Leeds to Cannock

[MIJOHNSON]

Hi Guys, wondering if anyone can help me out.

Im looking to travel:

Leeds to Cannock on Saturday 17th September, returning back to Leeds on Sunday 18th September.

The best tickets I could find are £22.50 each journey for total of of £45 (I dont particularly want to travel at 6am to get a £14.50 ticket)

Does anyone have any clever route ideas for getting a cheaper ticket price?

thanks in advance

 

[yorkie]

"Splitting" the journey into a combination of tickets may work. Use a WebTIS website (e.g. EC, LM etc) and click the info (i) button next to the itinerary you want, then tick 'show all calling points', this shows the places where you could "split" the journey into a combination of tickets (note the train must call on the return journey too).

Note that if you want to return a different day (as in you case), then unless singles are sensibly priced (unlikely in the case of shorter distance singles) it will not be cheaper to split at stations where only Off Peak / Anytime Day Return tickets are available. Therefore, you can generally only look at longer distance tickets (where SVRs exist) to combine.

"Splitting" isn't the only way to reduce the cost. You can look at Routeing Guide anomalies by looking for 'over-distance' tickets which you can then start/finish short, though ATOC and some TOCs are keen to remove such anomalies so if they get mentioned here that can mean the end of them. Finishing short/breaking your journey is not permitted with Advance tickets though, so this technique is only valid when using "walk on" tickets.

Travelling at "peak" times can be reduced by purchasing tickets with more favourable restrictions and either splitting and/or starting/finishing short. Again, some TOCs do not like this and can take action. Obviously that does not apply in this particular case as you are travelling at weekends.

 

[cuccir]

You could split advance returns via Manchester, and take advantage of the TPE extra discount off advance tickets for 16-25 rail-card holders. It involves a lot of changing, but doesn't take much longer:

EG
11:55 Leeds to MAN - £3.95
13:15 MAN to Cannock - £3.95
- Manchester Piccadilly 13:15, Stoke On Trent 13:48
- Stoke On Trent 13:54 Rugeley Trent Valley14:32
- Rugeley Trent Valley 14:42 Cannock14:57

Return
14:19 Cannock to MAN £8.95
- Cannock 14:19 Rugeley Trent Valley 14:37
- Rugeley Trent Valley 14:58 Stoke On Trent15:40
- Stoke On Trent 15:50 Manchester Piccadilly16:29
17:21 MAN to Leeds £4.45

Total cost is £21.25

 

[yorkie]

I was wondering if via Manchester might be worth it!

The link to obtain half-price Advance tickets with a 16-25 Railcard is here:

http://www.tpexpress.co.uk/train-tickets-and-rail-offers/students.htm

(click the "Buy tickets now" icon under "let's go!")