RailSale off peak tickets

[bakerstreet]

From gov.uk

All aboard for savings: the Great British Rail Sale returns!

Discounted train tickets from almost all operators in Britain will be available to buy between 6 January to 12 January 2026.

www.gov.uk

Millions of discounted train tickets for half-term activities, weekend getaways and commuting will be up for grabs next week. The week-long Great British Rail Sale, running from 6 to 12 January 2026, will give passengers the chance to save well over 50% on many advance and off-peak tickets.

How does one find journeys with off peak flexible tickets. I’ve had a cursory look within the time frame but journeys I’ve looked at are at prices which don’t seem to have any discounts.

Is there a list of origins / destinations with these off peak flexible tickets on sale? Is it only off peak day? Or also off peak?

 

[Watershed]

If I remember correctly, it's only c2c that offer off-peak Rail Sale tickets - as they are the only operator (who participate in the sale) not to offer Advances within their own network.

 

[Angmering1974]

Oh look, the Government being quite misleading with their wording again. Is that kind of dishonest marketing (along with the "fares frozen" debacle) what we have to look forward to under GBR? Strikes me neither as Great nor British

 

[bakerstreet]

If I remember correctly, it's only c2c that offer off-peak Rail Sale tickets - as they are the only operator (who participate in the sale) not to offer Advances within their own network.

Thank you for this. I’ll stop looking !

Oh look, the Government being quite misleading with their wording again. Is that kind of dishonest marketing (along with the "fares frozen" debacle) what we have to look forward to under GBR? Strikes me neither as Great nor British

Yes I found this misleading

 

[CyrusWuff]

If I remember correctly, it's only c2c that offer off-peak Rail Sale tickets - as they are the only operator (who participate in the sale) not to offer Advances within their own network.

You do indeed remember correctly.

 

[cadder toad]

The government website above

All aboard for savings: the Great British Rail Sale returns!

Discounted train tickets from almost all operators in Britain will be available to buy between 6 January to 12 January 2026.

www.gov.uk

gives an example of a fare of £10 London-Exeter. 76% saving.

"Exeter to London Waterloo	£10.00	£41.70	76%"

Is this fare not available?

 

[class387]

The government website above gives an example of a fare of £10 London-Exeter. 76% saving. Is this fare not available?

I managed to get Clapham to Exeter at £9 each way this morning.

 

[MrJeeves]

It's frustrating that GTR removed the London Thameslink Rail Sale Off-Peak Returns, as they were very helpful. They replaced them with Sale Advances, but only to Victoria.

Committing to advances for a trip into London is pretty useless to me, and taking Thameslink is much more convenient for most trips I take anyway.

I'm sure people will find them useful as splits to connect into other sale tickets though...

 

[CyrusWuff]

The government website above gives an example of a fare of £10 London-Exeter. 76% saving. Is this fare not available?

It's £10 for the SWR Rail Sale fare.

The GWR Rail Sale fare is £32.

 

[trainplaneauto]

Annoying, part of my commute is on the rail sale (Hove-East Croydon) but only for off peak tickets starting from 10:50, not sure work would be too happy me rocking in at midday for a few weeks.

 

[yorkie]

Annoying, part of my commute is on the rail sale (Hove-East Croydon) but only for off peak tickets starting from 10:50, not sure work would be too happy me rocking in at midday for a few weeks.

I don't think this sale is intended to reduce the price of commuting to work.

 

[trainplaneauto]

Completely understand I may not be the target market for this offer, but it always feels like the people who get stung the most are the frequent travellers, bit of a catch 22 because I am sure the commuters are the ones who actually pay for the network to operate and run and where most of the cash comes from, but for the marketing material to include commuting in the marketing verbiage is pushing it a bit.

Millions of discounted train tickets for half-term activities, weekend getaways and commuting will be up for grabs next week

 

[Watershed]

There are definitely some operators who are selling Rail Sale discounted Advance tickets at 'commuter' times. I know of someone who has just bought a few months' worth of tickets for their commute!