Buying train tickets at the station - stay alert

I want to know what the difference is between Super Off Peak and OffPeak?I arrived at Paddington this morning to get the 10.06(which I thought was an Off Peak sort of time) to Devon to read on the Departures board that 'Super OffPeak wasn't valid.I asked someone and was told I needed to upgrade to an Off Peak.As the train was about to leave anyway, I jumped on and lived in fear that the ticket inspector was going to turn nasty and demand loads of extra money. However, when I explained all this, the TI just told me that as I hadn't done it on purpose she wouldn't charge me the excess. Must have been the Senior Railcard that convinced her.

Just like so many other things, the rail ticketing system is so complex, convoluted, obtuse and any other adverb you can think of that means plan damn confusing, that goodness knows how many people are being ripped off because of that.

Er, my processing is a bit slow but my brain was nagging me that I had made a mistake - that should be adjective (I think!)

I find the National Rail Enquiries website quite useful . When I type in the times of the trains I need it comes up with the fares as well even saying whether it is cheaper to buy 2 singles rather than a return. Armed with this information I then go to the ticket office and if they give me a different price I then query it.it seems to work quite well.

Gorki that's true/good advice, but there are a proliferation of rail ticketing websites: Qjump; Railsaver; trainjourney and the various train companies' own websites will often all give a different price, so which one to choose?

The sale of British Rail was a complete fiasco, in which the managers made huge profits. The idea of breaking up the rail network in a country as small as Britain was ludicrous. If it was inefficient, why they didn't the government put in better managers? The division of responsibility amongst so many different companies had made the network less safe and when there is a crash nobody is prepared to accept they were at fault.

I have always found National Rail Enquiries give the same price as my ticket office so I don't use the others. I tried to but it just got too confusing.

To be pedantic Greatnan, the network is still managed by a single network manager. They have recently built a very lovely, huge new headquarters just down the road.It was privatised and then taken back into public ownership I believe after safety concerns. 'Tis the operation of trains that is fragmented. But I agree, it is too much complexity. John Major was it?
And the computer programming behind all this complex pricing - well - words fail me. It is no wonder there are errors.
My niece once pointed out if you are going from a to b where c is a ferry terminal it is sometimes cheaper to buy a ticket that includes the ferry. e.g. London-Carmarthen cheaper if you buy a ticket from the ferry company London to Wexford

Gorki I use that site too and after comparison with other sites it's usually the cheapest, easiest to operate and manipulate. Because, as you say, it often a good overview of other trains and prices to the same destination I've been able to save up to £50 by just opting for a slightly earlier or later train.

The Money Saving Expert website has a "tickety split" tool. You tell them where you are going and it tells you whether it is cheaper to buy one return ticket or to split your journey. You can save a substantial amount on some routes by buying more than one ticket for different legs of the journey.
Eg. You can save £40.50 on a peak ticket from London to Manchester by buying a ticket from London to Milton Keynes and then from Milton Keynes to Manchester. You can buy both tickets from London and do not have to get off the train.
I have found that sometimes it is cheaper to buy a return ticket than a single!!
Tickety Split (google it) explains that the reason for this is because "train fares and logic go together like Coco Pops and ketchup!"

Grannylin

I know in the West Midlands an off peak train at weekends is one which you can commence your journey up to 6.30 pm where as a super off peak ticket can be used for journeys commencing after 6.30pm and it is cheaper.

In the week an off peak ticket can be used between 9.30am and 4.30 pm but you either have to return before 4.30pm or after 6.30pm. You can still use a super off peak ticket if you commence your journey after 6.30pm.

I did go to the ticket office a few weeks ago on a Saturday at about 6.20pm and in all fairness the booking clerk pointed out I could save £1 if I wanted to wait for the train about 20 minutes later.

I thanked him but I did not have time to wait.

Another point. At off peak times the train is cheaper than the bus depending what station you get on and off.
If I am going to somewhere in Birmingham an even distance from the bus and train I would use the train but I would not walk miles to save about 40p.

Frank

Aka Absolutely ! You can also check whether a senior railcard is acceptable. I recently went to Torquay on the 7.33 from Reading on which I would not have expected to be able to use my railcard. By booking just one day in advance I was able to go for £24 and return for £20 having carefully selected my trains. If I had just turned up on the day without my railcard it would have cost in excess of £100 !

I know a couple who recently had to do a train journey from Richmond to Bristol. They found it much cheaper to buy tickets in two stages Richmond to Reading. They had to change at Reading anyway where they bought tickets for the remaining pat of the journey, Reading to Bristol. Can't remember how much the saving was, but I think it was considerable, I do remember when they first told me the original price thinking "you could get to say Turkey for that sort of money!"

Breaking up the rail networks has certainly been a help to us , when now go to Brum. we go via London , and it has saved us pounds and pounds .

So I am all in favour of it. Bring it on I say .

Off on a slightly different tangent and just a little warning nudge to those of you with a Senior Railcard.

I was travelling home today when a ticket inspector came along the carriage, I showed him my ticket and he asked to see my senior railcard. I could have kissed him and said that I thought he was a lovely man, thank you and dug in my purse for my railcard. Very embarrassingly he pointed out that it was just over a month out of date and he could charge me up to four times the full value of the journey I was making as a fine. I'm convinced that it was only because we had just had a fleeting moment of friendly banter that he just gave me a warning to get it renewed.

I never realised that it was out of date and you don't get sent a reminder to renew the card - so please everyone, check the expiry date of your railcard now

I was sitting on Stockport Station, waiting for a train when I happened to look at my railcard - three weeks out of date! I confessed to the ticket inspector and he just told me to get a new one when I got to my destination, which I did. Sadly, if I'd bought it at the local council's advice centre, I'd have got a good discount - 33%, I think. Serves me right for not thinking about it.

Yogagran - lucky you weren't on your mobile phone at the time!!

I thought I had it sussed:
Senior Railcard, investigating on-line but buying from a real person, at a ticket office, it all worked a treat ..... then.....
Tried to buy, well in advance, tickets to go to London for the day only to be told there were no more cheap tickets left! Since when have these tickets been rationed? I was told that a cheap day return was my best option, with my SRC that cost £24 but the OG's ticket cost £37, phew.

Warning: if you want to exchange tickets for any reason, or find alternative trains when some routes are unavailable, go to a ticket office. National Rail Enquiries use a call centre in India where the (very pleasant) operators do not have sufficient knowledge of routes to be able to advise (perhaps their computers are not updated quickly enough).

I am seriously thinking about getting a senior rail card.
Over the last 12 months I think I would have just about come out even by having one.
I am just thinking it may encourage me to use the train a bit more instead of the car.
Andie is ok on the train.
What I am going to do is buy it just before I am going to do a more expensive journey so I am guaranteed to get some benefit from it.
It would have not been worth me having one when my father was alive.
I must admit I do some times enjoy a trip with one of my daughters driving.

Frank