The Anonymous Widower

How To Make The Most Of Trains From London

Many people come to London and I’ve met several who have thought about going to say Stratford upon Avon, Bristol or Cambridge, but have not known how to get the tickets in the most affordable manner.

So here’s a few rules.

1. Get Yourself An Oyster Card

Oyster Cards are preloaded with cash, which can then be used to pay for your journeys.

You can use Oyster over a wide area and on many modes of transport.

Most London attractions are within the scope of an Oyster.

Buying a card is easy.

1. Use an automatic machine at any Underground station.
2. If you come in to the UK on Eurostar you buy one on the train, which avoids the queues at St. Pancras
3. You can also buy one on-line

You can also use a contactless bank card instead of Oyster. I watch the media for problems with this technology, which gives the same price as Oyster, and I’ve yet to read a negative story.

If you’re only in London for a few hours or a day or so, you can always buy a Travelcard, if you don’t want to use Oyster or a contactless bank card.

2. Learn To Use London’s Buses

Londoners and many of those who live in the city, use buses regularly, as they are often more convenient than the Underground. Often they are the quickest way to get from a budget hotel a few miles out to the centre.

Remember though that London’s buses do not take cash, so you’ll either have to use an Oyster card, a Travelcard or a contactless back card.

In London most bus shelters double as information kiosks, with bus spider maps and sometimes an electronic display detailing the next few buses. Each bus stop also has a five digit code, that can be texted to 87287 to get information on the next few buses.

3. Learn To Use National Rail Enquiries

I get it on my smart phone by typing National Rail into the browser.

The picture shows the journey planner, where I am requesting trains from London to Ipswich. It is also available on the Internet.

When planning a train journey always use this tool.

Although as UK rail data is now being made freely available to developers, I suspect that some very good free apps will appear.

Call me cynical if you like, but I would never use any tool or app, that was provided by a company that was a ticket agent.

4. If You’re Entitled To One Get Yourself A Railcard

I am over sixty and am thus entitled to a Senior Railcard. It costs thirty pounds for a year and gives me a third off all UK rail travel, including trains like the Caledonian Sleeper.

If you are not a UK national, all you need to get one, is the charge and a valid passport, with your brth date on it.

A recently-introduced product is the Two Together Railcard, which gives one third off for two people over sixteen travelling together. It can be ordered on-line, but it must be delivered to a UK address.

Railcards are in need of sorting out, as there are quite a few. If you think you might be entitled to one and will be doing a lot of travelling on trains, go and talk to someone in a Ticket Office at a slack time.

5. Never Use An On-Line Ticket Agency

Type something like “Train Tickets From London to Ipswich” and you’ll probably get a ticket agent company. I never deal with these companies and they are a waste of space.

I also believe strongly, that someone who works for one of these companies sold my address and e-mail address details to someone, who was less than honest.

I may be tarring them all with the same brush, but they are leeches, who don’t provide any service you can’t get from the train companies themselves. You’ll also often pay a booking fee for the privilege.

Whether you buy your ticket on-line, from a ticket machine or personally at a booking office, try to buy it from the company who is providing the trains.

There is one exception to this, which I suspect will broaden with time.

I live close to Dalston Junction station on the London Overground. This sister company to London Underground has recently installed ticket machines that allow you to buy National Rail Tickets between any two National Rail stations at the best price. I suspect over the next few years these new ticket machines or similar ones will be rolled out all over London.

For visitors, who don’t have English as a first language, these machines also work in several common alternative languages.

This will make getting tickets so easy for visitors. Although, you’ll still need to find out your route!

6. Buy Tickets On-Line In Advance If You Can

There are effectively two forms of Advance ticket.

The first is just an ordinary ticket that you buy a couple of days or so before you need.  If say, I was going to see Ipswich at Bolton and then perhaps having supper with a friend in Manchester, who is notoriously unreliable on punctuality, I would buy an ordinary Off Peak Manchester to London ticket to get me home.

On the other hand if I knew that I would be catching the 20:15 Virgin, I would book an Advance Ticket, that tied me to a particular train. Which can be a nuisance if you get delayed.

Incidentally, I’ve just bought a First Class Advance ticket from London to Manchester and a Standard Class Off Peak to get back on Saturday week. The first is tied to the 08:40 train cost £25.10 and the second is allowed on any train and cost £26.30. These prices are with a Railcard.

