Cheapest weekend return from Lancaster to Bournemouth?

[faringdon]

Hi,
Will soon start a work contract in Lancaster.
I live in Bournemouth so will need to travel back
to Bournemouth on Saturdays, and return to Lancaster on the Sundays.

(Not every weekend though, but at least once a month)

Anyway, the price is coming out as £176 for the return.

This is surprising as it would be cheaper to hire a car.

Anyway, is there a cheaper way by splitting the journey up into stages?..Eg as follows..
..going from say Lancaster to Birmingham New Street.....then Birmingham New Street to Bristol,
then Bristol to Salisbury, then Salisbury to Bournemouth.....and not buying each ticket until getting to
whichever station, and then picking off the cheapest deal on the internet for the particular journey?

Is this possible?

Can the journey be made cheaper?

 

[pokemonsuper9]

I would recommend putting the journey into the forum's ticketing site, it's by far the best I've seen at getting split tickets.

 

[jfollows]

An off-peak return is £176.40, or £185 via London. This allows travel on any train at weekends, if you need the flexibility, and can be bought at time of travel.
Otherwise, advance tickets can be cheaper and this forum’s ticketing site will use split tickets if they’re cheaper.
It can also identify non-advance split tickets.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You might want to try, if you have plenty of time, using a splitting site and putting in via points to route you via London and on the WMT service from there to Crewe, changing again for Lancaster. This service often has very cheap Advances and also has cheap walk up fares. If you put in "calls at Rugeley Trent Valley" on a site that supports that that should do all that for you. It may also be worth considering a Network Railcard as this can discount the Bournemouth-London part by a third if you do go that way (and possibly a split involving Euston-Milton Keynes Central being separate if cheaper discounted this way).

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Hi,
Will soon start a work contract in Lancaster.
I live in Bournemouth so will need to travel back
to Bournemouth on Saturdays, and return to Lancaster on the Sundays.

(Not every weekend though, but at least once a month)

Anyway, the price is coming out as £176 for the return.

This is surprising as it would be cheaper to hire a car.

Anyway, is there a cheaper way by splitting the journey up into stages?..Eg as follows..
..going from say Lancaster to Birmingham New Street.....then Birmingham New Street to Bristol,
then Bristol to Salisbury, then Salisbury to Bournemouth.....and not buying each ticket until getting to
whichever station, and then picking off the cheapest deal on the internet for the particular journey?

Is this possible?

Can the journey be made cheaper?

Having a quick play on a random split fare site tells me 2 things
- you'll want to book your tickets reasonably far in advance: looking at Lancaster - Bournemouth on 21/2 and back on 22/2 (i.e. this coming weekend) comes up with a fare that actually seems to be slightly more than the £176.40 'not via London' off-peak return (although n.b I haven't checked the routing - maybe that's cheap for via London): looking for 21 and 22/3 (i.e. a month later) seems to reduce the price to just over £100. So buying significantly in advance of travel may be worth it.
- if you set off first thing on Saturday, you won't be home until the middle of the afternoon - and to get back on the Sunday you have to leave soon after lunch. It's for you to know how important it is to get home for not much more than an overnight stay, but might you want to travel on the Friday and the Monday instead? How flexible will your working week be?

 

[Swedenorer]

I just got some very good value fares via Reading for a few dates but the journey time is 6h50 and depends tussling on Cross Country on a Sunday. The Super Off peak return Waterloo/Bmouth is £61. Worth playing with advance fares to London going on the cheapest weekend and carrying the full walk up Western Division fare? After many years of bitter experience travelling in a Sunday I'm inclined to agree with the final par in the last post. For example in March the Sunday Waterloo/Bmouth service is revised in one way or another every weekend.

 

[Bletchleyite]

- if you set off first thing on Saturday, you won't be home until the middle of the afternoon - and to get back on the Sunday you have to leave soon after lunch. It's for you to know how important it is to get home for not much more than an overnight stay, but might you want to travel on the Friday and the Monday instead? How flexible will your working week be?

The poster said it's not every week.

 

[Timetraveller]

Cheaper advance fares are available as a split via Manchester. ie Bournemouth to Manchester upto 15 weeks on cross country direct and then Northern trains advance from Manchester to Lancaster (12 weeks in advance) could make the return journey on fixed times, non flexible and non refundable around £90