At LAST! - The Great British Rail Sale!

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Spotted in the IanVisits website

England’s train companies have joined together to offer up to 1 million journeys at up to half-price on selected Advance and off-peak train tickets

You will be able to buy tickets in the Great British Rail Sale from 10am next Tuesday (19th April) until the end of Monday 2nd May 2022 for travel between Monday 25th April until Friday 27th May 2022.

When the sale starts, to find tickets, go to National Rail’s online tool here to find out which routes are available. Once you find a route, click ‘buy’ to head over to a ticket retailer and check the availability for your journey. Great British Rail Sale tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis but there’s no limit on how many tickets you can buy for trips.

In addition, if you have a Railcard, you will be able to save an additional 1/3 off a Great British Rail Sale ticket.

The special offer tickets are available from:

Southeastern
London North Eastern Railway
Avanti West Coast
Greater Anglia
South Western Railway
Great Western Railway
Northern
C2C
Chiltern
London Northwestern Railway Railway
Cross Country
East Midlands Railway
West Midlands Railway
Southern
Thameslink
Great Northern
TransPennine Express
Grand Central
Hull Trains

The offer does not include travel on London Overground, TfL^» (Transport for London - about) Rail, Merseyrail, Lumo, Gatwick Express, Heathrow Express or Stansted Express.

On some operators, you may be able to pay for a First-Class upgrade. You’ll need to check the trail company for details.

If the train you purchased a ticket for is cancelled or is delayed and you still decide to travel, special arrangements will be made to accommodate you on another train (although a seat cannot be guaranteed). If you choose not to travel a refund will be offered on completely unused tickets and you will not be charged an administration fee.

Note that Great British Rail Sale tickets are (otherwise) non-refundable and cannot be transferred.

That link above currently goes to a holding page, so bide your time....patience!

[Mark A]

This is exactly as advance tickets are sold year round, yes? CS ran one of these earlier in the year and, checking, it didn't appear that they'd allocated more than the usual quota of advance tickets...

Mark

[ChrisB]

Stop it....my emphasis

up to half-price on selected Advance and off-peak train tickets

The discounts are genuine

[Ralph Ayres]

I assume "up to 1 million journeys at up to half-price" is just sloppy wording and actually means "up to 50% off the normal price". Still likely to be some bargains but I assume it will all have to be balanced against causing overcrowding which would end up counterproductive if someone's first rail journey for ages is unpleasant. Advance sales can be fine-tuned as they apply to a specific train and can be limited in number but off-peak fares can't be restricted in that way. Extremely cheap walk-up fares to Weston-super-Mare or Torquay on a sunny day could cause problems. Tickets to Slough on the other hand...

[ChrisB]

.....to find out which routes are available. Once you find a route, click ‘buy’ to head over to a ticket retailer and check the availability for your journey.

Which is why this piece has been stated.

[ChrisB]

On sale from TOMORROW at 10am.....

[Timmer]

On sale from TOMORROW at 10am.....

I’ll be there ‘queuing at the door’. 

[Timmer]

Sale already started on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) website and some other TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) sites. Already bagged a bargain 

[ChrisB]

So have I on the one trip I really needed a cheap(er) fare!

[Red Squirrel]

More details are here: https://youtu.be/3XL0Y-jmXzo

[jamestheredengine]

Rather predictably, CrossCountry's Advances cost more than the normal return fare. I could buy a First Class Advance from Cardiff to Gloucester at £27.40 and back at £26.90 (no idea why it's 50p different...), or just buy an unrestricted First Off Peak Return for £42.40. Britain's worst InterCity operator strikes again.

[ChrisB]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s site now *extremely slow*!!

[Mark A]

Yes, world + dog appears to have hit it now: unintended consequence: no one can book tickets for anything.

Mark

[Mark A]

Workaround: go to a non-participating TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) site e.g. Transport for Wales: they list the sale tickets too.

Mark

[ChrisB]

Yep - I'm using XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) to get mine.

I note that XC's own offer is only for a week - to May 1 only.