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Best value fares across the UK

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Schweir

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There is a lot of negativity about expensive tickets across the media... seemingly on a constant basis.

But there are some very good value tickets to be found e.g Swansea to Bristol Parkway 1st class £8 (with 16-25 railcard)

What other examples are there, I am particuarly interested in good value fares from London. I am guessing that most of the fares found will be advance tickets, this is fine.
 
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Merseysider

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Summer weekends see £12 1st class Advance fares from Bristol to Pembroke.

For four hours, probably the best value Advance out there :)

I, @yorkie and a few others did Edinburgh - Inverness a few years back for a quid due to a pricing error, which would be pretty hard to beat.
 

Hadders

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Good value tickets often involve manipulating the routeing guide so it would be very unwise to post them here as the train companies will remove them.

The best way to learn about good value fares is to go to one of the forum's Fares Workshops.
 

Schweir

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Good value tickets often involve manipulating the routeing guide so it would be very unwise to post them here as the train companies will remove them.

The best way to learn about good value fares is to go to one of the forum's Fares Workshops.
Thanks for this, is there a link around anywhere to more info?
 

ForTheLoveOf

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If we restrict ourselves to tickets which are intentionally priced cheaply, rather than 'anomalies', then I think certain Advance tickets definitely come high up. Scotrail has some extremely good value Advances on their rural lines, e.g. Wick to Inverness for £5.00 (without a Railcard) is possible if you book far enough in advance. It's not a massive distance as the crow flies compared to some other routes, but it's a very scenic journey and you get 4.5 hours of travel for your money! Obviously the taxpayer (i.e. you) is subsiding this kind of journey massively.

I think Chiltern's Advances also offer very good value for money. You can do Kidderminster to London (or vice versa) from just £5.50 without a Railcard. Considering you'll be in modern refurbished Mark 3 stock, with lots of legroom, tables and so on, I think that's a bargain. Availability may be slightly better for Birmingham to London as the loco hauled services operate during the quieter (and hence cheaper) part of the day more on that specific part of the stretch.

Northern Advances can also give very good value, especially if you bag the lowest tier. But you will invariably be on older stock, which, even if refurbished, is still not particularly comfortable for longer journeys.

Actually I would argue some Virgin Trains Advances are actually the best value. Crewe to Glasgow or Edinburgh can regularly be found at the lowest tier for just £6.00 (if you book the really quiet trains). Considering the fact you're getting 2.5/3 hours on a 125mph tilting train that gets you there far faster than any other reasonable method of transport could, I think that's incredible value.

For walk-up tickets it's slightly different, but generally the ones which will be best value will either be operator-specific ones (e.g. Hull Trains/Grand Central/West Midlands Trains only) or route-specific ones (e.g. via Appleby/Uttoxeter/Llandovery) which mean you're limited to a less frequent, slower and/or less comfortable service.
 

Gareth Marston

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On terms of walk up tickets the Super Off Peak Returns from Shropshire and Mid Wales to London "via High Wycombe" ATW and Ciltern only take some beating. But hurry when Keolis takeover Wales and Borders in October......
 

_toommm_

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£2.45 for the 45 miles between Man. Picc. and Sheffield. Certainly beats buying a season ticket - saves me more than two-thirds, and I only have to book a day in advance to get that price!
 

yorkie

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There is a lot of negativity about expensive tickets across the media... seemingly on a constant basis.

But there are some very good value tickets to be found e.g Swansea to Bristol Parkway 1st class £8 (with 16-25 railcard)

What other examples are there, I am particuarly interested in good value fares from London. I am guessing that most of the fares found will be advance tickets, this is fine.
I am very reluctant to mention the best value fares I am aware of, because some train companies or ATOC might wish to make adjustments to their validity so that they are no longer such good value.

I agree with what @ForTheLoveOf said above, we really do not want a discussion about anything other than fares that are intended to be super cheap. But even then they can be placed at risk. York cluster to Whitby fares were increased shortly after I said how good value they were, and they weren't even anomalous fares. I'll also agree with him that Kidderminster to Marylebone on Chiltern has to be one of the best, especially considering the comfort of their trains compared to the poor cramped offering by other operators such as Virgin Trains.

