Is there a way to determine which UK rail trips have variable prices, based on advance purchase, vs. those that do not?
That is, is there a way to determine this without doing an actual search for each route on multiple days to see if the price changes?
I am traveling to London and considering several day/overnight trips from the city, and would like to know which rail trips I should try to book ahead of time to save money, and which trips I could book at any time without fear of the cost changing.
I am aware that travel in the AM peak into London and the in the PM peak out of London is often more expensive. However, for some routes, the price seems to vary quite a bit beyond this peak-period distinction, based on when you purchase the ticket.
For example, the cheapest Edinburgh-London train I can find leaving tomorrow is £55, and many trips cost much more. But if I look in mid-June, the same train (at the same time, on the same day of the week) starts at £30 -- obviously better to book early.
In contrast, a single trip from Bletchley to London costs either £19.50 (on trains arriving into London before 10:00) or £15.50 (all other). That's it -- you could book an AM peak trip for late June and it would cost £19.50, or you could book it for tomorrow and it would still cost £19.50, so in this case booking early would have no advantages (cost-wise) for me.
(There is perhaps a more concise way of stating the question -- the UK National Rail ticketing system has me a bit confused so I apologize if I haven't understood something.)
Best Answer
Yes, (almost) all rail fares within Great Britain are available on brfares.com. This provides a straightforward tariff of the fares, including divisions by walk up (available at any time), advance purchase, and capacity control. Information on season tickets, rail card discounts, plus bus tickets, and more obscure tickets types (such as Rovers) are also available.
If you are feeling brave the site also features an "expert" mode which looks something like this and gives a deeper insight into the pricing structure.
Most popular routes do have some kind of advance purchase discount available, but some do not. One is New Milton to Salisbury. [That said, with split ticketing, it may still be possible to find discounted advance purchase fares, but this is more complicated.] Many commuter routes also lack advance purchase tickets.
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Are trains cheaper if you book in advance?
Advance train tickets are usually the cheapest way to travel by train, and generally go on sale 12 weeks before your date of travel. You'll need to travel on the train you're booked on, but you'll get a cheaper price by foregoing flexible travel times.Do train tickets get cheaper closer to departure?
Choose your date \u2013 most Advance tickets go on sale 12 weeks before the date of departure, so the earlier you book the cheaper your tickets could be.How far in advance are cheap train tickets?
Always Book Early Cheap train tickets are usually released by train operators in advance of the journey. Normally, this is around 12 weeks in advance, as the timetable for any particular day is normally confirmed 12 weeks in advance.Is it cheaper to buy on Trainline or station?
Tickets are tickets and the same price everywhere - there's nothing you can get on the trainline website that you can't get from a station or the train operating company's website. The only difference is that trainline charge you a \xa31 booking fee on top of the ticket price.Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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