Looking for advice on cheapest train fare from Exeter to Manchester

[crucible72]

Hi everyone,

I am looking to travel by train in a couple of days time and I am posting on here in case anyone has any advice on how to make the journey any cheaper. I am travelling from Exeter St Davids to Belle Vue, travelling there on Friday (20th) and returning on Saturday (21st). I can't travel too late on the Friday, as I need to arrive by 18:00. My provisional plan was to go on the 10:27 from Exeter, but I could go earlier if it would help with the cost. I can be more flexible with the return leg, although my preference would be to start the journey in the morning.

I do not hold a railcard that would be valid for this journey (I hold the Devon and Cornwall one, but that only gets me to Tiverton Parkway). The new ticketing site used by the forum comes up with a cost of around £138 (or £125 without the share of saving fee), and the old one comes up with £134 (or £127 without), but I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to get the price down further? I would be happy to have a longer journey time if this makes it cheaper, as long as I don't arrive at Belle Vue any later than 18:00. Unfortunately it was not possible to book these tickets far in advance. I know in the past it was cheaper to get tickets split at (and travel on trains that stop at) University (Birmingham), but I'm not sure if this is still the case. If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[Watershed]

Normally the two alternative routes I'd suggest here are travelling via Newport and Shrewsbury, or via the SWR route to Waterloo, and then to Manchester using West Midlands Trains and either TfW or Northern (from Crewe or Stoke). TfW offer decently priced Advance fares on many of their trains, and SWR's fares to London and WMT's joint fares from London to Manchester are very cheap. Northern also offer £2 Advances on most of their trains between Manchester and Belle Vue.

In this particular instance, neither of the above options offers a material saving. If you had a Network Railcard, or can buy one cheaply (e.g. using Clubcard points or via a Monzo subscription) then you could consider the second option as you'd get a third off the fare from Exeter as far as London. However it is a considerably slower route, so it's only worth the saving (£109.25 for a combination of walk-up fares to Manchester and £2 Advances) if you were to use your Network Railcard more regularly, for example on journeys to London using SWR.

 

[drueberflug]

I'd also like to add that there is an Anytime Return fare "via Hereford", though that would only save the OP a few pence.

However, forcing a journey via Hereford on Raileasy/Trainsplit and using Advance tickets on some sections drops the price to £127.70 (incl. fee) for a return on those particular days.

 

[Cosima]

I have always found booking tickets to/from Crewe on Hereford route and making separate booking for Crewe to Manchester leg. can save quite a lot,On one journey last year I saved over 20£

 

[yorkie]

I have always found booking tickets to/from Crewe on Hereford route and making separate booking for Crewe to Manchester leg. can save quite a lot,On one journey last year I saved over 20£

No need to do that as a separate booking; our ticketing site specifically looks for splits at Crewe.

(If anyone ever identifies any splits that we do not identify, then please get in touch with us, and we'll pass it onto our provider, to arrange for the splits to be found in future)