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Buying a cheap day return by train from Manchester to Blackpool or London to Brighton is not as simple as it should be

What is the cheapest way to buy a train ticket? Last week Guardian Money ran an article about a reader who had experienced a nightmare getting a refund after booking tickets for a service that subsequently didn't run. The story struck a chord as Bachelor & Brignall (Guardian Money's consumer champions) received a rather worrying number of complaints about ticketing.

So how should you buy tickets? We looked at popular summer day trips ^ London to Brighton, Manchester to Blackpool and Leeds to Scarborough ^ and compared deals, assuming a departure time of around 9am and returning after 4pm, looking five days in advance. Simple? Er, not exactly ...

London to Brighton

Return London Victoria is the most popular station, so we started there. We checked thetrainline.com and were given a price of ^18.50, including its ^1 booking fee. If we'd paid by credit card there would be a further ^3.50 charge. If we put our return back to 5.49pm, we found a cheaper fare, at ^16.

We then tried raileasy.com, an alternative to thetrainline.com. Initial results were for the fastest trains. Only if you look elsewhere do you find its cheapest offer. So at first we were told it would be ^21, including ^1 booking fee. Then, by clicking that we'd "like to check for cheaper prices on other trains", the cost fell to ^13.50, but that involved changing at Hove, with the journey taking 74 rather than 52 minutes. Confusingly, the booking fee at raileasy.com was ^2 on some fares and ^1 on others.

Would it be cheaper to go direct to the train operator's website? Yes. Southern Railway tantalised us with singles at ^4.25 each way, but these turned out to be at unsocial times.

For the first train after 9pm and the first back after 4pm, the fare was ^17, but jiggling with times (out 9.21am, back 5.49pm) the fare dropped to ^12.80, the best deal. Rock up at London Victoria on the day and the price leaps. Southern Railway charges ^21.60.

What about London Bridge? Would First Capital Connect, which takes only a few minutes longer, be cheaper? Both websites wanted ^14 for a return, ^1 more than going through First Capital Connect's website. There is more flexibility on this route, and, on the day, some ^13 returns were available. Single Generally a waste of time on the London Bridge to Brighton route ^ single fares were always more expensive than a return ^ but Victoria to Brighton offered some decent deals. The best option is to buy in advance from Southern Railway.

Manchester to Blackpool and Leeds to Scarborough

Thankfully this was much more straightforward. Leaving at 9am from Manchester to Blackpool and from Leeds to Scarborough on the Saturday (today) all the places came up with the same cheapest and quickest route.

In the case of the Manchester journey, this was on the TransPennine Express from Manchester Piccadilly to Blackpool North, leaving at 9.15am and for the Leeds journey on the 9.12am from Leeds to Scarborough.

The return fares were identical on thetrainline.com and raileasy.com, but since they charge booking fees, it was better to buy direct from the train operator's website. The rock-up fare on the day rose significantly, although not as much as London-Brighton.

All the advance options from the various websites and over the phone quoted the same advanced single fare. And all were cheaper than the walk-on fare for a particular train.

Incidentally, if you can bear a coach journey from Manchester to Blackpool, megabus.com was offering a single fare for a two-hour journey (40 minutes longer than on the train) for ^2.50, arriving at lunchtime.

Summer savers

Rail Cards If you're under 26, over 60 or travelling with kids you can cut a third off most ticket prices with a railcard, costing ^26 a year. They aren't always valid, so first check whether it's applicable. For journeys costing over ^60, always get a railcard. If you don't have one, and the ticket(s) costs more than ^60, buy one. The maths is simple, the railcard is ^26 and you get 1/3 off; at ^60 plus you save at least as much as the card costs. GroupSave With GroupSave, if three or four people travel together, they'll only pay the price for two adults. The deal covers destinations across London and the south east. Take up to four more children (aged 5-15) and they'll all travel for just ^1 each, single or return. Ticket splitting You can sometimes find cheaper tickets by splitting your journey. Try splityourticket.co.uk

Overall conclusion

Where there is more than one train operator plying the same route, the ticket possibilities can be mind-boggling. The best place to start, in all cases, is with National Rail Enquiries. It was the only place that came up with all available fares for all available routes.

If you speak to an operator, they will also compare the returns and the singles, something that can involve going back to the beginning of the process if you are doing this online. As thetrainline.com runs comparison engines on most of the major train operator's websites, you would expect fares to be the same.

While this is true in most cases, we found it wasn't the same for all. Southern, for example, appears to operate its own ticket comparison engine as its prices and discounts were markedly different from that of thetrainline.

Even where prices are the same, it will be cheaper to buy through the operator's website as both thetrainline and raileasy.com charge booking and card fees. These can add almost ^5 to the cost. Buying over the phone from the operating company is also a cheap option, as there are no charges.

Both websites wanted ^14 for a return, ^1 more than going through First Capital Connect's website. There is more flexibility on this route, and, on the day, some ^13 returns were available.

Perhaps we should put and FOI request to DaFT, ORR, ATOC and Passenger Focus asking for a definitive list of rail fares between all stations on mainland UK.

That would be one mahoosive document!!! I think they'd just send you a copy of the NFM CD-Rom, or direct you to TSO to purchase one.