The first four parts of this series give theoretical examples of split ticketing, and how to save money. It’s easy to be confused by the range of fares available, which is where you need a good booking engine like nationalrail.com to cut through the majority of fares which are of no interest to you, and drill down to the one you need.
That’s what I have been doing for over twenty years, and expect to be doing into the future because anyone who believes that split ticketing can be abolished is
1) not working in the interests of the consumer, by pushing the customer towards higher fares, and
2) does not understand how the fares system works, once again, to the benefit of the consumer. It’s easy to cut out particular fares, but each one (apart from the very highest) represents a bargain for somebody.
On 19th July, I need to go to Oxford. I will be starting from Newcastle as in the morning I will be working in a school in Gateshead. I am actually going to a rural RAF station, but there are no buses there in the evening, so it will have to be a taxi for the final leg. I return via London two days later, but on the way there I don’t wish to travel via London (a route I use most weeks) but on a CrossCountry (XC) train via Birmingham. I booked, naturally, on nationalrail.com.
Here was the way the split was booked:
Origin Destination Class Time Coach Seat Fare
Newcastle York 1st 1139 A 21 £26.90
York Sheffield 1st 1244 A 17 £31.00
Sheffield Derby 1st 1355 A 17 £19.40*
Derby Birmingham 1st 1431 A 17 £26.90
Birmingham Coventry Std 1604 D 56 £5.00
Coventry Banbury Std 1627 D 20 £13.40
Banbury Oxford Std 1656 D 20 £7.10
Newcastle Oxford 1/S 1714a £129.70
The fare from Sheffield to Derby is a First Class day return, where you only use the outward part.
For clarity, here are the quoted SINGLE fares on brfares.com from Newcastle to Oxford:
First Class anytime not via London, priced by CrossCountry: £382
First Class anytime via any permitted route (including London), priced by LNER: £291
Standard Class anytime not via London, priced by CrossCountry: £172.20
Standard Class anytime via any permitted route (including London), priced by LNER: £169.50
Standard Class Off-Peak (basically after 0930 on XC) not via London, priced by CrossCountry: £160.50
There are, of course, Advance Purchase fares but the split was still cheaper than the through fares.
So the price to beat for my itinerary is £160.50 in standard class, but I managed to get a split fare for £129.70, and travelling for all but the final 70 minutes of the journey in First Class. I could have paid more, around £28 extra, for a seat from Birmingham to Oxford but I reckoned £55 was too high and voluntarily downgraded to standard class.
Just a word on the sky high £382 for a First Class single. Nobody should ever pay this. You can travel all the way on a XC train with an Any Permitted (Route) ticket priced by LNER for £291. XC have the right to price a ticket on their own route, and if they choose to do so at a price £91 higher than another operator (I hesitate to say rival) then that is their choice, but more fool any customer that pays for it.
Where do we go from here?
I will report in the next instalment of this series how the journey went, and any practical considerations from using a split ticket in multiple parts on a long distance journey.
You don’t have to understand the workings of the system to save money.
When the time comes to actually plan your trip, look for national rail tickets and get organised in the way of journey times and train tickets.
