There are many merits of rail travel (especially when you buy train tickets online). It’s more eco-friendly than many other transport options, such as a car or plane — and while actually on a moving train, you can enjoy admiring the outdoor scenery, catching up on a good book or even getting some work done on a laptop.
There remains, though, the question of how you ought to buy your train tickets. You might be content to wait until you reach the railway station from where you will depart.
However, if you do decide to purchase tickets from a machine or a member of staff at the ticket office, you could find that you miss out on the best deals. Here is a closer look at some of the most compelling incentives for you to book train tickets online instead…
It’s easier to understand the many different ticket options
Choosing the ‘right’ train ticket isn’t just about being careful what day, time and destination it has on it. The various types of tickets available include ‘Advance’, ‘Off-Peak’ and ‘Anytime’ tickets.
What exactly do those terms mean? You might feel awkward asking a ticket seller in person or (if you are in front of a ticket machine rather than a counter) trying to figure it out for yourself, especially if there is a queue of other people behind you, waiting to buy their own tickets.
Mercifully, our website — once you have used it to search for tickets — explains each of the above ticket options in easily comprehensive detail. So, you are at liberty to spend a guilt-free amount of time digesting that information before deciding which type of ticket to actually go with.
Generally, the further ahead you buy, the more you save
We do emphasise the word ‘generally’ here. Those ‘Advance’ tickets we mentioned earlier can usually be purchased up to 12 weeks before you travel, but the prices of these tickets can sometimes fall after you book them — as demand plays a part in how expensive they are.
Still, in most instances, Advance tickets are cheaper the sooner they buy them. Using our website, you can snap up these tickets not only weeks before your intended departure time but also without having to make any special trip to a railway station just to do so.
You can easily spot other money-saving opportunities
When you search for tickets on the NationalRail.com website, you can quickly see how different options compare in price. With this kind of easily accessible information at your fingertips, you could spot cost savings you hadn’t even known were on the table.
Such savings include those unlocked by ‘split tickets’ — where rather than just one ticket covering an entire journey, you will have multiple tickets each bought for a specific portion of the trip.
Discerning how to break up tickets in a way that saves you money can be tricky, but our website does it automatically. You can see for yourself by using NationalRail.com to look up ticket options for a myriad of train trips set to criss-cross the UK.
You can have the tickets sent to your phone or a ticket machine
We offer both options when you order train tickets through us; simply choose the option that works best for you personally.
You might want to save the tickets to your smartphone if you are in a hurry so don’t fancy potentially needing to wait in a queue at the ticket machine.
Conversely, you might actually prefer collecting printed tickets from the machine if you fear that your smartphone could run out of battery before the ticket inspector on the train makes their way to you.
If you plan on using the train any time soon, it’s always best to book train tickets in advance with Nationalrail.com
