Frigging hell! The price of train tickets to London!!

[Hellotoallmyfans]

Why have train tickets become so expensive? (I don't use public transport usually so not very aware of fluctuating prices)

Every couple of years or so I book for us to go to London as a family (2 adults, 3 dcs) to go see a show and take in some sights - the theatre tickets were £600(!) but I was expecting that as I know that's what it costs for decent seats, ditto the hotel which is £500 for two rooms for one night. But what I wasn't expecting was to then have to pay another £340 on top for train tickets from Manchester to get there! Last time we went, before covid, the train was £90 for a family ticket! There doesn't seem to be any options for family tickets and all the websites I've looked at are showing the same price.

I don't know what I'm looking for here, just having a moan really! Or maybe the name of a secret website that does cheap train tickets?

Everything is so bloody expensive isn't it? I guess I will have to suck it up and pay as I've booked the theatre tickets now which I'm sure will non-refundable. It's just gutting that I am looking at close to a grand just to get there and stay for one night. We could literally have flights/hotel for a week in Europe for that! Not taking into account the theatre tickets and the £££+ we will probably end up spending on food/drink and other attractions (wanted to maybe do a boat ride and some museums).

It's going to be at least £2k+ spent on one night in London! I don't know if it's even worth it? Grrr.

I'm doing the same trip the other way around next week. Going from London to Manchester to see a play. The tickets for the play were reasonably priced but I was shocked at the price of a hotel in Manchester for the night and the train is also very expensive.

I travel from Scotland to London quite regularly for work, and the cost is INSANE. It's also nigh-on impossible to book in advance any more.

You can get a coach for cheaper?

@Annoyedanddissapointed

There was an article few yeras back where a lad flew through Germany from North England to London and it was cheaper than train

DS wanted to travel from Plymouth to Manchester tomorrow, even with his railcard they wanted over £200 😲 he found he could fly to majorca then to Manchester for less! Ended up getting a coach at silly o clock to Birmingham then getting train from there.

God I'd want at least a week in the sun somewhere for that :-/

That's a ridiculous ticket.

The family and friends rail ticket is £30 and can have two named adults on it. Drops a third off adult prices and 60% off kids. You don't need a Tesco card -- just buy one. If you buy it for three years, it's £70.

Ticket split if needs be.

And for a hotel, if you're sold on the Radisson, why not do the Raddison Blu Kenilworth instead. It's a five minute walk from Covent Garden (it's right next to the British museum), still is buzzy, and is at least £50 cheaper per room.

Advance tickets, booked well in advance, and a family rail card. And it’s not true that you could have gone to Europe for a week for that money - not with 5 people and an expectation that any theatre tickets under £600 are not really decent enough for you.

Well that's Brexit, innit?

@OatMilkLatte

Agree with others re railcard. Trainline also now do an automatic ticket split option - where you get multiple tickets for the same trip - that cuts costs. Last long distance train we took (with two together railcard and ticket splitting) was £40 for a return for two for a long weekend - so not travelling at particularly odd/unpopular times.

Have you also looked into premier inn hub hotels? They are around £70 a night in central London and have all the same amenities as premier inns but in more compact rooms. The perk is that they’re all quite new, so less hit and miss than normal premier inns that can be quite dated. We’ve stayed in them a few times and never had issues.

Premier Inn Hub are no good if you have children.

We recently paid £50 return for two adults from a station near Harrogate to York. That’s less than 25miles each way by car. It’s ridiculous they can charge these prices.

I can’t remember the name but last time we got the train to London we used a site that split the journey into different tickets, but on the same train and it cost less.

@DynamoKev

Well that's Brexit, innit?

More likely train companies trying to capitalise on people being able to take trips now after over a year of reduced income for them.

Just looked and there’s various different sites called variations on split ticket, might be worth a look

I live in London.

My friend from up north comes to visit every few months.

She books her hotel and tickets well in advance as she knows the best time to do so, they open up advance slots and she appears to know when that is, she never pays more than 30 quid for her ticket (Lincoln to Doncaster, doncaster to London) and the no more than 30-40 quid for the hotel per night, premier inn or travel lodge.

It doesn't have to cost a fortune.

Fuel tax has been frozen since 2012 so the real cost of private driving has increased and train prices increase

The show is a chunk of your tickets, hotel to be expected. Trains are exorbitant and you could probably fly cheaper. Stupid.

I rarely bother getting the train into London when we go as a family. It's (a lot) cheaper to drive in and park. I use the JustPark app to find spaces near where we want to be that aren't charged at NCP rates.

The cheap Advance tickets only come out around 8 weeks before the date of travel (give or take a bit depending on the train operator). Booking very far in advance is a waste of time as you will only get the standard priced tickets which, as you've discovered, are usually very expensive.

Try looking for a stopping service and splitting the tickets so you buy journey to (for example) Milton Keynes and then another to London on the same train. There might be advance tickets available. Or see what’s available starting from Stockport and get a separate ticket to there.

They allocate advanced tickets per journey not per train, so popular options like Manc to London sell out fast but you can still find bargains if do a bit of digging.

Have you tried the ticketysplit website- looks for cheapest

Have you got a family rail card?
Also those theatre tickets must be top notch. I recently took my family (same number) for £150 altogether.

Timings within the day, and the sweet spot of advance booking can make quite a difference.
Eg having just looked up for Manchester to London Waterloo in about 2 weeks (16 sept and return 17 sept) I have the following for one adult :

Advance single arriving before 10am= £110
Advance single arriving after 10am

Trains are rarely cheaper for a family of 5 to travel any distance. In your shoes I probably would have driven, if you have a car.

Advance tickets are going on sale about 8 weeks before travel, so don’t book weeks in advance. This is because of Covid and needing to confirm the timetable before advance tickets can be sold. Also travel off peak and get a railcard.

Haven't RTFT but if there's more than one of us going into London we always drive and book a parking space through JustPark, as it's always far cheaper than two return train fares. Plus convenience etc. as we don't live anywhere near our local station. I know we're supposed to use public transport, but as long as train fares are so prohibitively expensive (especially compared to other countries) then it just isn't going to happen.

familyandfriends-railcard

Up to 4 adults with 4 children .

I've just found my 16 year old can still go on the card till day before they're 17 as we got a three year card.