Cheaper train tickets? Can anyone help?

[mogs0]

I'm trying to book a train to go and visit a friend next weekend. It's going to cost nearly £100 for ds and I with family railcard. I tried booking for a later weekend and it goes up to more than £160!! . My friend's sister got a ticket from a different start point to the same destination for £13!!! Anyone know how to reduce the cost?

The MoneySavingExpert website has a whole section about getting good rail deals (sorry am too lazy to find a link, but I have used it in the past)

I did look at that a while ago but it seemed very complicated and time consuming and I get a bit too frustrated by it all. It's all about ticket splitting but not necessarily splitting at the stations you change trains. I'll go and have a look to see if there's something new on there.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but by splitting the journey into 3 different tickets it's going to cost £178!!!

Which stations did you try & which did your friend try? And what dates & times? It's all infinitely variable.

Next weekend is half-term - are you sure your friend put the right dates in....?

Your friend's sister, sorry!

Friend's sister has already travelled but it's probably a similar distance. I'm going from Newport to Durham. I've just spent half an hour trying to get tickets for all the stations on the route but the cheapest is £91, even tried going via London.

The price is over £160 to travel next month when half term has been and long gone!! I suppose I have to decide now if I can justify the cost.

Where from and to? Can you start elsewhere?

I'll give the sites a go, but I'm afriad the most likely thing is those are the prices for the weekend - ideally you need to book 6 weeks ahead, or avoid weekends.

I've just spent less on plane tickets to Poland!!!

Ah, I've just put in a date at the end of March and it's under £50. I guess I'll have to wait! I wanted to spend valentine's day being a gooseberry with my friends!!