Group Travel Crewe to Carrbridge

[Ignoramus]

My login name says it all, I know very little about rail travel. For my sins I am organising a trip from Crewe to Carrbridge for 14 or 15 seniors, all with senior rail cards. We want to travel on a Monday and return on a Saturday. Initial exploration of timetables seems to suggest that we should leave Crewe at 1100 and arrive Edinburgh at 1437, leave Edinburgh 1437 arr Perth 1553, dep Perth 1617 arr Carrbridge 1752.
The Saturday times I've looked at entail us leaving Carrbridge 0916 arr Perth 11049, dep Perth 1102 arr Edinburgh, dep Edin 1252 and arr Crewe 1558. The times of day and journey times would suit us very well.
We are rapidly approaching 12 weeks before we go, and are looking at buying two groupsave tickets online for the entire return journey at a cost of just under £90 per person.
And that is about as far as I have got. Can anyone suggest a better way, please?

 

[Romilly]

Welcome to the forum.

As you have discovered, the online journey planners will only sell tickets for up to 9 passengers in one booking. You can make multiple bookings as you propose, or contact the group travel team for the retailer you have chosen to buy tickets from to see what sort of group deal they are able to offer you.

You mention "groupsave": that is only available from some train companies and only on some of their routes.

One way of categorising train tickets is as between "Advance" tickets (which are tickets where you have to travel on the train(s) you specify at the time of booking, although there may be a little bit of flexibility if any of the connecting trains are not trains on which reservations are available) and flexible tickets (which have lots of different names, such as Anytime or Offpeak single or day single or return or day return - these can all be bought on the day of travel, or in advance, and some may have restrictions as regards the time of travel or as regards which route you can take or which companies' trains you can travel on).

The ticket you mention is an Offpeak Return: this allows outward travel on the day you specify when booking, and return travel either the same day or any later day in the month beginning with that first day. The only time restriction on this particular offpeak ticket is that it is not valid for outward or return journeys that start before 0415 (offpeak tickets for different journeys have different time restrictions). It is valid on any train company's trains. And you have to travel via Lancaster.

I had a look at whether there was any saving to be made by booking "Advance" tickets. Not every train has a quota for Advance tickets, and Advance tickets come in several price tiers: when the first tier sells out, the next tier becomes available (except that if for example there are only 8 tickets left at the price currently advertised and you try to buy 9 tickets at that price you will be offered 9 tickets at the next tier up - the solution in that case is to buy 8 and then 1). I am not sure that the timings for Crewe-Carrbridge Advances will suit you, but you may want to look at buying Advances for Crewe-Stirling and Stirling-Crewe, and then buying Advances (or Offpeak Returns once the quota for Advances is used up) for Stirling-Carrbridge and Carrbridge-Stirling (or Crewe/Edinburgh and Edinburgh/Carrbridge).

For just one person with a senior railcard, the price using Advances at your preferred times starts from about £53 return, although some of the quotas would be rapidly used up so you wouldn't get that price for each member of your party.

One final thought: having organised group travel before, there is something to be said for getting group members to pay for their tickets as soon as they are bought. In that regard, Advance tickets are non-refundable, whereas flexible tickets are refundable subject to payment of a £10 admin fee per ticket.

 

[30907]

Assuming you are prepared to commit to specific trains, then there seem to be Advance fares from £20-odd each way (though I doubt you'd get such a good price for 15!).

Depending on what Group Sales offer you, it might be worth splitting your tickets at Edinburgh or Glasgow.

It might also be worth checking times via Glasgow Central and Queen St using the free inter station bus (or walking if you are reasonably active). As it happens the through trains at 1507 from Glasgow and 0916 from Carrbridge are ideally suited to your trip, and you would have step free interchange to boot.

An hour longer, but time for a coffee break in Glasgow?

 

[ScotrailINV]

It might also be worth checking times via Glasgow Central and Queen St using the free inter station bus (or walking if you are reasonably active). As it happens the through trains at 1507 from Glasgow and 0916 from Carrbridge are ideally suited to your trip, and you would have step free interchange to boot.

An hour longer, but time for a coffee break in Glasgow?

Due to the Queen Street tunnel closure all GLQ-INV services will be departing from Central between 20th March and 8th August.

Edited to add: Also, not sure if you are aware, but Carrbridge station is around a mile from the centre of Carrbridge. If any of your party have trouble walking long distances, there is only one local taxi firm (Bill's Taxis), although he operates as and when he has spare time and shouldn't be relied upon.

If anyone in your group has any mobility issues, it may be easier for you to travel as far as Aviemore by train, then onwards to Carrbridge by bus or taxi (it's around a £10 taxi fare from the rank directly outside Aviemore station to the centre of Carrbridge).

 

[FQTV]

You mention "groupsave": that is only available from some train companies and only on some of their routes.

It may be worth noting that, depending on the group size and operator, GroupSave (when available) may not offer much, if any, incremental saving over the railcard discount.

One other thing to be aware of with GroupSave is that changes involving a party being split into parts which do not separately meet the GroupSave conditions of the original booking apparently require the purchase of new tickets. It's not possible to upgrade a ticket which formerly had GroupSave discount applied to the normal fare (same as a Railcard fare can't have the railcard discount removed).

 

[Blindtraveler]

A few practicle considderations - the route to the highlands is opperated by trains of 3 coaches and is subject to much overcrouding at times. If you have any wheelchair users in your group book well ahead. Also some Platforms at Perth have a high step between train and platform, this can be avoided by traveling iether via Glasgow as above or via Stirling if routing through Edinburgh.

 

[Starmill]

As Blindtraveler says, the step up into the train on platform 7 at Perth (from where Inverness services usually depart) is very big.

 

[Ignoramus]

Thanks to everyone who replied, I am grateful for my education. It looks like we will go for the train changing at Glasgow Central, it reduces the number of changes and gives us plenty of time to accomplish them. It also avoids the high step at Perth.
As regards Carrbridge, just arranged for a minibus to meet us at the station and drop us off there for the return, but thanks for the tip.
Still can't get my head round this 12-week thing - got to wait for 12 weeks before return date before you can book the return, even though outward date has been available for 5-6 days. And booking two singles 5 days apart - what's to stop the price steepling in between times?
Thanks again for the help, and keep suggestions coming, if you have them.

 

[30907]

If you are booking an Offpeak (or Anytime) return, then the return half is valid 1 month, and the fare doesn't vary, so the 12 week rule isn't really relevant.

Advance tickets, however, are only valid as specified, and there is an element of pot luck. At the moment all you can do is a test booking as far ahead as possible (which for a weekend may be less than 12 weeks, because of engineering) and use that as a guide.