Ipswich to Liverpool St

[diedug]

I'm trying to determine the best (ie cheapest) way to get from Ipswich to Liverpool St and back using off-peak or super off-peak fares, for either a day-return or an open return.

I'd like to avoid having to use any specified train service so as to maintain flexibility.

I can use a combination of Club 50 and Network Railcards and am not averse to using an Oyster or a contactless card for part of the journey within the TFL area.

Thus far I have found an open off-peak return for £42.20, using no railcard; the same ticket is reduced to £33.75 with a Club 50 Railcard (the £8.45 saving recovers almost half the £20.00 cost of the Club 50 Railcard!).

Splitting the ticket at Manningtree often provides a saving, but here it seems to increase the fare to £34.20:

Ipswich > Manningtree £9.00 (2 x Anytime Day Single/Club 50 Railcard)
Manningtree > Liverpool St £25.20 (Off-peak return/Network Railcard)​

However, it seems a slight reduction (to £33.10) can be made by splitting the journey twice:

IPS > MNG £5.30 (Off-peak day-return/Club 50 Railcard)
MNG > Shenfield £15.00 (Off-peak day-return/Network Railcard)
SNF > LST £12.80 (2 x the 6.40 TFL fare, which would involve disembarking to swipe an oyster, which may be a precarious undertaking if there's not an oyster reader on the platform!)​

It hardly seems worth the risk of having to leave the train and being unable to re-board for a saving of 65p, but I wondered if the knowledgeable folk here could advise on whether these ticket combinations provide the optimum value for off-peak return travel between Ipswich and Liverpool Street with the available railcard discounts?

 

[Romilly]

For a day return try:

Ipswich-Colchester super-offpeak day return £8.30 (travel after 12 noon)

plus Colchester-London super-offpeak day return £17.10 with network-railcard discount (travel after noon, and no return after 15:58 and before 19:02). Total £25.40

A similar split at Manningtree, with the same time restrictions, would cost £6.60 + £19.30 = £25.90

 

[smsm1]

I've not looked into the Club50 discount on this route.

I have however spotted an anomaly where on weekends it can be even cheaper to split in Cambridge to Liverpool Street, however the timing is 2-3 times as long compared to the direct route for an extra £3 saving compared to splitting in Colchester.
IPS-CBG Off peak day return: £18.20
CBG-LST Weekend super off peak day return: £13
Total: £31.20.
I recently blogged about it: https://blog.shaunmcdonald.me.uk/2018/09/rail-fare-anomaly-between-ipswich-and-london/

On splitting in Shenfield, there's only 1 train per hour to Ipswich that stops there unless you change again in a place such as Colchester.

 

[js517]

There are some ‘interesting’ fares in this area if you look a little further...

There are not as many as there used to be though as a while back some fares from the Ipswich area to Cheshunt went from ‘Not Via London’ to ‘Via Cambridge’.

 

[diedug]

Thanks for the various suggestions (it looks like people living in Cambridge get a better value journey to London than the poor souls living in Ipswich (the £13.00 Weekend Super Off-Peak Day Return is great value!) but for me, the circuitous diversion isn't worth it for the £3.00 saving).

I've looked at various splitting options and haven't been able to get anything better than Romilly's £25-ish split ticket Super Off-Peak Day Return IPS > COL and COL > LST.

Here's to happy (and reasonably priced) rail travel ...

 

[Kite159]

(it looks like people living in Cambridge get a better value journey to London than the poor souls living in Ipswich

The weekend super off peak any permitted fares for Cambridge - London is set by Thameslink/Great Northern, with an even cheaper one routed "Greater Anglia Only". So there is a bit of competition at Cambridge between the two operators, whereas Ipswich only has Greater Anglia.

Cambridge might also be cheaper historicity* due to it being in the former Network South East operating area, whereas Ipswich was in the former Intercity area?

(*if that is the right word)