Northants to Edinburgh

[smileynum1]

I've spent the last 2 hours searching for a decent price and so far no luck.

I'm planning on going away to Edinburgh for a few days holiday (30th march till the 1st of april returning) and I'll be with the mrs. We can leave either from Northampton Station or Leicester station, as I can travel to either farely easily.

The main problem is that she has a priv card (step dad works for cross country) and getting a quote online ithe priv card is not recognised as a dicount card (I myself have a 16-25 young persons railcard). The step dad mentioned above, managed to find fares as cheap as £35 going to Edinburgh and £9 return... however I have had no such luck. I don't wish to keep botherring the man and would rather sort this out asap as time is ticking on now.

Any help on the matter will be greatly appreciated.

So that is:

Northampton to edinburgh return,
2 adults, one priv card, one young persons rail,
Departing as early as possible 30/03/09, returning as late as possible 01/04/09

 

[glynn80]

I've spent the last 2 hours searching for a decent price and so far no luck.

I'm planning on going away to Edinburgh for a few days holiday (30th march till the 1st of april returning) and I'll be with the mrs. We can leave either from Northampton Station or Leicester station, as I can travel to either farely easily.

The main problem is that she has a priv card (step dad works for cross country) and getting a quote online ithe priv card is not recognised as a dicount card (I myself have a 16-25 young persons railcard). The step dad mentioned above, managed to find fares as cheap as £35 going to Edinburgh and £9 return... however I have had no such luck. I don't wish to keep botherring the man and would rather sort this out asap as time is ticking on now.

Any help on the matter will be greatly appreciated.

So that is:

Northampton to edinburgh return,
2 adults, one priv card, one young persons rail,
Departing as early as possible 30/03/09, returning as late as possible 01/04/09

Your best option price wise is to travel from Northampton on the services below. If you were to travel from Leicester you would have to travel at times which are unsuitable for your journey and pay a higher price as well.

Outward Journey
London Midland
Northampton 08:56
Birmingham New Street 10:01

Virgin Trains
Birmingham New Street 10:20
Edinburgh14:22


Return Journey
Virgin Trains
Edinburgh 18:52
Birmingham New Street 22:55

Virgin Trains
Birmingham New Street 23:10
Northampton 00:05

The best fare options for you are for you to purchase two Young Persons Discounted Advance Singles and the Mrs. to purchase a Privilege Discounted Anytime Return. These are detailed below:

£22.75- Outward Journey (Young Persons Discounted Advance Single)
£15.20- Return Journey (Young Persons Discounted Advance Single)

£54.75- Outward & Return Journey (Privilege Discounted Anytime Return)

Total: £92.70

 

[dan_atki]

Priv fares for such long distance journeys are rather pointless - they provide 75% off the adult fare for Anytime (Day) tickets only. It is almost always cheaper to get an undiscounted Advance Single! However with the journey below, one ticket can be discounted with the priv.

If she gets a priv through XC does she also get a XC free travel pass? If so then you can ignore the two tickets marked with (*) below as they won't be needed!

The best I could get was advance from Birmingham New Street (with a normal return from Northampton to Birmingham). These are liable to go soon so it's preferable to book them ASAP (www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com is a good site to enable you to do so, alternatively you should be able to go to a station with the same info given below and they should be able to do them for you there).

Outward
1 x Anytime Return Northampton - Birmingham New Street at £16.00
1 x Priv Anytime Return Northampton - Birmingham New Street at £4.00
(as you are travelling at peak time on a Monday morning your 16-25 railcard is liable to a minimum fare equal to the ticket price so it is pointless to use it!)

1 x Advance Single (for 0703/0803 departure from BHM) at £15.50 (*)
1 x 16-25 Advance Single (for same departure) at £10.25

Return
1 x Advance Single (for 1508/1708 departure from EDB) at £15.50 (*)
1 x 16-25 Advance Single (for same departure) at £10.25

Return from Birmingham to Northampton already paid for!

Total cost = £71.50 (or £40.50 if a free travel pass for XC is held by your wife!).

Certainly no £9 fares even exist for this journey (even Advance), and £15.50 is the lowest price Advance available from Birmingham for use on CrossCountry.

Itenary would be:

Outward
0517/0617 Northampton - Birmingham New Street 0617/0716
0703/0803 Birmingham New Street - Edinburgh 1216/1312

Return
1508/1708 Edinburgh - Birmingham New Street 2009/2207
2033/2253 Birmingham New Street - Northampton 2134/2354

 

[glynn80]

Outward
1 x Anytime Returns Northampton - Birmingham New Street at £16.00
1 x Priv Anytime Return Northampton - Birmingham New Street at £4.00
(as you are travelling at peak time on a Monday morning your 16-25 railcard is liable to a minimum fare equal to the ticket price so it is pointless to use it!)

