Mumsnet Talk

Have managed to get ticks for DH & I and the two dds (1 & 5) to the Olympic stadium 5/9 but it is looking at £200 to get the train from Norwich!

Have I got this right or is their a cheaper way I am not spotting, have never done London as a family and the Olympic tickets were £60!

The session is from 10-13 and we were hoping to come back about 1700 be in Norwich for 1900 ish as dd has first day back at school the 6th.
Advice appreciated wise ones!

Could you drive and get train from a closer station?

Not sure which station would be best that's why I came here for advice, that is a possibility if we knew which one would be best.

Yikes!

Is there a coach service?

Is that the price with a railcard? If not, you may find buying one reduces the cost a fair bit.

Is there a rail card or group save offer that could reduce the cost? The network railcard might cover all or most of the journey.

The cost is so high as you are travelling at peak times. There's not much you can do about that though due to the time of your event. Sorry I know that's not exactly helpful!

It's because you will be travelling peak times in both directions. You need to get a train that arrives in London after 10am and leaves before 4:30 to get cheaper fares but that's not much good for your games times! Try singles rather than returns. You might get cheaper tickets from Kings Lynn via Cambridge but would be a complete pain!

Will see if I can think of an alternative

Travel earlier? stay in London overnight the night before with friends? break your journey (this is a really good tip which can save you loads- split your ticket up into chunks so only a bit of it is a peak train) and buy a friends and family railcard.

Definitely look at a family railcard. The cost (about £30 I think) but could save you more than the cost of the railcard.

I have found a fare of £22.50 outbound on 8am from Norwich (arrives 9:52) and £16 inbound on 16:22 for one person. Youngest kid is free

Have you looked at the discounted fares on the national rail games website? Www.nationalrailgamestravel.co.uk

Can you not get the special price games tickets? It looks as tho you can still use a tailgate as well.

www.nationalrailgamestravel.co.uk/2012-games-train-fares/

Your tickets should come with a zone 1-6 travel card.

Your problem is that you are travelling in peak hours.

I would look into getting a family and friends rail card as this will save you a third off your ticket. Is there is any way that you could travel to the outskirts of London the day before and get a Travel Lodge or something?

At with a railcard it will cost £63.40 total although the earliest train you can get is 8am.

First, get a Family and Friends Railcard - £28 for a year. 

That would bump the cost of return tickets down to £148.95 (so £176.95 including the railcard). 

If you want to save more money then go for single tickets for particular trains (but then you must actually catch those trains). The cheapest option I can see is (with your Railcard) catching the 0500 from Norwich (gets into Liverpool Street at 0654) for £64.20 and then as your return leg catching the 1630 from Liverpool Street (gets into Norwich at 1822) for  £24.15. That would be a total journey cost of £116.35 including the railcard).

(cross-posted with lots of people while pricing that up)

The trouble is you need to use a peak hours service to get there. I assume you have put the actual dates into the National Rail search engine and not just asked the price of a general peak return for two adults? You can usually get better deals the longer in advance you book, but I agree the prices are still horrendous.

You probably be better off booking a cheap B&B somewhere as close to London as you can get, and driving in the night before, then hopping on a tube or short train journey.

Or, drive to Stansted and go in on the Stansted express.

Or coach. (nightmare with two small children though - very slow.)

Games fares are a bit of a non-starter as you couldn't leave Norwich before 8am - but looking at the price they are quoting on the 1630 return leg of the journey they are only a bit cheaper anyway.

As someone above says you ticket should come with a zone 1-6 railcard so when you buy your train tickets you only need buy from Norwich to the limit of zone 6. This saved me a fortune on my tickets for the Olympics.

Thanks so much railcard is £28 and looks like we can do 0740 out and 1710 back for £109 so saves £60!

Of course, I forgot the Norwich train goes through Stratford. That does make things more flexible on train times.

Could you drive to somewhere on the limits of zone 6 and park for the day and then use your free travel cards.. Then the cost would be petrol plus one day parking.. Sorry don't know East London well enough to suggest where but someone on here might?

Mildred I think Newbury Park is a station that lots of people use to do that. It's on the central line so underground trains go through Stratford.

You could drive to Whittlesford Parkway near Cambridge. Is a commuter station so plenty of parking. Change at Tottenham Hale or Liverpool st for Stratford. Dh and Ds1 got train from there for Olympics last week for £26 return for the two of them and they didn't have the London Travelcard.