Ipswich > Cardiff Central return

[jamie_r]

Hello everyone,

On Thursday 4th July I'm planning to head on down to Cardiff, from Ipswich, for a Uni open day, but am at a loss in regards to getting the cheapest tickets. They'll be two travelling, and we're hoping to leave Thursday afternoon/evening for Cardiff and return the following day. So far, the cheapest way I've seen to do it is to get a train that will arrive in Cardiff at 1:30am the Friday morning, although I'm hoping that's not the cheapest route! I know the cheapest tickets come out 100 days before, but we couldn't book until we were certain we could go on this day, and so it looks like we've cut it fine!

So basically, we're looking for the cheapest way of getting a return from Ipswich to Cardiff central, ideally not arriving in Cardiff at 1:30am! Any advice here would be really appreciated!

 

[Techniquest]

Good grief it's a LOT of money for 2 IPS to CDF returns! £217 blew me out of the window!

Booking Advances, which I'm sure you know ties you to those booked trains unless delays/cancellations cause you to miss a connection etc, would cost £142.80. That's leaving on the 1309 from Ipswich and getting to Cardiff at 1722 on the Thursday, returning on the 1655 from Cardiff, getting to Ipswich at 2125.

'Afternoon' is a little vague however, and if you leave Ipswich an hour earlier the cost is £127.20. Of course, if you want those prices you need to book sharpish, as they won't last long!

My most obvious split, that being at London, makes it much more expensive than the through ticket. In terms of through tickets, it's not going to be easy to bring the cost down I'm afraid, however I'm sure more knowledgeable members will be able to help better there.

I haven't taken into account any railcards, and the above fares are for two people. Which, if you ask me, for a cross-country journey such as Ipswich to Cardiff, at fairly short notice, is not unreasonable. Again, I must point out those are pre-bookable Advance fares which will sell out and become more expensive/not available at all soon enough, so if they suit you at all then book pretty quick.

Hope the open day visit goes well though

 

[SickyNicky]

Hello, and welcome to the forum, jamie_r.

The first thing I would recommend is that you both get a 16-25 railcard. If you're both full time students, you're eligible regardless of age. This will pay for itself on this one trip alone and can be purchased online or at the station.

As Techniquest says, advances would be cheapest for this journey and are available now for around £100 (with the railcard discount). This means that they have already gone up in price since he posted. If you want them, grab them soon!

Flexible split tickets are available from around £126 with the railcard discount. The split points will depend on the time of day you travel, but you can research then on trainsplit.com.

I did think about going via Birmingham, but even with split tickets, that's more expensive than London.

 

[lemonic]

You'll probably get the most ideal tickets by splitting tickets at Manningtree i.e. Buy separate tickets Ipswich-Manningtree and Manningtree - Cardiff. Different prices depending what time you travel, but will probably come to around £45-50 return with a railcard at the times you want to travel.

These are Advance tickets so ideally you should book as soon as possible to try and get these prices and you'll have to travel on the booked trains only.

 

[Be3G]

The first thing I would recommend is that you both get a 16-25 railcard. If you're both full time students, you're eligible regardless of age. This will pay for itself on this one trip alone and can be purchased online or at the station.

Or a Two Together railcard, of course – we don't know for certain that both travellers are young enough to qualify for a 16–25, and/or if they don't travel by train much a Two Together will cost less as it's only one railcard to buy rather than two.

 

[lemonic]

Or a Two Together railcard, of course – we don't know for certain that both travellers are young enough to qualify for a 16–25, and/or if they don't travel by train much a Two Together will cost less as it's only one railcard to buy rather than two.

A Two Together railcard will probably not be appropriate, as I suspect that they will want to leave Ipswich before 09:30 and the Two Together railcard offers no discounts for journeys starting between 04:30 and 09:30.

Edit: See correction below

 

[Be3G]

I don't think so; the OP says they want to travel Thursday afternoon/evening from Ipswich – and presumably the return journey is at the same sort of time too, seeing as the reason for travelling is a uni open day.

 

[lemonic]

I don't think so; the OP says they want to travel Thursday afternoon/evening from Ipswich – and presumably the return journey is at the same sort of time too, seeing as the reason for travelling is a uni open day.

Yes, you are right, I misread the OP and assumed they were travelling there and back on the same day.

 

[Class377]

Direct advances at the moment actually seem to be the best bet - https://www.splitticketing.com/ gives me the following options:

13:09 Ipswich - 14:19 Liverpool Street, 15:15 Paddington - 17:22 Cardiff Central £26.15
10:30 Cardiff Central - 11:34 Bath Spa, 11:43 Bath Spa - 13:15 London Paddington, 14:30 Liverpool Street - 15:43 Norwich £26.15

Making the entire trip £52.30 for one person, £104.60 for the pair. Would a two together railcard make it any cheaper?

 

[jamie_r]

Hi everyone, thanks very much for your responses! I thought I'd been fairly thorough in my research on tickets but you've all put me to shame! I probably should have mentioned this, but I'll be travelling with a parent on this occasion, so we won't both be eligible for 16-25 railcards (although I certainly need to get one!), and this is probably the only time in the past four years we've traveled by train together, so a Two Together card wouldn't be of great benefit in the long haul either!

Class377's advice would appear to be the best bet for us, as it appears to be the cheapest way of doing it, although I'd need a later return train than 10:30 on the Friday to go to the Open day! Hopefully I can play around with the timings on the website suggested and work something out (although I'm struggling to recreate the prices above on the website)! Thanks to all for your help!

 

[John @ home]

https://www.splitticketing.com/ gives me the following options:

13:09 Ipswich - 14:19 Liverpool Street, 15:15 Paddington - 17:22 Cardiff Central £26.15
10:30 Cardiff Central - 11:34 Bath Spa, 11:43 Bath Spa - 13:15 London Paddington, 14:30 Liverpool Street - 15:43 Norwich £26.15

Making the entire trip £52.30 for one person, £104.60 for the pair. Would a two together railcard make it any cheaper?

These fares already have a Railcard discount applied for both passengers. We now know that the Two Together Railcard is unlikely to be suitable.

a Two Together card wouldn't be of great benefit in the long haul ...

I'm struggling to recreate the prices above on the website

I'm not surprised you're struggling. The Advance tickets for the 1309 Ipswich - Cardiff Cen 1722 journey on 4 July quoted above currently cost £39.60 for the parent and £26.15 with a 16-25 Railcard for jamie_r.

A suitable return leg on 5 July may be the 1525 Cardiff Cen - Paddington 1732; 1830 Liverpool St - Ipswich 1943, currently costing £31.80 for the parent and £21.00 with a 16-25 Railcard for jamie_r, giving a total of £118.55.

The 16-25 Railcard costs an additional £27 if purchased at http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/leaflet/ or £30 at a station.

 

[Trainfan344]

Or when setting up your bank, choose the one with a free railcard

 

[Squaddie]

Tickets are available with National Express for £97 return (non-refundable; fully refundable tickets are £107). The journey takes 7h30, and requires a change at London Victoria, but National Express buses are generally more comfortable than FGW standard class.

 

[Hadders]

London Waterloo-Cardiff off-peak return route: Salisbury/Warminster at £54.80 could be useful if you could find a cheap way to get to and from London.

Journey time is longer than the direct service from Paddington but less painful than a coach.