I buy quite a few Advance tickets on line and pick them up at any convenient station. As an example of the price savings, a Standard Class Off Peak Single from Manchester to London costs £78.70, but an Advance Ticket for a week from now costs £35.30. With a Railcard these tickets are a third less.

A few points to note.

1. Always use the same credit card for train tickets and make sure you make a note of the 8-character pick-up code.

2. I ask for the tickets to be collected at my local station, Dalston Junction. But in fact you can pick them up from any UK Rail and most London Overground stations, provided you have the right card and code. One day, I forgot the code and a friendly Ticket Office guy, located the ticket and gave it to me on production of the correct credit card.

I would like feedback, where someone from Switzerland say, bought a ticket on-line for say a trip from Gatwick to Nottingham, which they picked up at Gatwick.

7. Which Train Company And London Terminus Should You Use?

This is a list of UK postcodes with their major towns and cities and the train companies

AB – Aberdeen – East Coast

AL – St. Abans – Govia Thameslink Railway

B – Birmingham – Chiltern Railways, London Midland or Virgin Trains

BA – Bath – First Great Western

BB – Blackburn – Virgin Trains

BD – Bradford – East Coast or Grand Central

BH – Bournemouth – South West Trains

BL – Bolton – Virgin Trains

BN – Brighton – Govia Thameslink Railway or Southern

BR – Bromley – South Eastern or London Overground

BS – Bristol – First Great Western

CA – Carlisle – Virgin Trains

CB – Cambridge – Govia Thameslink Railway or Greater Anglia

CF – Cardiff – First Great Western

CH – Chester – Virgin Trains

CM – Chelmsford – Greater Anglia

CO – Colchester – Greater Anglia

CR – Croydon – Govia Thameslink Railway or London Overground

CT – Canterbury – South Eastern

CV – Coventry – Virgin Trains or London Midland

CW – Crewe – Virgin Trains or London Midland

DA – Dartford – South Eastern

DD – Dundee – East Coast

DE – Derby – East Midlands Trains

DG – Dumfries – Virgin Trains

DH – Durham – East Coast

DL – Darlington – East Coast

DN – Doncaster – East Coast or Grand Central

DT – Dorchester – South West Trains

DY – Dudley – Virgin Trains

EH – Edinburgh – East Coast or Virgin Trains

EN – Enfield – London Underground, London Overground, Greater Anglia or Govia Thameslink Railway

