Prices for Trains to London are getting scarey!

[Andy C]

August bank holiday weekend isn't on sale yet due to Network Rail being slow to confirm engineering works, should be available by the weekend. You can sign up for a booking horizon alert on the Midland Mainline website.

 

Loyalty Scheme does exist - 'Always More', however it requires online ticket purchase.

 

Season tickets are for daily commuters. If you travel less frequent but still regularly, a Carnet ticket may be more suitable - by 10 tickets in one go and save 10%. You have 3 months to use them. Carnet is available for Standard Open, Standard Saver, First Open and First Inclusive tickets.

 

Reason for train companies not accepting Electron is down to restrictions imposed by the banks.

 

Cheapest ticket on Midland Mainline is £6 single, most expensive is £114.50 single, with many prices inbetween. Book a few weeks in advance and be flexible with times (try searching earlier or later, cheapest tickets are at the less popular times) and you should get a reasonable price.

[semerpus]

Midland Mainline DO offer a reward scheme..called mmore for 1st and standard class travellers.

 

Secondly alot of places don't accept Electron (I used to have one and upgraded to switch).It is alot easier to defraud on an electron card hence why why MMl and other companies don't take it.If MMMl were defrauded they'd have to re coup it by raising fares!!

 

Bank holiday weekends traditionally book fill up early on all forms of transport

[marinedrift]

Thanx for all yer help folks, especially Adam, I will be coming back on Tuesday

[wendygs]

I travel from Sheffield to London return far more regularly than I would like. On those instances when I have booked ahead to get a specially reduced single tickets, I can usually obtain them for roughly £8-£12.50 each way. I find it far easier to get them from the station because the website tends to crash out in particular at busy times which is an extremely frustrating experience. their phone lines are not much help because staff cant hear or understand me and is even a problem when people speak for me

[alisha18]

I've never paid more than £30 return to get to London on the train but I do tend to book about a month before my travel date and book off-peak times. Going in a couple of weeks and that only cost me £12 return.

[SpikyMike]

Its all to do with what time you travel (as someone has previously stated) The walk-up fare to travel on the 8.27 or later is £53 but obviously you aint gonna get to London before 10.45ish. Any earlier and it's megabucks. If you really MUST be in London early I recommend gettin one down the night before and coughing up the £30 for one of the cheapy B&Bs over the road from Kings X station (I use the European Hotel if you wanna look one up in't yellow pages. it aint luxury but its cheap and cheerful) which still saves you a wedge of cash.

[louloulashes]

i used to get tickets down for £6 using londonbytrain.com site but that site doesnt show up anymore, if you put londonbytrain(all one word) into the search box it will bring up midland mainlines quick search box, even this late you should be able to get there and back for less than £40

[ewerny]

the train prices are scandalous. we really need to make it an issue at election time

[Bloomdido]

I recall reading in the paper about a journalist who, to prove a point, bought a car to drive himself and three others from Newcastle to London and back. Even after petrol costs and insurance, it was still cheaper than four train tickets and he got the money back on the car when he sold it.

[Otto]

I think buying a car and all that is a bit extreme. Typical journalism - when they criticise rail fares, as they did a few weeks back in a few papers, many papers forget to mention things like £6 book in advance singles etc.

 

That's not to say that rail pricing is right (or wrong), but it's not all as bad as the press would have you believe. TV listings are just about all you can rely on for most newspapers.

 

And the fuss that needs to be kicked up about the railway shoud have been kicked up 10+ years ago when someone decided it'd be a great idea to scrap British Rail and let private companies run things. Doesn't take a genius to work out that ultimately, despite whatever they say, the sole intent of a private company is to make money and/or shareholders very rich.