manchester - Bristol

[Chrisbolton]

Hi

Looking at leaving Manchester at around 7pm on Friday 26th September, and leaving Bristol early afternoon Sunday 28th.

I know these are too far in the future for advances, but its seems Cross Country don't really offer advance prices anyway.

Tried splitting on earlier dates but no luck. Anyone know anything?

Cheers
Chris

 

[Romilly]

If you look at Friday 12th and Sunday 14th September, there are:

Manchester-Bristol advances from £39 around 7pm

Bristol-Manchester advances from £24.90 in the early afternoon

Total of £63.90 compared with a flexible offpeak return at £80.90


Booking separate advances for Manchester-Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton-Cheltenham, and Cheltenham-Bristol could get the total down to around £56.
The total would be similar if you split at Birmingham and Cheltenham instead of Wolverhampton and Cheltenham. It is also similar to the total if buying split offpeak returns as suggested by trainscanbecheaper but that seems to involve a less than straightforward journey.

 

[Chrisbolton]

Cheers, I had a play around with the dates. Just seems expensive when a single to London can be had for £15 in advance from Manchester. In fact, it isn't actually much more to go via London on splits!

 

[John @ home]

For earlier weeks, cheaper tickets are available by a slower route. For example, for Friday 29 August a £20 Advance single is available on 1930 Manchester Pic - 2239 Newport S Wales 2253 - Bristol Temple M 2337. For Sunday 31 August a £25 Advance single is available on 1230 Bristol Temple M - 1238 Bristol Parkway 1313 - 1338 Newport S Wales 1354 - Manchester Pic 1715.

To obtain fares by this route, search for Manchester to Bristol via Hereford.

 

[Chrisbolton]

Ill definitely have a look, do you know when the advance tickets for the end of September are likely to be released?

 

[Romilly]

Probably around Friday 4th July, unless there are uncertainties about engineering works on the relevant lines over the weekend of 27/28 September.

 

[Chrisbolton]

Cheers, that's great

 

[bnm]

Just seems expensive when a single to London can be had for £15 in advance from Manchester.

Oodles of seats to sale on Virgin Manchester to London with their 9/11 carriage Pendolinos and 3tph service.

CrossCountry have far less capacity in their 4/5 car Voyagers and hourly Manchester - Bristol service.

 

[WelshBluebird]

There is at least one "loophole" to be able to do this for cheaper than the through fare that I used for a while when I was visiting my ex, it is probably known to any fares staff snooping but I'd rather not post it publically just incase it is noticed and removed. PM me if you want, but you probably won't beat the £45 total of the two advances via Newport.

 

[LateThanNever]

Hi

Looking at leaving Manchester at around 7pm on Friday 26th September, and leaving Bristol early afternoon Sunday 28th.

I know these are too far in the future for advances, but its seems Cross Country don't really offer advance prices anyway.

Tried splitting on earlier dates but no luck. Anyone know anything?

Cheers
Chris

FGW set fares B Temple M to Cheltenham and there XC take over (tho' perhaps not all the way to M/c?) so if travelling by XC always worth looking to split there as all trains stop.