Thanks for reply-yes basically trying to get cheaper ticket to travel between Preston and Liverpool out today back tomorrow and looking at split tickets or cheaper routes..so far found Blackburn to Liverpool to be cheapest with an SVR at £16.20...can't see where Preston to Runcorn is cheaper?
Showing as £ 29.60 SVR v Preston to Liverpool at £18.20.
A lot of the North West routes seem to be only offering single tickets making it hard to find cheaper tickets!
Blackburn-Birkenhead is £17. It's worth remembering that the price from somewhere to Birkenhead is rarely the same as the one to Liverpool, and there's no obvious pattern to how much each is.
29.60 is the cost of an off-peak return via Crewe, which isn't valid to Liverpool anyway. The cheaper ticket is an
anytime return route DIRECT, which is via Ormskirk as I said.
What I hadn't realised was that there are no trains on Sunday between Ormskirk and Preston. That probably makes the route via Liverpool, Huyton and Wigan the most direct between Runcorn and Preston. NRE doesn't show that as being valid (hence the link above showing Monday journeys instead), but the rail staff may be more sympathetic. I'd ask the guard before boarding a train via Wigan, though.
A lot of the North West routes seem to be only offering single tickets making it hard to find cheaper tickets!
I think that's true almost everywhere. Rail companies only like providing tickets valid overnight if you've travelled a long way by train. As your actual journey has an anytime return ticket, you haven't lost out from this.