EX – Exeter – First Great Western or South West Trains

FK – Falkirk – East Coast or Virgin Trains

FY – Blackpool – Virgin Trains

G – Glasgow – Virgin Trains or East Coast

GL – Gloucester – First Great Western

GU – Guildford – South West Trains

HA – Harrow – London Underground, London Overground or London Midland

HD – Huddersfield – Virgin Trains or East Coast

HG – Harrogate – East Coast

HP – Hemel Hempstead – London Midland

HR – Hereford – First Great Western

HS – Outer Hebrides – Virgin Trains plus ferry

HU – Hull – Hull Trains or East Coast

HX – Halifax – East Coast

IG – Ilford – Greater Anglia

IP – Ipswich – Greater Anglia

IV – Inverness – East Coast

KA – Kilmarnock – Virgin Trains

KT – Kingston upon Thames – South West Trains

KW – Kirkwall – East Coast or Virgin Trains plus ferry

KY – Kirkcaldy – East Coast or Virgin Trains

L – Liverpool – Virgin Trains or London Midland

LA – Lancaster – Virgin Trains

LD – Landrindod Wells – First Great Western

LE – Leicester – East Midlands Trains

LL – Llandudno – Virgin Trains

LN – Lincoln – East Coast

LS – Leeds – East Coast

LU – Luton – Govia Thameslink Railway or East Midlands Trains

M – Manchester – Virgin Trains

ME – Rochester – South Eastern

MK – Milton Keynes – Virgin Trains or London Midland

ML – Motherwell – Virgin Trains

NE – Newcastle upon Tyne – East Coast

NG – Nottingham – East Midlands Trains

NN – Northampton – Virgin Trains or London Midland

NP – Newport – First Great Western

NR – Norwich – Greater Anglia

OL – Oldham – Virgin Trains

OX – Oxford – First Great Western

PA – Paisley –  Virgin Trains

PE – Peterborough – Govia Thameslink Railway or East Coast

PH – Perth – East Coast

PL – Plymouth – First Great Western

PO – Portsmouth – South West Trains

PR – Preston – Virgin Trains

RG – Reading – First Great Western

RH – Redhill – Govia Thameslink Railway

RM – Romford – Greater Anglia

S – Sheffield – East Midlands Trains

SA – Swansea – First Great Western

SG – Stevenage – Govia Thameslink Railway or East Coast

SK – Stockport – Virgin Trains

SL – Slough – First Great Western

SM – Sutton – Govia Thameslink Railway

SN – Swindon – First Great Western

SO – Southampton – South West Trains

SP – Salisbury – South West Trains

SR – Sunderland – East Coast or Grand Central

SS – Southend-on-Sea – Greater Anglia or C2C

ST – Stoke-on-Trent – Virgin Trains

SY – Shrewsbury – Virgin Trains

TA – Taunton – First Great Western

TD – Galashiels – East Coast

TF -Telford – Virgin Trains or London Midland

TN- Tonbridge – South Eastern

TQ – Torquay – First Great Western

TR – Truro – First Great Western

TS – Cleveland – East Coast or Grand Central

TW – Twickenham – South West Trains

UB – Southall – First Great Western

WA – Warrington – Virgin Trains

WD – Watford – London Underground, London Overground or London Midland

WF – Wakefield – East Coast or Grand Central

WN – Wigan – Virgin Trains

WR – Worcester – First Great Western

WS – Walsall – Virgin Trains

WV – Wolverhampton – Virgin Trains

YO – York – East Coast

ZE – Lerwick – East Coast or Virgin Trains plus ferry

Notes

1. Where two or more train companies are listed, they are in my order of preference.

2. With some of the Scottish islands, you’ll need to take a ferry to complete the journey.

This is a list of the train companies with some of their strengths and pitfalls.

Chiltern Railways

Terminus – Marylebone

Strengths – Some very comfortable trains, reliable, affordable and free wi-fi everywhere

Weakness – Marylebone isn’t the easiest terminus to get to.

Notes

1. Slower, but more comfortable and pleasant to Birmingham

C2C

Terminus -Fenchurch Street

Strengths – Reliable and affordable

Weakness – Fenchurch Street isn’t the easiest terminus to get to.

East Coast

Terminus – Kings Cross

Strengths – Some comfortable trains and fast

Weakness – The overhead line is always failing.

Notes

1. Some places like Huddersfield, Burnley and Halifax can be served by East Coast from Leeds or Virgin from Manchester or Preston

2. There is a certain amount of overlap between East Coast and Grand Central

East Midlands Trains

Terminus – St. Pancras

Strengths – Some comfortable trains

Weaknesses – The Meridian trains and lack of late services back to London.

First Great Western

Terminus – Paddington

Strengths – Comfortable trains, fast and the Pullman Dining.

Weakness – Nothing obvious

Govia Thameslink Railway

Through Stations – St.Pancras, Fsrringdon and London Bridge

Strengths – Competent

Weakness – The line is a building site because of Thameslink.

Grand Central

Terminus – Kings Cross

Strengths – Some comfortable trains and affordable

Weakness – The overhead line is always failing.

Notes

1. There is a certain amount of overlap between East Coast and Grand Central.

Hull Tains

Terminus – Kings Cross

Strengths – Good service, affordable and not affected by overhead line problems

Weakness – Not the best trains!

Greater Anglia

Terminus – Liverpool Street

Strengths – Lots of services and some good trains.

Weakness – Inferior service

South Eastern

Terminus – London Bridge, Victoria and St. Pancras

South West Trains

Virgin Trains

Terminus – Euston

Going to – Birmingham, Blackpool, Chester, Crewe, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Woverhampton, Carlisle, North Wales, Glasgow and Western Scotland

Notes.

1. Some places like Birmingham, Crewe and Liverpool are also served by London Midland.

2. Birmingham and the West Midlands are also served by Chiltern Railways.

3. Some places like Huddersfield, Burnley and Halifax can be served by East Coast from Leeds or Virgin from Manchester or Preston

 

 

November 27, 2014 Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Ticketing, Trains | Leave a comment