Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi All

I've always considered myself pretty good at getting a cheap deal on the railways but I pale in comparison to some on this forum. I'm trying to buy tickets for the above return trips on the above dates as cheaply as possible. 3 people going to Newcastle who need to be in Hartlepool by around 2:30pm on the Saturday (if necessary we could go to Hartlepool first and on to Newcastle later). Flexible on the Sunday. The Edinburgh trip is also flexible with regard to time.

XC appear to have their cheapest NCL ticket as ^70 each way, making a not particularly reasonable ^140 total, given the off-peak return is ^144 - 2.8% off for no flexibility. Due to engineering works of some kind the journey is an hourly longer so it's slightly quicker via London. The cheapest deal I can find is a Groupsave 3 return from Bristol to Paddington at ^35 each and then advance tickets at ^37 on the Saturday (arriving 1340, although we could arrive at 1237 for ^48) and ^27 on the Sunday on East Coast from King's Cross. So round about ^100. We only paid ^60 each for the same trip on the same weekend 4 years ago. The joys of inflation...

For Edinburgh it seems again to be slightly cheaper via London but likely to be in the region of ^120.

Also looked at planes from Nembnett Thrubwell/Adge Cutler International with Easy jet for both weekends but they're no cheaper unless we want to travel earlier or later, with the additional accommodation cost that brings.

If anyone thinks they can find anything cheaper, I'll be extremely impressed! Thanks for any help anyone can provide.


On a side note, it always surprises me XC advance singles for many trains are only slightly less than an off-peak return (and often more expensive than splitting tickets if you're doing an off-peak day return). Given they're always pushing people to buy tickets from their website online so they keep all the revenue rather than having to split non-advance tickets, I'd assume they'd make it more attractive to do so. I know many of their trains are sufficiently overcrowded they don't need any more passengers but I regularly use Bristol - Exeter on weekends and apart from during the school holidays, trains are rarely even 75% full, yet their advance tickets rarely ever tempt me to buy one over a flexible off-peak return. As the primary express operator between the two cities (off-peak anyway) I'm surprised they don't offer cheaper advance tickets.

Right! For the first query:

Looking at the 0730 from Bristol to Newcastle on Saturday 3rd May, changing at York, arriving at Hartlepool 1420, returning Sunday 4th, I have found the following Advance Purchase fares. I've checked the availability for 3 people and these are all for the same through train as far as York on the outward and with a couple of breaks on the return from Newcastle:

0730 Bristol TM - Cheltenham Spa 0911 ^8.30ea
0913 Cheltenham Spa to Birmingham NS 0956 ^11.40
1003 Birmingham NS - Derby 1041 ^5.70
1044 Derby - Sheffield 1117 ^6.70
1121 Sheffield - York 1230 ^6.70
Change of trains
1316 York - Hartlepool 1420 (Grand Central Advance Purchase) ^7.30
Total: ^46.10ea

For the return on Sunday 4th May, I've found:

1140  Newcastle - York 1237 ^6.70
1240 York - Sheffield 1353 ^6.70
Take a break! Nice pub on the station
1422 Sheffield - Derby 1450 ^5.20
1453 Derby - Birmingham NS 1526 ^4.10
Take another break!
1712 Birmingham NS - Cheltenham Spa 1751 ^6.70
1752 Cheltenham Spa - Bristol TM ^4.60
Total: ^34.00ea

Grand Total for the round trip: ^80.10
(E&OE)

That is availability if booked today. Getting seats together may be an issue with these split Advances, although if you book on CrossCountry's website you can choose your seats on each leg, so it may be possible to avoid too much musical chairs en route! On the return, if you instead take the through train at 1140 (destination Plymouth), the split Advances come out nearer ^45.

With that pointer to the absurdity of CrossCountry's pricing for long distance Advance Purchase, where multiple splits can yield up to a 50% saving, I'll leave you to look at your Edinburgh trip yourself! For that one I will just suggest, if you decide to go CrossCountry again, to also look at the split at Berwick-upon-Tweed, or bale out of XC at York/Newcastle and look at following East Coast services.

Many thanks for that. Not very logical pricing but certainly not unusual. I'll consult with my people ASAP for the first one and see what I can do with the second - as you say those prices probably won't last long!

Cheers again.