrict you to travelling only on the specified train. If you get on the wrong train, you may be treated as having no ticket at all, and may need to buy a very expensive ticket on the train. If you have a problem, try and sort it out before getting on the train.To see if they are available yet for your journey, you can check the Booking Horizons
If the ticket office is open, you are expected to buy a ticket before you get on the train. If you don't, you may have to pay the full standard fare, without an off-peak or railcard discount. (A full-priced single ticket to London is currently £122.50.) If you are travelling on Merseyrail or London Midland, you will likely have to pay a penalty fare of at least £20. Northern Rail are generally much more reasonable!
If you are buying an off-peak or anytime ticket, and you don't wish to reserve a seat (or can't), then there is little advantage to buying in advance. If your travel plans change and you wish to get a refund this will normally be reduced by £10 as an 'administration fee' (unless you buy online from Southern Trains, then you can get a full refund, subject to some conditions).
Breaking your journey
Most off-peak and all anytime train tickets allow you to break your journey. This even means that you can stop overnight before continuing your journey. On the outward journey, you can usually only stop overnight and resume before noon the following day. On the return leg, you can stop for as long as you like, provided that you finish your entire journey within a month. In order to check if break of journey is allowed, you can either ask at the station, call National Rail Enquiries or try and look up the information through the National Rail website (it's not easy to find, you need to click on the ticket type for its terms and conditions and somewhere near the bottom of the page is a link to the specific validity code).
'Splitting' your tickets
For many reasons, it may be cheaper to 'split' your tickets, and buy seperate tickets for parts of the journey. This is particularly likely if you are making a long-distance return journey and coming back on the same day. If you do this then the train you are on must stop at the station where you change from one ticket to another (although there are some exceptions to this rule if you have a season ticket or travel pass).One other reason could be that you are beginning a journey at peak time, but part of your journey will be during off-peak hours. In this case, it may be cheaper to purchase an Anytime ticket for the first part of your journey, and an off-peak ticket for the remainder. (Although peak and off-peak times vary by route and by type of ticket, so this may not always work).
It is also sometimes cheaper to buy a ticket to a different station. The easiest way to check is by buying your ticket online (www.eastcoast.co.uk is a good place to use) and selecting a 'via' station. For instance, an Anytime Day Return between Liverpool and Preston is valid for travel via Manchester. You are allowed to stop your journey at Manchester, and the ticket is cheaper than a Liverpool to Manchester Anytime Day return. Although I have not had a problem, the railway staff may possibly not understand the rules and could try and charge you for a new ticket; so only do this if you are confident about it!
Travelling to London
If you are travelling from Liverpool to London at peak time - don't buy the Anytime Return at £261. Instead, you can get an Anytime return to Stafford (£23.50 Virgin trains only) and £186 Anytime return from Stafford to London. This will save £50, and is specifically allowed in the National Rail Conditions of Carriage (Condition 19). Alternatively, it is £44 for the First Class return to Stafford, and most morning peak services include a cooked breakfast (it's on the timetable).If you may possibly return off-peak, there is little benefit to buying an Anytime return (unless you want to break your return journey for more than 5 days!); the return to Euston is the same price as two singles. If you find yourself returning at off-peak then you will save money. (This does not apply from Liverpool to Stafford, in that case just buy the return).
There are also some very cheap tickets available on London Midland trains. Sometimes there is a 50% offer on off-peak return tickets, only available by booking online. These usually take between 3 and 4 hours to London, and involve changing trains at Stafford, but are much cheaper than Virgin trains. To find these, you can go to LondonMidland.com, search for your journey then click on 'show other routes' which is on the left, and then choose 'London Midland trains only' (See end of page). They are also available at Lime Street station - but only from the (red) Virgin trains machines and not the (blue) Northern Rail machines. A super-off-peak return is available on the day of travel, with a railcard for £16.15 - but remember to check that the time restrictions are suitable.
They are also limited cheap tickets available on Virgin services through Megatrain. (They also have other journeys, mostly to/from London)
On the Underground
For travelling on the London underground, if you might make one or two journeys a day then an Oyster card is by far the cheapest way to do it.This is a prepaid,electronic, card. You can pick one up at Euston Underground station for a £5 deposit. You then add money to it at the machines or ticket office, and touch it to the card readers when you start and end your journey. Even if the barriers are open, it is still important to touch the card-reader on the way out, or you may end up with a £4 charge.
