Glasgow to Leeds - best options?

[daniel78]

I need to travel from Glasgow to Leeds on Monday 14th October. The tickets for this should be on sale soon (maybe Friday), so I'm trying to get clued up on the best option for a fare.

Brfares seems to say the cheapest is £17, barring special offers. NRE throws up quite the variety of routes and fares, I wondered if anyone knows of any tricks like specifying connection times or adding via stations that will ensure the best fares show up. I've searched for journeys exactly a week earlier and the best fare I can find is £22. It could just be that all the cheapest have gone, but NRE isn't always perfect at showing up the cheapest available journey.

Any thoughts from anyone who is used to this journey? All other things being equal I'd prefer East Coast to West Coast, I prefer the trains and the scenery.

Thanks!

No railcards by the way.

 

[MKD]

Well I can spot a Cross Country Advance on Mon 7/10 direct at 11am from Glasgow Central to Leeds 15:08 at £18.50, ie beating that £22. Mind you... whether you fancy a XC train for those 4 hours...
though it is down the East Coast line as you prefer ie across to Edinburgh then down to York and across to Leeds,

At the very least sign-up to the Cross Country trains advance ticket notifier
http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/travel-tools/ticket-alerts
to get an email even if you're distracted with other things when they do become available for 14/10. Though from my memory (a false one?) of bagging a XC advance in the Spring they were actually on sale a few hours, maybe 24hrs before their email came through.

If £saving is a priority don't overlook ideas like doubling up Tesco Clubcard points via RedSpottedHanky eg £10 clubcard becomes £20 eVoucher against train fares. That'll require a few days preparation to ensure your a/c & eVoucher are setup ready to buy when Advances released.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets

 

[yorkie]

Your best bet will certainly be a through Advance ticket.

To travel on EC, you may need to specify via East Garforth, as otherwise it may specify a TPE service as your connecting train, which requires a quota to be available (due to TPE offering their own Advance tickets) and they won't be available as soon as EC release theirs!

 

[IanD]

The 0710 from Leeds-Aberdeen often throws up the £17 fares to Glasgow. Remember these will be cheaper on EastCoast's own website (£15.15).

You can also specify via Carlisle and be offered £17 fares but these won't be discounted on EC.

(Tried Tuesday 1st October got £17 fare on 0604 and 0710 via York and 0551 via Preston)

Sorry - I was going the wrong way!

£17 on 1615 ex Glasgow via Edinburgh and 1640 via Carlisle.

 

[daniel78]

Thanks for the feedback all. The via East Garforth trick works nicely for ensuring I can pick up a Northern train from York. I've noticed since my last post that East Coast haven't started selling tickets for the week before yet, so it might not be till the end of next week that I can get the ones I want.