How do I get cheap train tickets to London?

[hidinginthenightgarden]

From Manchester at the weekend?

Looking sometime around feb and it is looking at around £60 for a return.

How could I get this down?

£60 return is pretty good. You could look at split tickets to see if that brings it down at all.

I suspect the only way to get cheaper is to book further ahead (tickets become available 12 weeks ahead) and select an advance ticket which then commits you to a specific train time with no flexibility.

Coming back is the problem. It is only £24 on the way there and around £35-40 coming back. Tried splitting up the journey and no much difference!

Advance tickets are the cheapest but are usually released around 12 weeks prior and intermittently go up in price. I've just looked at Feb and getting the same price (£63) for 2x advance fares.

If you're travelling in a group of 3 or more, Virgin usually do a discount - IIRC it's 1/3 off?

You can try splitting the ticket e.g. Manchester to Birmingham, Birmingham to London or similar

Just seen your update - could you change the day you come back? Monday probably cheaper than Sunday

£60 return is not a bad price for that journey.

Megabus?

Come back by coach? It'll be longer but cheaper.

Can't change the day. Might look at going down on Fri and coming back sat but probably no cheaper.
If we are looking at coach then I may as well drive there and back.

Is it just you? What about friends and family railcard if not.

Going with one friend. Won't get rail discount.

Coach will be cheaper than driving and you can rest/sleep - completely different from driving! Megabus is often my transport of choice.

Friday is usually the most expensive day for train travel!!

Just checked...
Megabus takes 5 hours!! Not an option. We are going to HP world so need to be able to see enjoy the tour and get home at a decent time.

What route are you doing? You can do Manchester to Milton Keynes, then MK to Watford. That avoids going in London, and might be cheaper.

Looks like if I book far enough in advance, I can get a return for around £45. Only problem now is that the trains don't go through both our cities. It would cost the savings made to travel to the same place so we can go together.

Such a palaver - tempted not to go!

Have you asked Virgin if the cheaper tickets are on sale yet? National Rail says that some timetables are only being confirmed by Network Rail six weeks in advance and the Virgin routes after the first weekend in Feb aren’t confirmed yet.

If you are going to HP world you don’t want to be going to London, you need to go to Watford Junction (change at Milton Keynes).

It may take 5 hours but we've managed to get coach tickets for £5 each way before. Depends how much you really want to spend. Totally different than you driving it yourself and the last hour of the journey is actually driving round London very slowly trying to get into Victoria. So it felt like a bit of a bus tour round the sights anyway.

Could you not just meet in Watford if tge same train does not go through both your cities?

LeSquigh, I am doing it to Watford and back.
Sitranced if I was going for more than 24 hours I would do it. But I don’t think my friend will agree to spend 10 hours on a coach rather than 4 on a train. We are going to Watford so would then need to get a train back out of London too!

Split ticket at Stoke.

Two Together Railcard? Costs £30 but gets you one-third off. Your £60 x 2 then becomes £40 x 2 plus the £30 (ie you save a tenner).

Bike, we could yes but it would be nice to travel together I think there is s change do maybe the second half will be same train!

Is it worth you buying a two together railcard? Would you travel with this friend again?

The ticket office at Piccadilly are really good at finding the best cost tickets. The Stoke split is the same train through. And you can book the same seats on both legs.

new.trainsplit.com/ Try splitting the ticket on this website