London to Hinckley return

[rockford]

Morning!
I'm due to travel from London (any terminal) to Hinckley, Leicestershire on 19th January and need to do so as cheaply as possible.
I checked the fares on RSH and I'm getting ~£100 for the journey I want. My employer has said this is too much and I must drive instead. I really don't want to do this as it will take a lot longer, so is there any way I can make the journey cheaper? I'm not really familiar with split ticketing and over-distance buying, so I'm hoping there's some options where that's concerned.

Requirements:
- Must be in Hinckley by 09:40 at the latest.
- Must be flexible on the way back, but I envisage leaving around 17:00.

Annual gold card held.

Thanks in advance!

Andy.

 

[222007]

If you used a london midland only ticket that will save you a few quid changing trains at nuneaton. I can see some advance fares which are really good value on there website at present.

 

[paul1609]

Morning!
I'm due to travel from London (any terminal) to Hinckley, Leicestershire on 19th January and need to do so as cheaply as possible.
I checked the fares on RSH and I'm getting ~£100 for the journey I want. My employer has said this is too much and I must drive instead. I really don't want to do this as it will take a lot longer, so is there any way I can make the journey cheaper? I'm not really familiar with split ticketing and over-distance buying, so I'm hoping there's some options where that's concerned.

Requirements:
- Must be in Hinckley by 09:40 at the latest.
- Must be flexible on the way back, but I envisage leaving around 17:00.

Annual gold card held.

Thanks in advance!

Andy.

You don't say where you're starting from but if you have access to a car your employer is probably right.
Hinckley is easily doable in under 2 hours even from central London

 

[LexyBoy]

- Must be in Hinckley by 09:40 at the latest.
- Must be flexible on the way back, but I envisage leaving around 17:00.

Annual gold card held.

Does you Gold Card include a Travelcard? The GC discount is unfortunately unlikely to be any use as your journey is before 1000.

The flexibility is going to be the problem here, as for full flexibility Advances are ruled out.

With Advances, outward trains (arriving 0833, 0828 and 0933) are priced from £34-53, with return trains cheaper - the 1835 (arriving Euston 2014) is £11.50. Thus a return journey would be from £45.50 - however, you'd need to book a late return journey in order to be sure you'd get it, and thus risk hanging around a long time.

With full flexibility on the return, the cheapest I can see is:
0624 EUS>NUN (arr 0817) £6.00 Advance Single
0822 NUN>HNK (arr 0828; alternatively 0922 arr. 0930) £5.80 Anytime Return
Hourly departures at XX35 from HNK to NUN arr. XX41
1802 NUN>EUS (arr 1950; hourly service) £29.00 Off Peak Single (LM Only; return is £30). Cheaper is to split at Milton Keynes (MKC): NUN>MKC £15.00 Off Peak Single (LM Only); MKC>EUS £8.60 Off Peak Day Single (LM Only).
Total: £35.40
Note that for the return journey, the LM departures you'd be likely to use from Nuneaton at 1802 all have £6.00 Advance Singles so you might be better off buying three of these - for the 1702, 1802 and 1902 for example - and just using the one which happens to be most convenient. It might not be worth trying to explain it to your employer though.

Obviously, even with "fully flexible" tickets on the return, you're still very limited compared to a London-Hinckley "Any Permitted" ticket as you're restricted to travelling via Nuneaton, and on LM. And, being LM, it's a fairly slow journey.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Is it not worth splitting the journey between car and rail? Could you drive to Nuneaton or Rugby and pick up the train there if it will open up better fares and/or connections?

 

[MarkyMarkD]

Not really as both of the places you've named are almost at Hinckley!

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Yeah, I misread the original post. For some reason I assumed the OP was starting in Hinckley and heading to London, not the other way around.

 

[rockford]

Thank you for the advice. I'll see what I can do. One reason I want to take the train is that it gives me time to prepare and get my thoughts together before I arrive.