1 x Advance Single (for 0703/0803 departure from BHM) at £15.50*
1 x 16-25 Advance Single (for same departure) at £10.25

I decided to leave the earlier options from Northampton as that required the OP to leave at 0517, if they wanted to catch the 0703 or 0617, if they wanted to catch the 0803 seemed too early but they've got the option now. Although I didn't consider splitting at BHM to get it cheaper.

 

[smileynum1]

If she gets a priv through XC does she also get a XC free travel pass? If so then you can ignore the two tickets marked with (*) below as they won't be needed!

Total cost = £71.50 (or £40.50 if a free travel pass for XC is held by your wife!).

Thankyou both for taking time out on your replies. It is most helpful. I will do just as you have listed above Dan. As for getting up rediculously early to get the early train to brum then to Edinburgh it will not bother us. (we will most likely nod off on the train anyhow) Plus I wake at 6am to get from Northants to Brum 5 days a week to get to uni.

She does indeed get a free XC pass, however we both were unsure if it was eligible for use in scotland. Will she need to still purchase any tickets (just for validation of seating)? As for wife... i'm afraid i have misled you, I have a tendency to state "mrs." yet what I should say is girlfriend

 

[yorkie]

I'm pretty sure that if/when she becomes your wife she'd no longer be considered a "dependant" of her stepfather and thus lose her PRIV! I think she'd also lose it if she leaves his home too? also if she earns more than a certain amount (£116.70 per week) she'd lose it. If she reaches 25 before any of those events occur she'd lose it at 25.

If she gets free travel on XC, then take a XC train from Birmingham to Edinburgh via York (rather than Virgin via Carlisle) in order to benefit from free travel. Note that she'd have to stand if the train got busy though!

 

[smileynum1]

I'm pretty sure that if/when she becomes your wife she'd no longer be considered a "dependant" of her stepfather and thus lose her PRIV! I think she'd also lose it if she leaves his home too? also if she earns more than a certain amount (£116.70 per week) she'd lose it. If she reaches 25 before any of those events occur she'd lose it at 25.

If she gets free travel on XC, then take a XC train from Birmingham to Edinburgh via York (rather than Virgin via Carlisle) in order to benefit from free travel. Note that she'd have to stand if the train got busy though!

True, luckily the train dan has listed above for Edinburgh is operated by XC so all being well she may get that journey for free. I have just tried to contact her step dad to find out whether her pass is valid for free travel yet he is in some meeting up North and she is currently working so I cannot find out from her.

If I was to take the details from the post Dan has shown me to my local train station would they be able to supply me with the appropriate tickets/book the tickets? I have most of the tickets ready to be booked in alternative tabs/windows, just waiting for confirmation from the girlfriend.

Edit: Or would i be wise buying my tickets upfront on the internet then purchasing the tickets for the girlfriend with her in at the station? Or as some trains are operated by XC will she just be able to walk on show her pass and travel? I honeslty can't remember what she did the last time we went on a XC train.

 

[yorkie]

I have most of the tickets ready to be booked in alternative tabs/windows

on different sites or with different browsers I hope otherwise it won't work! Unless you mean you have all the tickets in one basket.

 

[glynn80]

True, luckily the train dan has listed above for Edinburgh is operated by XC so all being well she may get that journey for free. I have just tried to contact her step dad to find out whether her pass is valid for free travel yet he is in some meeting up North and she is currently working so I cannot find out from her.

If I was to take the details from the post Dan has shown me to my local train station would they be able to supply me with the appropriate tickets/book the tickets? I have most of the tickets ready to be booked in alternative tabs/windows, just waiting for confirmation from the girlfriend.

Edit: Or would i be wise buying my tickets upfront on the internet then purchasing the tickets for the girlfriend with her in at the station? Or as some trains are operated by XC will she just be able to walk on show her pass and travel? I honeslty can't remember what she did the last time we went on a XC train.

If she has an XC staff pass it will be valid in Scotland, she may be getting confused with the fact that some PRIV cards are not valid for privilege discounted fares on First Scotrail's Strathclyde PTE services and this is printed on them as well. You therefore need only purchase your Advance Singles and not the two Dan had found for the Mrs

You'd be best purchasing both your tickets from the internet that being the £16.00 Anytime Return Northampton to Birmingham, the YP discounted Advance Single Birmingham to Edinburgh at £10.25 and lastly the YP discounted Advance Single Edinburgh to Birmingham again at £10.25. These can be purchased on the National Express website as Dan has posted and can be collected from a single station ticket machine. It is best to take this approach as those tickets are subject to availability and such by the time you manage to purchase them at the ticket office they could easily have sold out at that price. The one ticket you will have to purchase at the ticket office will be the Mrs's Anytime Return which is Privilege discounted.

