Train prices

[veggifriedbreakfast]

I live in London, my family are in Wiltshire.

My Nan recently broke her leg and I want nothing more than to go and see her. She's been down in the dumps and is stuck in hospital for 6 weeks. I love her more than anything and really miss her. I am closer to her than my parents.

Well, I've just looked at the price for the train. And for ds and I it would be near to £100 booked 3 weeks in advance.

That's more than a car journey and out of my price range..

I don't see how it can cost this much to get a train when thousands of people use the service each day, I'm so upset right now, feel like having a moan about the extortionate prices that are keeping me from. My dear Nan

No ones fancies a moan...

Coaches are longer but a lot cheaper. Train prices in our country are a flipping joke

That seems like an awful lot. Have you tried a different day or time? Were looking on the last day of the school holidays, for example?

Are you sure? What times are you looking at? Peak time trains are very expensive.
Look on trainline and scroll through times. Mid afternoon/ late evening usually the cheapest times.

Try split ticketing which can work out cheaper for the same journey (Google it).

Also, if you are likely to have more than 1 train journey during the next 12 months a family and friends railcard is £30 and saves 30% off adult fares and 60% off kids fares. Saves us a fortune over the year.

Megabus is another option. Longer but cheaper. There's also one advertised on Facebook that fills specific trains but I can't for the life of me remember the name, will dig around.

If its 100 quid its worth getting a railcard..

I do a similar journey, and fed up of paying extortiante prices for the train get the coach. National Express come out at around £55 cheaper for a return, and it is only around an extra hour or so- plus they now have wifi, comfortable seats and aren't too bad! The Paddington Swindon line is the most expensive mile for mile in Europe, which doesn't seem fair when they are usually late, horrendously overcrowded and uncomfortable!

Another one recommending you buy a family and friend's railcard BEFORE you buy a ticket.
It costs £30 but it will pay for itself (& more) in savings on your first trip.
Subsequent trips will be really cheap.

I flew to Manchester once as it was cheaper than the train and about 1/8th the time.

Generally fares are outrageous but there are ways of making it cheaper

Search for different times/dates if you can be flexible, there may be advanced tickets that you haven’t found yet
Try split ticketing e.g London-Reading, reading-Bristol as it can work out a lot cheaper. You can stay on the same train throughout as long as it actually stops at the stations named on the tickets
Look at National Express
Some companies eg Virgin give you a discount code on first booking or for downloading their app - see if your operator does
Friends and Family railcard will save money and eventually pays for itself

e.g. No railcard
London to Trowbridge
return 1 adult 1 child £89.25

Same train-
F&F railcard £30
London to Trowbridge
return 1 adult 1 child £50.55
Total: £80.55

Only saves a small amount on first trip but any other trips will be at the cheaper rate for a year.

OP you say you are in London so I assume you don't own a car, but can you drive? I saw Avis advertising £20 weekend rentals the last time I flew through Heathrow, you could get the Piccadilly line out there and rent a car to visit your family. There are rental garages in London too but tbh it might be quicker to get out to Heathrow first!

Trains are insanely expensive, 12 years ago I remember we got two returns to Penzance for £49 each at peak time after work on a Friday to go down for the weekend. Now it's £149.50 each, and when a tank of petrol is only £50 and we can bring the kids and the dog as well it's no wonder the roads are choked all the way down and our carbon emissions are shocking. We are saving for an electric vehicle...

Hi all, thank you for taking the time to reply, we can't do the coach as ds gets terribly travel sick, he vomits on more than a 45 minute trip, so it's completely out and dh doesn't like to medicate him just to travel.

Id never thought of getting the rail card, I'm looking into that now and will also look at splitting the fares.

Dh says I should just go but we really need the funds to move but not going leaves me in tears. My poor Nan.

@xiao I don't drive, currently in the process of learning because of this reason, it would be so much easier in a car.

I've found the rail card and it drops my ticket price down to £45.35 so already a saving. I will be booking. Thank you all so so much.

Ticket splitting, railcards and coaches are all great ideas. If the f&f railcard isn't suitable, there's also the two together railcard.

I used to fly to Cornwall as it was much cheaper than the train. Breakfast in Brum, lunch on the coast. Very civilized! I also hired a car when I had to do Oxford, west Midlands, Essex, Oxford. Cheaper, and there was no way I could have done it by public transport.