Easy Ways of Getting Cheap Train Tickets

If you are travelling in less than a week you can make savings on your train tickets by shopping around. Fortunately, there are many train operators operating in most routes, with most of them differentiating themselves on the premise of quality and price.

Most of the independent train websites can help you find the right trains automatically, showing you the most direct and fastest routes. However, you can choose alternatives routes which can be cheaper, but often slower.

Therefore, by shopping online and comparing their rates can go a long way in getting you a good deal. Some of the easy ways of getting cheap train tickets include:

· Buy in advance

Advance tickets provide an ideal opportunity for train passengers to get tickets at competitive rates. They are the cheapest types of tickets sold and available for most long distance trips.

If you are interested in travelling first class, first advance single tickets make a lot of economic sense. However, you must be ready to book the earliest time possible because the tickets are often in limited supply.

Usually, the tickets are made available 12-weeks prior to travel and can be purchased up to 6.00pm, the day before travelling. When you register with any company’s alert service, they will be able to email you notices of advance tickets.

The real time availability of advance tickets is often displayed in most websites. Furthermore, advance tickets involve seat reservations.

Advance tickets can save you up to 43% instead of buying on the day of travel. By mixing and matching two advance tickets for your return journey, you can save some good money. When a train operator releases their advance tickets online, they can be purchased online.

· Be flexible

You can avoid the busiest times of the day by travelling off-peak in order to save you some good money. If you can avoid travelling between 6.00am and 9.00am and between 5.00pm and 7.00pm, you will avoid paying more.

Not only will your journey be much cheaper, it will be quieter. Furthermore, you can consider buying single tickets as opposed to a return ticket. Most of the website display fares pages allow passengers to mix and match single fares, in order to help them get good journey combinations.

· Get railcards

Railcards can be utilized to purchase tickets online. This can go a long way in saving you up to 1/3 off rail fares. Therefore, it is advisable to check with different train operators to find out the railcards you are eligible to.