Splitting tickets - much cheaper!?

[Geezertronic]

A colleague suggested I split tickets on my journey from Birmingham New Street to Manchester Piccadilly so I took a look on TrainLine and can apparently get a 1st Class option for not much more than a Standard Anytime if my calculations are correct.

Taking the 06:53 XC service from Birmingham New Street to Manchester Piccadilly, I reckon I can:

Ticket 1 - Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton - First Class Anytime Day Return = £13.10
Ticket 2 - Wolverhampton to Stafford - First Class Anytime Day Return = £20.20
Ticket 3 - Stafford To Manchester Piccadilly - First Class Anytime Day Return = £75.30
Total = £108.60

Compared to:
Birmingham New Street to Manchester Piccadilly - Standard Anytime Return = £99.10
or
Birmingham New Street to Manchester Piccadilly - First Class Anytime Return = £238.10

The split tickets would allow the return journey to be taken no matter whether XC return via Crewe or Stoke. Would this be a correct way of splitting tickets for this trip?

 

[Watershed]

A colleague suggested I split tickets on my journey from Birmingham New Street to Manchester Piccadilly so I took a look on TrainLine and can apparently get a 1st Class option for not much more than a Standard Anytime if my calculations are correct.

Taking the 06:53 XC service from Birmingham New Street to Manchester Piccadilly, I reckon I can:

Ticket 1 - Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton - First Class Anytime Day Return = £13.10
Ticket 2 - Wolverhampton to Stafford - First Class Anytime Day Return = £20.20
Ticket 3 - Stafford To Manchester Piccadilly - First Class Anytime Day Return = £75.30
Total = £108.60

Compared to:
Birmingham New Street to Manchester Piccadilly - Standard Anytime Return = £99.10
or
Birmingham New Street to Manchester Piccadilly - First Class Anytime Return = £238.10

The split tickets would allow the return journey to be taken no matter whether XC return via Crewe or Stoke. Would this be a correct way of splitting tickets for this trip?

Yes, that's fine - obviously you must take trains that call at your splitting stations, but all Birmingham <-> Manchester services call at Wolves and Stafford.

Note that the Avanti Birmingham <-> Crewe services generally don't stop at Stafford (though they pass through at a crawl, to cross between the Slow and Fast Lines!). So you couldn't take one of those and change at Crewe, as you could if you were splitting just at Wolverhampton.

And yes, with the price of some of XC's walk-up fares, it's no surprise that splitting in this manner costs barely anything more than the through fare. First Class walk-up fares are generally priced as a given multiple of the equivalent Standard fare (on XC typically around 2×).

Since all of the splits you are proposing have regulated Anytime fares, the First Class equivalents are accordingly not quite as overpriced.

By contrast, the only regulated Birmingham-Manchester fare is the Off-Peak Return, so there is no limit on how much XC can charge for the Anytime fares. Hence both the standard and First Anytime fares are very expensive.

Note that on the weekend, you can upgrade using Weekend First, which is a more reasonable £12.50 (per direction). On weekdays you can bid for an upgrade using Seatfrog, albeit it's simply luck of the draw as to whether you manage to get an upgrade within your maximum bid. You can look at past services to see what the winning bid has been.

 

[Geezertronic]

I really can't believe the price differences to be honest

 

[jfollows]

I really can't believe the price differences to be honest

I've been splitting Wilmslow-Birmingham at Stafford for years, it makes a huge difference, just means I can't use the one train an hour that Watershed mentions, which I generally wouldn't want to anyway.
In the Wilmslow case it's down to Cross Country setting the fares for the single journey whereas it's LNWR/WMT/whatever they are called now who set the fares on the separate parts, and XC fares are much higher per mile in general.

 

[Wolfie]

I really can't believe the price differences to be honest

Are you doing a day return though? The splits are mostly day returns. The tickets that you compare them with are valid for a month.

 

[Watershed]

Are you doing a day return though? The splits are mostly day returns. The tickets that you compare them with are valid for a month.

Even for period returns, the saving by splitting is massive - £51.70 splitting at Stafford in standard and around £110-120 with various splits in First.

 

[Wolfie]

Even for period returns, the saving by splitting is massive - £51.70 splitting at Stafford in standard and around £110-120 with various splits in First.

I don't, particularly when Cross Country are involved as fare setter, doubt that in the slightest.

 

[Geezertronic]

Yes it is only a day return I need