Train travel bargains

Because they were so startlingly cheap, UK train fares have been increased by up to 12.81% this year.  Fortunately, this rise in prices will barely be noticed, as the services are so uniformly excellent and passengers are filled with joy every time they step on board.

To celebrate this, I decided to book a return journey for two people from York to Aberdeen taking place two months in the future.  One of those people - the one who isn't me - has a railcard, but even with this 33% reduction on one set of tickets, the combined price on offer from www.nationalrail.co.uk, www.thetrainline.com and www.raileasy.co.uk was slightly in excess of £130.

Having spent two years living somewhere that has no railway at all, I am happy to be back in the land of trains.  I am not so happy that I would fork out £130 - TWO MONTHS IN ADVANCE - for two people to travel to Aberdeen.

Fortunately, I know a few tricks, and played around with breaking the journey up into separate segments.  A short while later, I was able to book two returns from York to Dundee and two from Dundee to Aberdeen for a total of about £90.  It's the same journey at the same time as the previous one, and in some cases sitting in exactly the same seats, but for a saving of over forty quid.  It's stupid in many ways, and if you don't know how to play the game, you're scuppered, but such is the state of the privatized British railway network.

Comments