Train tickets - Scotland to England

[ididntknowthat11]

I'm trying to book train tickets for my family over the summer, travelling from Scotland (probably Glasgow) to somewhere for a long weekend.

I'm putting details into the Trainline website, Glasgow to Manchester, to get an idea of how much this might cost and I'm getting nowhere.

If I put in dates in July/August it says prices aren't available yet.

If I put in dates in May/June it says they are all sold out

Does anybody know any better websites I could try?

Try the service provider direct (Avanti?) or National Rail.

Thank you @LIZS

I have just tried ScotRail. Have just put in dates next week to get a rough idea
of prices.

Looks like £188 for us all.

Does anybody know of any ways to get it cheaper? Don't think Tesco Clubcard points can be used on single journeys.

Not sure if it's worth it. We do have a car, which would be cheaper. But it's a small car, so journeys are always quite cramped. Thought this would be more fun.

Have you looked at the railcards? We are buying the family and friends one, it's £30 for the year but it takes a third off your rail travel so it will save you a good bit. We are travelling Glasgow to Southampton and we are buying it and it's saving us over £100

I have just looked on LNER website - they are showing tickets up 24th July
You can travel from Glasgow to London Kings via the east coast - so stopping at Newcastle, Durham, York , Grantham , and other places.

There are all sorts of railcards Family and Friends, under 25/30, Two Together etc

Railcard if you’re travelling with kids. Gets you a good amount off.

Also have a play with start and end points as often makes a difference. Whenever I visit my best mate it’s cheaper to travel ti Cumbernauld or Motherwell - changing in Glasgow - than just having Glasgow as the end point for example

Get a family railcard or whatever gives you the bigger discount on that journey. I usually buy direct from Avanti West Coast because if there's a delay they automatically refund you.

Tickets are meant to come out 3 months in advance, and that's usually the cheapest time to buy advance singles. Definitely worth getting a family Railcard, I think it's 1/3 off adult fares and 2/3 off children's - it takes it off advance singles too.

I think there is late timetabling as a result of the ongoing rail strikes, possibly. If you look at the carrier for the journey next week and go into their website you might be able to find out more. I may also be lucky with my local rail firm but near me they have a pretty decent call centre with staff who are helpful and seem to know what they're doing so that might be worth a try once you know the operator.

£188 for a family is a good price - if you're 4 people travelling it's around £47 each to go the length of the country!

To get it more cheaply:
Railcards
Split-ticketing - but you'll need to co-ordinate your seat reservations for each leg of the journey.

Also, as others say, buy direct from the train operating company you're travelling with.

Thanks all, will definitely look into the railcards.

Excuse my ignorance, but could you tell me who the rail operators are? I rarely travel by train (usually bus!) so don't really know.

ScotRail, I'm guessing? Are there others?

OP, have you looked at air fares? Easyjet are often cheaper (and faster) than the train for Edinburgh to London, so it would be worth looking to see where you could get to from Glasgow.

Yes, it is a decent price.

But it would be less on fuel to drive, and we are trying to keep costs low.

But I feel like the train could be more fun / less stress.

Decisions, decisions!

No, I cannot stand the whole airport palaver and want to avoid it wherever possible

I've managed to get cheap flights to Spain for a week in the summer, that will do me for air travel this year!

Lumo from Edinburgh can be cheaper

Thank you...having a look now

Excuse my ignorance, but could you tell me who the rail operators are? I rarely travel by train (usually bus!) so don't really know.

When you look it up on the National Rail trip planner, it'll tell you for each trip which train operating company (TOC) does the journey.

But generally ...

East Coast to London is LNER, and West Coast line to London (and the MidlandsI is Avanti. East Coast line is the quicker route, I think - certainly from Edinburgh. And LNER probably more reliable than Avanti!

National express coach is cheaper and really comfortable these days

Btw, you can buy the railcards with clubcard points I think.

Thank you!

Yes, you can, thank you. I hadn't really thought it would be an option for one journey but looks like it would be.

I have just recently used my Clubcard vouchers so need to see how many I can build back up

I will have a look at that, thank you, although 2 out of the 4 of us do suffer from travel sickness

National Express will take forevvvvvvvver.

And thanks to a PP who mentioned Lumo. I have to get up to Newcastle later in the summer & the tickets are v cheap - although much more limited in terns of times.

What tends to push the price up is changing train companies on the route. I had a look at some random dates in July and could get a return from Glasgow to Manchester with Transpennine (direct) for 88 quid, ironically it was the Avanti website which showed me these fares. That's without a railcard. I'd suggest you want somewhere you can get to directly from either Glasgow or Edinburgh, but that covers a lot - you've got Cross Country as well as Transpennine and Avanti from Glasgow, plus Lumo and LNER from Edinburgh.

I'd make sure you go for days when the Scottish schools are on holiday and the English ones aren't, so early to mid July.