Where are these 'cheap family tickets' that everyone tells me about

[OprahWinfrey]

I've looked on the web....but for 3 adults and one child (3yrs) it's going to be £107 return when I book on the midland mainline standard fare. That doesn't sound right ... just to get to Kings Cross from Bedford : (

I don't have a railcard or whatever it's called. But everyone tells me to find some family deals. But where...?

trainline website is good

you could do taht fare splitting thing too

Yes look at the megabus/megatrain website, they do journeys to london from most UK cities, if you could get one of these tickets and a ticket to the other city, it might work out cheaper.

The train ticket system is a mess in this country. Even since they "simplified" it it still doesn't make any sense!

Moneysavingexpert guide

A family railcard costs twenty six pounds for a year, and it should save you more than that for that single journey, so it's well worth it.

Try ticking the family railcard box to see how much discount it'll get you - but it'll still be a lot of money unfortunately.

On a longish journey the family railcard should pay for itself

Thanks for the advice. We are just so used to using a car, but parking would be a nightmare, so decided to try the train.

No a family railcard isn't valid for this journey, because the child travelling on a family railcard needs to be between ages of 5 and 16, I think.

Annoying though because it would pay for itself with the adults' fares!

we have a family railcard and two dds - the youngest is 3. If we are travelling without our elder dd, we still buy a family railcard ticket and purchase a child ticket for her. I know there is no need since under 5s don't need a ticket but it makes a huge saving!

interesting... checked the conditions on the web

All kids under 5 travel free - and each adult may take up to two 'under fives' with them. However, if the only child in the group is under five, you'll need to purchase a discounted child ticket to qualify for the adult Railcard discount. All child fares are subject to a £1 minimum fare.

However, we've done our 'trick' several times and never been questioned. There are often inspectors on the trains on the weekends so I'm sure we've been checked.

I'm not sure how many trips we'll have without 'the car'.

This is the first time for ds on trains...so we'll see.
If it goes well, I will buy a family railcard. There are benefits, but I suppose if he's free, we will be saving also? My maths is terrible so I can't work it out exactly.

And the prices seem to have gone up travelling back before 7.30pm. Wow...huge! So dinner in London also then....not just a quick trip. hmmm... feel like taking the car.

Has anyone done the "split ticketing" thing successfully? I have looked at prices from Sheffield to London, trying a split both at Derby and at Leicester, and to be honest it still seems to cost the earth

With a family railcard you can buy a ticket for an under 5 if it works out cheaper for the adults that way. We dothis quite often (well not now dd is 5 but before that we did and it is quite wihtin the rules)

What is the actual journey you need to do? (including days of week if not actual dates, and times of day) I am quite good at maths and don't mind working out the cheapest option for you WRT railcards etc.

if there are four of you, then ask how much a GroupSave ticket is - quite often my local station refuses to let me use my family railcard as the groupsave is cheaper - even with children. It's worth cultivating a helpful ticket person at your station (yes, they do exist, we have one, but the other three are competely useless) as they should be happy to check the different options, provided it's not 8am on a Monday mornign and the queue is out the door

Are you checking at the right time for the discounted deals. Eg on the East Coast mainline the cheapest deals are released 12 weeks before departure. So if you book 4 months ahead it costs a fortune, but it is much cheaper at 12 weeks.