If you are making more journeys in a day, you can buy a Zone 1-6 travelcard (off-peak) for £5.30 with a railcard discount. You can buy this from the machines or ticket office in Euston Station. You can also add your railcard to your Oyster card - this means that you won't be charged more than £5.30 a day. However, you need to do this at a London Underground ticket office and fill in a registration form.
First Class tickets
There are often cases, when buying Advance tickets, that first class is similar or cheaper than standard. The quality of first class service differs greatly between train companies; Virgin have an at-seat service giving free drinks (including beer and wine) and snacks. At certain times of day they offer a hot meal service, although this isn't really more than a snack (breakfast is worth having). Transpennine express will give you a hot drink and a biscuit, if there is a trolley on the service. The catering service is usually limited or removed at weekends, but they do usually offer 'Weekend First' upgrades for a reasonable fee. It is currently £6 on Transpennine trains, and £15 on Virgin (who still provide drinks and biscuits). This may be worth considering if you find yourself on a packed train full of rowdy football supporters and you would like some peace! Eastcoast now offer an included meal service for first-class ticket-holders but have, sadly, removed their restaurant cars. (First Great Western still have them.)
Connecting to Eurostar / Europe
If you are travelling with Eurostar, and wish to buy a ticket to London - ask for a ticket to "London International <CIV>" instead. This is the same price as a ticket to Euston, has better peak-time restrictions and includes the tube transfer to St Pancras. Importantly, in the event of delays you are treated as having a single ticket for the entire journey, and if you miss a connection the train companies will put you on the next service or arrange transport / accommodation for you. (I believe that Eurostar and Virgin will normally do this anyway, but this ticket requires them to under the international ticket sales rules - Conditions Internationales de Vente).For tickets in Europe, have a look at the Man in Seat 61 website. If travelling to Germany you may also wish to look at bahn.de, they sell (some) through tickets from London that you can print at home. It may cost less to buy a ticket through to Cologne (via Brussels) than just the Eurostar to Brussels.
Rovers and Rangers
If you want to see some of the country, there are Rangers (day tickets), and Rovers (usually longer), that allow unlimited travel within an area.
You may want to consider the 'Freedom of the North West' 4 in 8 day Rover - which costs £37.60 with a railcard. This is valid for any 4 days out of 8 consecutive days, (or £46.20 for 7 consecutive days). This gives unlimited travel (after 0845 on weekdays) to anywhere in the North-West of England (see the map). The Settle - Carlisle line is particularly scenic; other nice lines are the West Coast main line to Carlisle, from Carlisle to Hexham (and Newcastle isn't far), and the line around the Cumbrian Coast.There are similar tickets for many parts of the country, the 'Freedom of the South West' allows travel from Worcester, Cardiff, Swindon, Portsmouth, all the way to Penzance. There is a list on the National Rail website.
Delays
If your train is delayed then you may be able to claim compensation from the company that caused your delay. Most companies, but not all, will pay compensation any time that your train is delayed by more than 30-60 minutes (some will not pay if the delay is due to an external cause). Even if the delay is short, but it causes you to miss an onward connection, then you can claim for the entire delay to your journey. If you are delayed, it is best to ask the Train Manager to endorse your ticket, but you can still claim without this. Search for the "Passenger's Charter" of the train company that caused the delay to find out how to claim and how much you are entitled to. (e.g. Virgin Trains Passenger's Charter )PlusBus
Along with valid a train ticket, you can often buy a 'plusbus' ticket which allows unlimited bus travel in either your origin or destination city. The price for Liverpool is £3 per day, or £2 with a railcard. There is no morning peak-time restriction with a plusbus ticket. See the plusbus website for more details.Catering
Virgin trains have a shop on-board (in coach C) which sells a reasonable cup of coffee for less than £2. London Midland have withdrawn all catering services so you will need to buy before you travel. Both Boots and Marks and Spencer sell simple sandwiches for £1. You can get 20% off most in-station catering (including many station pubs) with a free Bite card. There is a Pret a Manger at Euston which sells filter coffee for 99p (it's usually fine, but can be slightly bitter at times). The Friends Meeting House directly across Euston Road does a nice cup of tea for £1 and has a pleasant, quiet, courtyard. If you like genuine Austrian sausage you can get a Käsekrainer at the Kipferl kiosk in
Gordon Square.