Egham to Birmingham worth splitting?

[whole diary]

[johngreg]

Travelling from Egham to Birmingham New street next tuesday, arriving approx 08.30. Is it worth/can you splitting the tickets on this route?
Cheers
john

[bobm]

You could probably save yourself around ^8 by buying Anytime Day Singles and splitting at Banbury.

[JayMac]

Travelling from Egham to Birmingham New street next tuesday, arriving approx 08.30. Is it worth/can you splitting the tickets on this route?
Cheers
john

Are you returning the same day, another day or is this just a one-way trip? Any Railcards?

[johngreg]

returning same day, and have a network card. Assumed latter could not be used due to time of day.

[JayMac]

Network Card is, as you rightly say, of no use due to the 10am weekday rule.

Neither the +via London or the +via High Wycombe fare options have suitable services to get you to Birmingham for 0830, so that realistically leaves you with just the via Oxford services.

The through fare for Egham - Birmingham Stations via Oxford is ^110.00 for an Anytime Return. There is no Day Return through fare.

Splitting at Banbury brings the total down to ^49.90. That is made up of Egham - Banbury Anytime Day Return at ^30.00 and Banbury - Birmingham Stations Anytime Day Return at ^19.90.

0527 SWT^▸ (South West Trains) Egham - Reading 0610
0640 XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Reading - Birmingham New Street 0815 (calls Banbury)

or
 
0557 SWT Egham - Reading 0640
0709 XC Reading - Birmingham New Street 0848 (calls Banbury)

[ChrisB]

You can cut that even further by getting a Chiltern-only Anytime return from Banbury-Birmingham for ^13

[JayMac]

You can cut that even further by getting a Chiltern-only Anytime return from Banbury-Birmingham for ^13

Although taking the 0527 from Egham, then the 0640 from Reading, leaves you with a 43 minute wait at Banbury for the next Chiltern service to Birmingham Moor Street and you won't arrive until 0853. That's on top of a 30 minute wait at Reading.

[johngreg]

I take it that as long as the train stops at banbury then can use the split? So it would be valid on the following trains as well:

egh 06:27
rdg 07.10

rdg 07.40
bir 09.18

bir 16.33
rdg 18.11

rdg 18.42
egh 19.23

[JayMac]

Yep that's fine. As long as you are happy with the later arrival in Birmingham.

If that is the case then there is the option of changing at Banbury onto a Chiltern service and saving a few more quid by buying the Chiltern Only Anytime Day Return from Banbury - Birmingham Moor Street as suggested by ChrisB.

[johngreg]

Did this trip again recently but on a weekend. Got the cost down to about ^33, by using Network railcard on the egham-banbury part.

Appreciate the suggestions of the chiltern line services, however, this was one of those journeys where the additional financial saving did not outweight the convience of a short walk across the platforms at reading.

Also a good nose around the new station, the bacon roll from west cornwall eatery and the AMT double expresso, really made the decision.