Rishton to Northampton Best Splits

[rishtonlad]

I am traveling from Rishton to Northampton this coming Saturday. Arrive aprox 13:00 depart about 1730. No rail cards. As trains can be cheaper appears not to work for me what are the best splits.

 

[telstarbox]

This isn't necessarily the cheapest possible but:

Rishton to Preston Day Return £7.30
Preston to Crewe Off-Peak Return £24.50
West Midlands Day Ranger £21.60 - see map for validity
Total £53.40 (The Rishton - Northampton Off Peak Return is £66.80).

You must travel via Crewe. You could use the following trains with the above tickets:

08:24 Rishton - Preston (Lancs)
09:17 Preston (Lancs) - Birmingham New Street
11:14 Birmingham New Street - Northampton arrives 12:20

17:55 Northampton - Birmingham New Street
19:20 Birmingham New Street - Preston
21:22 Preston - Rishton arrives 21:53

Are you going for the Accrington Stanley match by any chance?

 

[rishtonlad]

Would a rishton to kidsgrove return at 24:60 changing at preston but stoping on the train at crewe and then i west midlands day ranger from Crewe. Would i be able to buy a West Midlands day ranger at Preston.

 

[telstarbox]

Yes that is valid - good spot.

I've bought a WMDR at Manchester Piccadilly so you should be able to buy one at Preston, or the guard might be able to sell you one on board. They can be printed on normal (orange) ticket stock.


You could also swap the WMDR for a Crewe-Northampton Super Off-Peak Return "London Midland Only" ticket (£19) but this would only save you £2.60, and means you can only use the slower London Midland services between Crewe and Birmingham rather than the fast Virgin Trains services.

 

[John @ home]

"Best splits" are subjective, and depend on your needs which we can only guess.

trainscanbecheaper gives the cheapest combination of straight splits which for this journey on a Saturday is

RISHTON - BROMLEY CROSS: OFF-PEAK DAY RETURN £6.90
BROMLEY CROSS - ORRELL OFF-PEAK DAY RETURN £4.10
ORRELL - LIVERPOOL SOUTH PARKWAY OFF-PEAK DAY RETURN £4.50
LIVERPOOL SOUTH PARKWAY - NORTHAMPTON Route: LDN MIDLAND ONLY SUPER OFFPEAK RETURN £22.00
Total £37.50

You can get to Northampton by 1300 from Rishton by this route.

0614 Rishton - Blackburn 0623
0628 Blackburn - Bolton 0655 (calls BROMLEY CROSS 0648)
0723 Bolton - Wigan Wallgate 0740
0776 Wigan Wallgate - Kirkby 0813 (calls ORRELL 0754)
0843 Kirkby - Liverpool Central 0901
0914 Liverpool Central - Liverpool South Parkway 0927
0944 Liverpool South Parkway Northampton 1220

But there is no evening service from Kirkby to Wigan after 1902, so you can't return by this route.

Other routes will be more expensive. My suggestion is that you return to trainscanbecheaper, select the Cheapest Route Finder, and then exclude changing points which are causing difficulties until you reach an acceptable balance of cost and speed.