Cheapest walk-up fare Leeds to Southampton

[maddeningcrowds]

It's all in the title... For a single ticket Leeds to Southampton today, no railcard, avoiding London. Is there any way to go lower than Cross Country's £91 ticket? This is pretty much the cost of the return fare and i'm hoping there might be ways to split the ticket to get the single fare down.

 

[tony_mac]

In theory, you could buy a Sheffield to Leeds return, at £11.20.
Then throw away the outward portion and do an over-distance excess on the return portion which should be half the difference ((94.80-11.20)/2) = £41.80, so £53 total.

I have no idea if you will be able to actually get someone to issue the excess properly, I suspect it may be difficult.

 

[yorkie]

It's all in the title... For a single ticket Leeds to Southampton today, no railcard, avoiding London. Is there any way to go lower than Cross Country's £91 ticket? This is pretty much the cost of the return fare and i'm hoping there might be ways to split the ticket to get the single fare down.

Leeds - Meadowhall £7.60 (or Sheffield/Dronfield is £8.70)
Meadowhall - Derby £8.40
Derby - Birmingham £12.40
Birmingham - Leamington Spa £7.30
Leamington Spa - Banbury £6.30
Banbury - Basingstoke £12.90
Basingstoke - Southampton £12.10
(Cheaper splits may be possible)

Total £66.90 - quite a saving!

It may be cheaper to split at Sheffield/Burton and use a Derbyshire Wayfarer between Sheffield and Derby (£8.50 ish)

 

[tony_mac]

Birmingham - Leamington Spa £7.30
Leamington Spa - Banbury £6.30

Spring Road (Birmingham) to Banbury is £12.20

or replace

Derby - Birmingham £12.40
Birmingham - Leamington Spa £7.30
Leamington Spa - Banbury £6.30

with
Derby - Coventry £14
Coventry - Banbury £9.20

 

[yorkie]

or replace


with
Derby - Coventry £14
Coventry - Banbury £9.20

Burton - Coventry £11.80

And to get to Burton, a Wayfarer valid from Sheffield to Burton is £8.60 http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/transport_roads/public_transport/tickets_passes/rover_tickets/derbyshire_wayfarer/default.asp Leeds station should be able to issue that. It's just printed on normal stock. (The only problem is using it on buses if you dont have it in a special wayfarer pouch but that's not an issue here). I have some scratchcard wayfarers at home so I dont have to queue up, they're amazing value.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
If you dont mind going via London...

Leeds - York off peak single £10.40
York - London off peak single GC ONLY £35.00 (1400ish from York is HST today)
Bus/Tube about £1-1.60 on Oyster
London - Southampton off peak single SOUTHERN ONLY £22.70

Total is approx £68, and it will be a more comfortable journey and avoid the awful XC Voyagers.

 

[transportphoto]

Probably already done the journey but... don't forget that you can not use a Return portion of a Return until it has been possible to complete the outward!

 

[maddeningcrowds]

Thanks for your help. The traveller wanted to change trains as little as possible, and Cross Country don't stop at Meadowhall, so I think the cheapest was:

Leeds - Sheffiled £8.70
Sheffield - Derby £8.40
Derby - Coventry £14
Coventry - Banbury £9.20
Banbury - Basingstoke £12.90
Basingstoke - Southampton £12.10

Total: £65.30

 

[yorkie]

Probably already done the journey but... don't forget that you can not use a Return portion of a Return until it has been possible to complete the outward!

I'm not sure about this. can you point to anywhere in the public domain where this is stated? Also is there actually a requirement to undertake the outward journey? I can't see anything in the rules that prohibits me buying a return ticket, and not using the outward portion at all and just using the return portion? If someone can point me to something in the public domain where that is stated I would appreciate it. Also if there is a secret, non-enforceable instruction given to guards, that would be interesting to read too, but not legally binding.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Thanks for your help. The traveller wanted to change trains as little as possible, and Cross Country don't stop at Meadowhall, so I think the cheapest was:

Leeds - Sheffiled £8.70
Sheffield - Derby £8.40
Derby - Coventry £14
Coventry - Banbury £9.20
Banbury - Basingstoke £12.90
Basingstoke - Southampton £12.10

Total: £65.30

Even hours from Leeds call at Burton so £2 can be saved by splitting there (Wayfarer SHF-BUT) e.g. 1211, 1411, 1611.

I wonder what the guards thought! They probably get that sort of thing a lot these days, even the mainstream newspapers mention fare splitting. The Burton split gets the fare to a level that is less than £2 more than the through fare if a Railcard was held, in other words splitting the fare saves just a fraction under 1/3 off!

Perhaps the railways can save on admin costs by issuing a 'Fare Splitting Railcard', the railcard would be free to anyone who knows about fare splitting, and showing it takes 1/3 off the price of long distance tickets issued on just 1 ticket. The gains would be paper would be saved, time saved, and the price paid would be pretty much the same. What have ATOC got to lose?

Another good thing about that ticket combo is knowing that XC have lost out on loads of money thanks to ORCATS. Winners would include Northern, EMT, Chiltern, FGW and SWT (and, to a lesser extent, Virgin). Good for those TOCs for pricing tickets at a sensible level, I say! Entirely XCs fault for pricing the through ticket at a rip-off level.

 

[moonrakerz]

I'm not sure about this. can you point to anywhere in the public domain where this is stated? Also is there actually a requirement to undertake the outward journey?

From NRCoC;
"17. Using a return ticket
A return ticket (including a two-part return ticket) is only valid for the outward
journey shown on that ticket if the ticket is completely unused.
You may not use the outward part of a return ticket after you have used the return part."

If you follow that and don't use the outward half later it would appear that you are OK !

 

[tony_mac]

The quote previously given from the FRPP contradicts this
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showpost.php?p=315204&postcount=9

You should refuse to accept the return portion of a return ticket if the date and time shown on the ticket indicate that the outward journey could not have been physically and legitimately completed, or part completed,

Although that 'rule' does not appear to be in the public domain anywhere.

 

[moonrakerz]

The quote previously given from the FRPP contradicts this
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showpost.php?p=315204&postcount=9

Although that 'rule' does not appear to be in the public domain anywhere.

Yes, I accept that, but surely if you intended just using the return half then you would purchase your "return" ticket at such a time that it would have been theoretically possible to have done the outward leg ?
Doing anything other than that would be inviting questions from the train staff.