 

[muug1982]

Depends how cheap you need to get it down to...
07:55 St Pancras - Leicester 09:02
09:16 Leicester - Hinckley 09:33
Advance £45

The 6:55 is available for £34 and the 8:55 for £20
Return via Nuneaton - Off Peak Single £42.50

Total £87.50

Alternatively (with an earlier start)
06:43 Euston - Coventry 07:42
Advance £20
Off Peak Single for Return £21.80 (valid all trains arriving after 11:30)
Coventry - Hinckley Anytime Return £9.10

Total £50.90...someone might be able to find a ticket that allows travel from Nuneaton - Rugby direct on the return.


Word of caution if you decide to drive Roadworks in M1 - Junction 10-13...it's a very long stretch restricted to 50mph.

 

[jkdd77]

Would it not be possible for the OP to buy a "Half Off-Peak Return" for the return leg, purchased via the Virgin website, in conjunction with an advance outward single?

The thinking would be to use either of the outward advance singles mentioned above by muug1982, together with a £21.80 SVH single for the return leg.

 

[lemonic]

Euston 7:47 - Nuneaton 9:16 - Advance £9.50
Nuneaton - Euston (Return any train after 17:00) Off Peak SVH £19
£28.50 return
Buy on www.takethetrain.co.uk

Nuneaton 9:22 - Hinckley 9:30
Hinckley - Nuneaton (Return any train after 17:00)
£5.80 Anytime Day Return

So a total of £34.30 return.

 

[rockford]

Euston 7:47 - Nuneaton 9:16 - Advance £9.50
Nuneaton - Euston (Return any train after 17:00) Off Peak SVH £19
£28.50 return
Buy on www.takethetrain.co.uk

Nuneaton 9:22 - Hinckley 9:30
Hinckley - Nuneaton (Return any train after 17:00)
£5.80 Anytime Day Return

So a total of £34.30 return.

It looks like this may well be the winning formula.
Thank you very much indeed!

It's quite frustrating that you need such a deep level of understanding in order to get the best value.

 

[OwlMan]

Euston 7:47 - Nuneaton 9:16 - Advance £9.50
Nuneaton - Euston (Return any train after 17:00) Off Peak SVH £19
£28.50 return
Buy on www.takethetrain.co.uk

Nuneaton 9:22 - Hinckley 9:30
Hinckley - Nuneaton (Return any train after 17:00)
£5.80 Anytime Day Return

So a total of £34.30 return.

To save 80p buy a Bedworth - Hinckley SDR £5 (rather than a Nuneaton - Hinckley SDR £5.80). {I know that Bedworth to Hinckley is further and you have to travel via Nuneaton....but )

Peter

 

[bengolding]

It looks like this may well be the winning formula.
Thank you very much indeed!

It's quite frustrating that you need such a deep level of understanding in order to get the best value.

Whilst LM are generally on time, a 5 min connection at Nuneaton from plat 2 to 7 is tight if it's just a few mins late given the Hinckly service is hourly. The earlier 0625-0817 service is only £6. But if work will reimburse you for a taxi from Nuneaton to Hinckley if you miss the 0922, that's fine.

I know you want flexibility on the return, but you can't get the price down considerably by using Advances both ways.

Euston-Nuneaton
The 0624 out and 18:02 back are both £6 direct with LM. Book via the LM Sale Site to get 25% off each, making it just £4.50 each. Get a separate Bedworth-Hinckley Day Return.

Euston-Hinckley
The 0603 VT from Euston with 2 changes at Rugby and Nuneaton arrives 0728 is only £11.50. The 1835 return via Birmingham [1] arrives 2054 and is only £8, a total of just £19.50.

[1] A trick to bear in mind for Euston-Nuneaton/Hinckley is that cheaper Std/First Advances are often available via Birmingham New St, using VT and XC. You have to specify via Birmingham to get these low fares.