Cheap train fares? You must be joking!

[10ClarionSt]

Just been on Red Spotted Hankey. The fare to Plymouth from Manchester, one way is £140. I could drive there and back for less than that. Headline fares on the site are advertised as £5, £11.50 etc for trains to London. It seems that for everywhere else, your gonna pay through the nose!

[Zacs-Master]

Depends how far in advance you book.

[Zacs-Master]

And the time you travel.

[Buenchico]

The cheapest fares are with 'Advance' tickets which, as their name implies, need to be booked ahead (preferably by several weeks). They are often only available on off-peak services.

The ('walk up') 'Anytime' single fare is £140.50, with a return costing double that. (£281.00)

The equivalent 'Off Peak' single far is only slightly to cheaper, at £138.80, but you can buy a return for only £1 more (i.e. £139.80).

'Advance' tickets are only sold as singles. Such a ticket for this coming Monday will cost you £132.50 but booking further ahead will significantly reduce the price (e.g. £58.00 is offered on Wed 02/05).

Further reductions are sometimes available by splitting the journey. e.g. on Wed 02/05 you can get from Plymouth to London for £18, and then from London to Manchester for £25, making £43 (plus a bus or tube fare across London) in total.

On the same date you could also travel via Birmingham (with two separate tickets), for £28.00 + £14.50 = £42.50.

Anyway, using sites like Red Spotted Hanky or Trainline is simply madness. Such sites often charge booking fees, and they can't offer fares any cheaper than those shown on the Nation Rail website:
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

With the closure of Plymouth City Airport (and the loss of Air Southwest's route to Manchester), there is currently very little competition for the railways. Even so, rail companies still struggle to make profits, as much of what people pay in their fares goes to Network Rail's programme to replace an ageing infrastructure (as the Government cuts back on subsidies).

Chris

[Buenchico]

PS: There's a bus service twice per day between Plymouth & Manchester. It's not fast but (if booked well in advance) it's cheap at (typically) £12 per seat. Tickets for travel in the near future (e.g. for this Monday) are £37 or £27 depending upon which service you use:
http://uk.megabus.com/default.aspx

[kazfaz]

dont do red spotty hanky go to virgin and if you look 12 weeks in advance then you can get brilliant deals and if you have a disabled rail card then its even better ...Disabled rail card costs £30 APPROX FOR 3 YRS AND YOU GET A GREATER DISCOUNT FOR BOTH YOU AND A CARER