Multi-city multi-day rail travel throughout the UK

[MrJeeves]

Hey all, I'm in the process of planning out a multi-city UK trip from my home to visit a few potential university locations which I'm considering.

Right now the plan is to start from near my home, Haywards Heath, then head to Birmingham. I'd stay there 2 nights, then head to Chester where I'd stay another night. Finally, I'd pop to Manchester for a night, then head back to Haywards Heath.

I've considered a few options so far:

Advance tickets
These don't offer break of journey since they're booked for a specific service, and I'd like to keep that flexibility if possible.

Off-peak singles between each station
These seem to be the most trouble-free way to get between the different places, but end up costing £118.30 in total (16-25 railcard).

Off-peak open returns
This is the most interesting option, in my opinion. I believe this could work, at least partially, depending on the routes which are allowed through Any Permitted between these various stations.

For example, HHE to Birmingham allows travel via Milton Keynes, which is the station my Manchester to HHE train would travel via, so I should be able to get an open return for HHE -> Brum, and a single from Manchester -> Milton Keynes to save some money, I believe. I haven't had the chance to explore all the valid routes yet, though.


Does anyone have any advice for my journey and how to get the best tickets for the price?

 

[Alfonso]

Hey all, I'm in the process of planning out a multi-city UK trip from my home to visit a few potential university locations which I'm considering.

Right now the plan is to start from near my home, Haywards Heath, then head to Birmingham. I'd stay there 2 nights, then head to Chester where I'd stay another night. Finally, I'd pop to Manchester for a night, then head back to Haywards Heath.

I've considered a few options so far:

Advance tickets
These don't offer break of journey since they're booked for a specific service, and I'd like to keep that flexibility if possible.

Off-peak singles between each station
These seem to be the most trouble-free way to get between the different places, but end up costing £118.30 in total (16-25 railcard).

Off-peak open returns
This is the most interesting option, in my opinion. I believe this could work, at least partially, depending on the routes which are allowed through Any Permitted between these various stations.

For example, HHE to Birmingham allows travel via Milton Keynes, which is the station my Manchester to HHE train would travel via, so I should be able to get an open return for HHE -> Brum, and a single from Manchester -> Milton Keynes to save some money, I believe. I haven't had the chance to explore all the valid routes yet, though.


Does anyone have any advice for my journey and how to get the best tickets for the price?

Generally speaking, off peak returns offer more flexibility on the return than the outward journey, so if you did your plan in reverse you could go to Manchester and break your journey in Crewe (someone may have a better, less obvious break point) and Birmingham on the way back, all on a Haywards heath to Manchester return, but I think you're more likely to get a better deal splitting tickets, especially with so many options between jawayrds health and Birmingham, and/or the cheap London to Manchester ticket with LNWR/transport for Wales ,(about £30 return with a 16-25.)

 

[plugwash]

Does anyone have any advice for my journey and how to get the best tickets for the price?

Some ideas, unfortunately they are not great savings.

You could buy (prices quoted are fares for off peak returns routed "any permitted" with 16-25 railcard) returns for each leg of your outbound and then try to combine them on return, for example..

Haywards heath to Birminginham return.£54.05
Birmingham to Chester return £25.70
Chester to Manchester return £13.25

Total £93.

But you would have to travel home from Manchester via Crewe and Birmingham for the return portions of your ticket to be valid, which would likiely add an hour or two to your jouney home.

You could get a haywards heath to Manchester off peak return, and abandon your outbound journey in Birmingham, Lets see how that works out.

Haywards heath to Manchester off peak return - £74.15
Birmingham to Chester - Price depends on what operators you use, if you travel on the direct TFW service then you can buy a TFW only single for £20, if you use one of the connections involving another operator via crewe then unfortunately there are no off peak singles and your best option is iikely to be buy a return at £25.
Chester to Manchester. - Again the price depends on what operators you use. Northern only is £9, Avanti only is even cheaper at £7.85, TFW or mixed operator is £12.50. If you already have a return from Birmingham to chester.

Total £102 to £111.65 depending on which trains you use

For example, HHE to Birmingham allows travel via Milton Keynes, which is the station my Manchester to HHE train would travel via, so I should be able to get an open return for HHE -> Brum, and a single from Manchester -> Milton Keynes to save some money, I believe. .

