Yorkshire to London by train?

[MINESAPINT]

I have decided I would like to go to the boat show at Excel in London 8th to 18th Jan.

Rather than drive I would like to take the train. 2 people I have spoken to have seen special rail fares advertised on TV to London at £9.50 return. I have been totally unable to locate these fantastic bargins, in fact I have just been on the Virgin Rail site and was quoted £686!

I never use the train. Can someone tell me where to start? In particular how do I find these special offers?

Thanks

MINESAPINT

[Eigon]

Try the National Rail Enquiry website. You type in where you want to travel to and from, and the date you want to travel, and it will tell you the fare, and give you the timetable, including where to change trains if necessary.

[MINESAPINT]

Thanks Eigon,

Done that. Fares are easily double what it will cost to go by car! Someone did mention that if you book ahead you will save money/receive discounts. Accordingly I altered my search time to mid March and got exactly the same results as I did for 13th January.

Looks like there is just no encouragement to leave my car at home.

MINESAPINT

[Milims]

You could also try th Trainline site. Depending on your age there's always some kind of railcard. They can offer great savings. Good luck

[Green Aura]

Have a look at National Express East Coast tain services

http://tickets.nationalexpresseastcoast.com

Very varied prices!

[MINESAPINT]

Thanks for your help.

The job is FAR TOO COMPLICATED!

I used to have a shop selling clothing. Jeans were £30 a pair on Monday and were still £30 on Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri & Saturday. I suppose I have to accept there are differences in running a railway to running a small clothing shop but this ticket lottery is not for me.

We will be going to London in the car.

MINESAPINT

[Andy Hamilton]

HAve you tried the coach? It should be around £30 return for a coach to London.

Otherwise as Green Aura said try the National Epress East coast, normally the cheapest click on find me the cheapest fair in the bottom left of the screen to get a grid showing you the cheapest, should be about £51 return.

[MINESAPINT]

Hi Andy,

Thanks, yes I did consider the coach but the idea is we are going to London AM and returning same evening. As far as I can see the coach takes about 8 hours each way so I did not get to the stage of looking to see how much it would cost.

The reason I considered travelling by train was there were some fares advertised on the TV for £9.50 return and I hoped to book at this price. I realise now these cheap deals were limited in number. (loss leader).

Additionally unless I locate a coach company putting on a dedicated trip to the boat show I will have the problem of getting from where ever I am dropped off to the ExCeL Centre.

The reality is by road the journey is 250ish miles each way (about 4 hours) and there are 4,000 parking spaces at the ExCeL. The car will use about £75 worth of fuel which will be shared by 2/3 people.

The reason I put this post on here in the first place was in the hope that some more seasoned traveller knew the tricks in booking these cheap fares.

MINESAPINT

[Davy stephenson]

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[Millymollymandy]

I'm sure that was a special or student ticket - it isn't cheap in France either.

[becks77]

We have found in the past, it is so much easier (if you have a local station that is) to actually go in and ask for the cheapest way to get from.... to and they come up with some crackind deals. Last year we took 10 kids and me and OH to London for £30.00, each child travelled for a £1.00 and inc underground fayre too. Of course a lot depends on when and where you travel

[bryony]

it's usually a lot cheaper on the websites to buy tickets as two singles, rather than a return ticket. It makes no sense, I know, but i just payed £16 for two singles, when booking a return ticket for the same trains would have cost £35. only usually works out like that quite far in advance (about 2 weeks is usually enough) might be worth a try?

[StripyPixieSocks]

We went from Euston to Macclesfield for £50 return for two people using Virgin... it was one of their book in advance jobs.

You can get National Express Coaches from Sheffield to Victoria Coach Station for as little as £2 per ticket but again you have to book a) in advance and b) if you miss your coach you end up paying full price for another ticket as they are non-transferable.

The train takes 2 hours straight through and the coach takes 5.