I find LNER advance fares to be good value, but only because of the fact that friends & family of staff get a discount ;)
 

Haywain

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Obviously the taxpayer (i.e. you) is subsiding this kind of journey massively.
That's actually not a reasonable comment to make. There are subsides paid to Scotrail and Network Rail that allow the services to be provided but they are certainly not paid on a per passenger journey basis. They are paid to provide specified services and infrastructure and as far as I am aware there is no variation in the subsidy according to the number of passengers carried or the fares paid. I know you are using the terms that the press like to use but they are wrong. If there were no passengers and the train ran there would still be a subsidy but that would evidently be an amount of £0.00 per passenger.
 

ForTheLoveOf

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That's actually not a reasonable comment to make. There are subsides paid to Scotrail and Network Rail that allow the services to be provided but they are certainly not paid on a per passenger journey basis. They are paid to provide specified services and infrastructure and as far as I am aware there is no variation in the subsidy according to the number of passengers carried or the fares paid. I know you are using the terms that the press like to use but they are wrong. If there were no passengers and the train ran there would still be a subsidy but that would evidently be an amount of £0.00 per passenger.
Well then we get into statistics and creative accounting. Why should anyone pay any fare, after all it costs the same to run the service regardless of the number of passengers (well, mostly)?

I think there's a balance to be found in sharing the cost of a given journey between the passenger and the taxpayer. I think that balance currently sways strongly both ways on different journeys and on different types of tickets. In this particular case, I feel that whilst £5.00 for Wick to Inverness is exceptional value, it 'feels fair' to be paying something rather more than this given the massive amount of costs involved in maintaining the track, trains and stations for only a few services and a few hundred passengers each day.

On the other hand, other journeys may involve the purchase of fares which I feel hardly reflect a true and fair contribution towards the costs - e.g. a EUS-MAN SOR!
 

yorkie

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Well then we get into statistics and creative accounting. Why should anyone pay any fare, after all it costs the same to run the service regardless of the number of passengers (well, mostly)?

I think there's a balance to be found in sharing the cost of a given journey between the passenger and the taxpayer. I think that balance currently sways strongly both ways on different journeys and on different types of tickets. In this particular case, I feel that whilst £5.00 for Wick to Inverness is exceptional value, it 'feels fair' to be paying something rather more than this given the massive amount of costs involved in maintaining the track, trains and stations for only a few services and a few hundred passengers each day.

On the other hand, other journeys may involve the purchase of fares which I feel hardly reflect a true and fair contribution towards the costs - e.g. a EUS-MAN SOR!
This is going off-topic as you are basically arguing against yield management and market based pricing.

By all means lower the costly fares if you get into Government, but even reducing £300 fares down to £200 will make no difference to most 'ordinary' people (ie. not business account payers) and it won't make such journeys any cheaper for people who use ticket splitting websites either. What it would do is reduce the subsidy even further for rural lines. And raising Wick to Inverness fares means that there are even more spare seats on that train than there are at present, making the subsidy worse value for money.
 

FenMan

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Years ago, when TOCs were able to heavily manipulate fares in different baskets whilst meeting the overall RPI+ measure imposed by government, First Great Western significantly reduced off peak day return fares for Thames Valley flows that don't go east of Reading so they could bump prices for journeys using the Reading-Paddington golden corridor.
As a result, various off peak fares continue to be good value in GWR land e.g. Blackwater - Hungerford with a railcard is £6.15 for a 77 mile round-trip: under £0.08 a mile.

Likewise super off peak day return fares offered by Southern and Great Northern make equivalent fares from similar stations in SWR-land look expensive:-

(Examples given at railcard rates)

£12.40 : Chichester - London Victoria (159 miles round-trip)
£5.15 : King's Lynn - Cambridge (82 miles)

SWR equivalents:-
£26.60 : Salisbury - London Waterloo (166 miles)
£11.50 : Dorchester South - Brockenhurst (86 miles)
 

Haywain

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Years ago, when TOCs were able to heavily manipulate fares in different baskets whilst meeting the overall RPI+ measure imposed by government, First Great Western significantly reduced off peak day return fares for Thames Valley flows that don't go east of Reading so they could bump prices for journeys using the Reading-Paddington golden corridor.
An interesting argument but complete nonsense as Off Peak Day Return fares are not regulated.
 

AlterEgo

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Greater Anglia First Advances on the Norwich expresses, as low as £10.55 with a railcard.

Not bad for about two hours in a MkIII armchair.
 

FenMan

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An interesting argument but complete nonsense as Off Peak Day Return fares are not regulated.

Fair enough. The fact remains that First decided to reduce off peak fares considerably on secondary flows while bumping prices for travel to/from Paddington.
 
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