One problem is that you can only split at places where your train stops (unless a season ticket, etc is involved) Manchester to London trains don't tend to stop much. IIRC in the normal timetable only a third of Manchester to London trains stop at Milton Keynes, though in the current emergency timetable more may be stopping.

 

[paul1609]

Haywards Heath to Crewe off peak return route Southern & WMR £37.40,
stopping short at Birmingham. Off Peak Return Birmingham to Chester £25.70. Return to Crewe then Crewe to Manchester Stns £12.70 short return.
Total £75.80
You can bring this down by getting an advance for the Birmingham to Chester Leg then going direct to Manchester, then a single to Crewe.

 

[Watershed]

IIRC in the normal timetable only a third of Manchester to London trains stop at Milton Keynes, though in the current emergency timetable more may be stopping.

In the current "emergency" timetable, the majority of Manchester trains stop at Milton Keynes. That, of course, being because there's only 1tph for most of the day!

I concur with @paul1609's post above. That is likely to be (amongst) the cheapest combination of tickets available, if you want to do the journey in this order.

If you are prepared to go first to Manchester, then to Chester, then to Birmingham, it may be possible to do it for around the same price, whilst retaining the flexibility to use "fast" trains on the journeys to/from London.

You would buy a Haywards Heath to Eccles Off-Peak Return, costing £74.15. This would be valid for the outward journey to Manchester, where you could finish short.

When you continue on to Chester, you would then only need to buy a single (it could even be an Advance bought on the day) from Manchester to Warrington Bank Quay. You would then start your use of the return portion at WBQ, travelling to Chester via Runcorn East. You couldn't travel to Chester via Altrincham (or via Crewe), but both are slower routes with fewer journey opportunities anyway.

When you continue on to Birmingham, you would also be limited to travelling via Crewe (rather than via Shrewsbury) but this doesn't present a massive issue in terms of journey time - the direct service via Shrewsbury only runs every 2 hours and can be beaten with a change at Crewe.

You would then break your journey at Birmingham, and recommence your use of the return portion when returning to Haywards Heath. You would be able to take any train from Birmingham to London (within the ticket's time restrictions) and on to Haywards Heath.

It would still be possible to do it a little cheaper with the above route, but you would have to limit yourself to using LNR services, which presents a notable time penalty on the legs to and from London.

 

[MrJeeves]

Wow, thank you all so much for the advice!

I can't seem to find the ticket @paul1609 has suggested online, with the only off-peak open return tickets from HHE to CRE being £67.75 Any Permitted, at least when browsing NRE and the Thameslink sites. Is it only available at ticket offices?

 

[paul1609]

Wow, thank you all so much for the advice!

I can't seem to find the ticket @paul1609 has suggested online, with the only off-peak open return tickets from HHE to CRE being £67.75 Any Permitted, at least when browsing NRE and the Thameslink sites. Is it only available at ticket offices?

The difficulty will be finding a valid itinary with all the timetable disruption, I can book it on Trainsplit. By the way if your not adverse to coach travel you could book the London to Birmingham and Manchester to London legs with Flixbus for a fiver each currently.

 

[MrJeeves]

Oh my gosh, that's a great deal with Flixbus. I think I'll do that instead. I never would have thought to check them, thank you!

 

[Jason12]

I can't seem to find the ticket @paul1609 has suggested online, with the only off-peak open return tickets from HHE to CRE being £67.75 Any Permitted

Apart from Trainsplit, as suggested by @paul1609 any provider which has a journey planner that allows you to search for slower services should give you the lower priced options. I checked using the EMR site. After it shows you the services at £67.75, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Click here to check if slower routes with cheaper tickets are available." The fares for the slower services are listed, but without the railcard discount. So, click on the Southern & Wmt fare Off-Peak Return at £56.70 and you should then see a list of services at the (discounted) £37.40 fare.

 

[73128]

Depending on your exact travel arrangements and the morning peak restriction from London with LNER, AWC and EMR (but not anyone else) have you considered an all line rover (7 or 14 day)? [Grand Central will take you to York to change for points north.]

Or book to Oxford and use a Heart of England rover (3 in 7, or 7 day), paying again from Crewe or Stoke to Manchester.