London-Morecambe

[postye]

There's 3 of us going up to Morecambe for a long weekend, leaving Friday 18th October and returning Sunday, but it seems that the cheapest advances are £70 single, which with the off peak return at £85.70 makes them pointless.
I've tried splitting at Lancaster & Warrington but there's nothing cheaper there.

Does anybody know any good splits that could reduce the fares down somewhat? Would be willing to take a slightly slower route if the savings are worth it.

Thanks

 

[Urban Gateline]

Not sure if I'm missing something, but you can get Group-Save 3 tickets if you are all travelling together.

BRFares gives the price as £56.55 per person for London Terminals to Morecambe Off-Peak Return

Edit: Ah ok on doing some research it seems VT do not participate in Group-Save! But they have a 4 travel for the price of 2, probably doesn't apply if only 3 people are traveling though.

 

[LexyBoy]

Advance fares are not available yet; keep an eye out over the coming week. I would say though that IME Virgin's Advance offerings for Friday/Sunday journeys are generally barely worth bothering with - you may be in luck if you're quick though. edit: strangely Virgin's site is offering 1st Advances from about £50, but no standard class Advances

Not sure how GroupSave would be used, as it's not valid any of the operators you could use to make your journey (furthest you could get is I think Stafford with LM, or Manchester with EMT).

Edit: Ah ok on doing some research it seems VT do not participate in Group-Save! But they have a 4 travel for the price of 2, probably doesn't apply if only 3 people are traveling though.

Do you have a link? - I couldn't find anything about it with a quick google, only their rather limited group discount.

 

[tony_mac]

Virgin-only advance fares are available.
There are cheap advance fares on the Sunday, from Manchester (or Liverpool), but not particularly worth bothering with on Friday (priced marginally less than the online only off-peak single). Probably not worth the extra time.

If you can live with London Midland as far as Crewe (will add 1 hour + connection time) then it can be done fairly cheaply by splitting Advance tickets at Crewe and Lancaster.

 

[Urban Gateline]

Do you have a link? - I couldn't find anything about it with a quick google, only their rather limited group discount.

http://www.raileasy.co.uk/home/groupsave

Under the "Participating Train Companies header". There is no link with further details though...!

Though not called Groupsave, Virgin Trains have a similar group discount for 4 adults, i.e 4 for the price of 2.

 

[IanD]

London to Lancaster Advances for the same weekend are showing £37 Northbound and £28.50/£37.00 Southbound. That's an extra £33.50/£42.50 each way if you want to go Morecambe! (or you could get a single for £2.90 each way). Still almost as cheap to get the off peak return though.

 

[Chrisbolton]

Could try virgin to Manchester, then Trans Pennine Express from there when the advances are released