 

[dan_atki]

She does indeed get a free XC pass, however we both were unsure if it was eligible for use in scotland. Will she need to still purchase any tickets (just for validation of seating)? As for wife... i'm afraid i have misled you, I have a tendency to state "mrs." yet what I should say is girlfriend

Normally such passes are valid for all services operated by that operator regardless of where you are. Such information is normally put on the terms & conditions printed usually on the back of the pass.

Ahhh my apologies!

I'm pretty sure that if/when she becomes your wife she'd no longer be considered a "dependant" of her stepfather and thus lose her PRIV! I think she'd also lose it if she leaves his home too? also if she earns more than a certain amount (£116.70 per week) she'd lose it. If she reaches 25 before any of those events occur she'd lose it at 25.

Not quite, whilst most of the time it is dependant on age, there are certain criteria which make you eligible for a Priv if you are under 25:
- Full time education
- Income (through benefits or wages) less than £116.70 per week

It makes no difference as to whether she is married or not.

As for losing the entitlement at 25, that again depends on circumstances. If she remains entirely dependant on the employee (through disability for instance) and not earning nor in education then she is still entitled to the privilege discount.

As for moving out, that would imply (to ATOC at least) that she is earning above the threshold so would probably lose the facility if ATOC were to find out.

If she gets free travel on XC, then take a XC train from Birmingham to Edinburgh via York (rather than Virgin via Carlisle) in order to benefit from free travel. Note that she'd have to stand if the train got busy though!

True, and there are some trains where all such free travel facilities are barred. Although the staff on board are usually unlikely to be aware of such things (nor care!), it is worth checking out - would surprise me if they were to refuse you travel if you asked the Train Manager before boarding.

If I was to take the details from the post Dan has shown me to my local train station would they be able to supply me with the appropriate tickets/book the tickets? I have most of the tickets ready to be booked in alternative tabs/windows, just waiting for confirmation from the girlfriend.

Yes, you can buy/book at the station too (and is the only place to buy the Priv to BHM anyways!).

Edit: Or would i be wise buying my tickets upfront on the internet then purchasing the tickets for the girlfriend with her in at the station? Or as some trains are operated by XC will she just be able to walk on show her pass and travel? I honeslty can't remember what she did the last time we went on a XC train.

The advance tickets will, as the name suggests, need to be bought in advance (and the sooner the better as the price will increase as the quota gets filled!). If a free travel pass is held for XC then she'd just get on the XC train and show that instead of the ticket what would normally be shown - no ticket will need to be bought for her to travel on XC and nor can any seat reservation be made (a condition is that the seat must be given up for a fare paying customer if necessary).

However, the train between Northampton and Birmingham is not operated by XC so a privilege Anytime return needs to be bought for that leg (as mentioned in my post above).

 

[smileynum1]

Thankyou again for all your help I have learnt alot.

The girlfriend confirmed everything you have said above and is very happy at how cheap I got the tickets.

I've asked for the tickets via first class post. So hopefully I shall receive my tickets by next week, the hotels booked and we're all set for our first trip to scotland (well apart from her ticket to brum of course).

If unluckily she has to stand, I'll kindly offer up my seat and explain to the conductor, tis only fair (I'm not heartless after all)

One other thing, any sight's I should look out for on the journey up there?

 

[MCR247]

Thankyou again for all your help I have learnt alot.

The girlfriend confirmed everything you have said above and is very happy at how cheap I got the tickets.

I've asked for the tickets via first class post. So hopefully I shall receive my tickets by next week, the hotels booked and we're all set for our first trip to scotland (well apart from her ticket to brum of course).

If unluckily she has to stand, I'll kindly offer up my seat and explain to the conductor, tis only fair (I'm not heartless after all)

One other thing, any sight's I should look out for on the journey up there?

The Bridge south of Berwick upon Tweed

 

[yorkie]

If unluckily she has to stand, I'll kindly offer up my seat and explain to the conductor, tis only fair (I'm not heartless after all)

I doubt Gordon[1] would accept that but I doubt anyone else would have a problem with it.

[1] Gordon - A legendary guard on Virgin who was incredibly "desperate" and has now retired.

 

[Pumbaa]

One other thing, any sight's I should look out for on the journey up there?

The run up the ECML from York to Scotland is quite scenic throughout. The journey through Durham valley is nice, as is the coastal run from Berwick into Edinburgh.