Luton to Birmingham

[MrCub]

Hello there. I am travelling to Birmingham New Street from Luton one weekday next week, leaving 7am ish and returning 5pmish.

The fare suggested is an Anytime return for £115 (not London). However, would it be acceptable to buy the Anytime Single for approx £55 and an off-peak single for the return leg for £35 approx, thus saving quite a bit?
All help appreciated

Mr Cub

 

[yorkie]

Yes that's fine.

But it's better to split at Wellingborough & Nuneaton:

SDR from LUT to WEL is £20.80
SVR from WEL to NUN is £19.60 (Valid after 0430)
SDR from NUN to BHM is £8.40 (Valid Any time)

TOTAL = £48.80

If the guard questions the SVR ticket, simply tell them that the restriction code is BT and is valid after 0430 and they can look it up if they don't believe you. It's perfectly valid but some guards are not given sufficient training to realise that not all Off Peak tickets are the same.

The 0723 from Luton calls at WEL, as does the 1833 from Leicester.

 

[OwlMan]

Or
Luton - Market Harborough SDR (Anytime Day Return) 22-40
Market Harboro - Birmingham SOR (Anytime return) 19-50
Total - £41-90
The 0723 from Luton calls at Market Harboro, as does the 1833 from Leicester.

Peter

 

[yorkie]

Well spotted! That's insane! Proof that the pricing structure on UK railways is an absolute joke, and the TOCs try to unfairly penalise passengers by setting disproportionately high fares for longer distance journeys that are far greater than the sum of more sensibly priced short or mid distance journeys. They want to scam us - the long distance fares are a scam, pure and simple. It's a scam that no-one on this forum should fall victim to.

Luton to Leicester SOR, at £73.00 is so much more expensive than the SDR to Market Harborough at £22.40. There is no SDR to Leicester, because they know that there is demand to travel to Leicester and they think people will just pay the £73.00 as they don't know better. Even the SOR to Market Harborough is only £36.50. The final few miles from MHR to LEI is £8.80 SDR but the price increases by far more than this.

It's like ordering a meal from a restaurant and if you get dessert then the cost of the meal more than doubles. Only in the rail industry does this sort of pricing occur.

 

[OwlMan]

Yes I use the MML quite a lot and almost always splitting at Market Harborough gives the best fares.

Also the OP could try
Luton - Milton Keynes via Bedford SDR £21-00
Milton Keynes - Birmingham LMR only SOR £25-00

Total £46-00