London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · February 19th 16, 03:10 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Robin9) wrote:

I don't travel much by rail these days except in London.
I'm completely out of touch with buying train tickets to
places like Birmingham and Bristol. In my day it was all
pretty simple; you just turned up and bought your ticket.
There was the very occasional special offer: a friend and I
went from Euston to Glasgow Central on an early train for
£5.00 day return! That was more than forty years ago! (We
wanted to visit St. Mungo's Cathedral)

There are web sites providing train fare offers but which are
the best ones? Am I correct in assuming that some will offer
less than ideal rates because they receive a commission from
train companies? Do they all work this angle?

The general rule of thumb is that the best fares are obtainable on the
relevant Train Operating Company's web site. E.g. I just bought some tickets
for a day trip from Cambridge to Derby next month. The same fares (Advance
are usually but not always the cheapest) were 10% cheaper on the EMT web
site compared to East Coast's which I tend to prefer because it uses the
booking engine I find easiest to use. In the london and South East area it
rarely matters where you book as long as you avoid the ones that charge for
use of credit/debit cards.

--
Colin Rosenstiel