How do I book a train ticket?

M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Is there a good website for getting train tickets within the UK?

I never know what to do. I just want the best deal, and to know what station the train leaves from. And possibly somewhere explaining what services go where, and whether my ticket will be valid on the train I want to get, rather than having to pay a £5 surcharge or whatever.

Any help would be great. And yes, I know I'm being a moron.
 
you

you

Well-known member
well you will have to pay peak fares and be unable to use any rail card if you travel between 05:00am-11:45 in the morning and 13:35-21:00 in the afternoon, you will not be able to take a bike on selected routes and all lines are closed at weekends for engineering works, if you want a seat you will have to book first class.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
you said:
well you will have to pay peak fares and be unable to use any rail card if you travel between 05:00am-11:45 in the morning and 13:35-21:00 in the afternoon, you will not be able to take a bike on selected routes and all lines are closed at weekends for engineering works, if you want a seat you will have to book first class.
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Thanks, but is there a website other than here that will also tell me that information, along with train times, etc? Is there a centralised train service website, or is it all chaos?
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Any help would be great. And yes, I know I'm being a moron."
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Not so, they deliberately make it difficult to figure out which is the cheapest. Quite often the staff do not have all the information ('cause it's so fucking complicated) and actually give you the wrong advice. One of the many advantages of privatisation I guess.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
That's great everyone thanks. It's just every time I go to book a train ticket and search online, I just think 'Oh god, I don't know how to do this'. And given trains are so expensive I'm always thinking 'I bet I'm getting ripped off here' so thought I'd ask. Off to search the recommendations, thanks.

I need a ticket cos I have to get to Liverpool to see this :

http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/namjunepaik/default.shtm

and I'm very excited about it.
 
you

you

Well-known member
Yeah, sorry for the sarcastic reply, but getting the best ticket is almost impossible.

Also, if your going book a particular departure time be careful and make sure you leave lots of time spare...... if you miss your link the ticket inspectors will still expect you to pay the difference.... even though the failure of their previous service is the reason your not on the correct time. This is even more ludicrous when you know for a fact that they hold trains back for 1st class customers when trying to make a tight connection ( they do it for my grandma who always travels 1st ).

Also, sometimes it's actually cheaper to buy a ticket in two parts because a large journey is more expensive than the sum of its parts ( madness ) - people who work for the train companies sometimes recommend the best way to buy your route so it's cheapest.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
Yep agree on that one You - couple of times I have travelled to Manchester from here in Essex - it's actually been cheaper to buy two singles rather than a return.

Do not get me started on the ridiculous traveling with a bike rules - the one thing is that you will become an expert on how the toilets work (bike carriages are also the loo carriages) as agitated customers regularly stare bemused at the tardis bogs!
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
IdleRich said:
Not so, they deliberately make it difficult to figure out which is the cheapest. Quite often the staff do not have all the information ('cause it's so fucking complicated) and actually give you the wrong advice.
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We once got a train from Warrington to London via Leeds because the west coast line was closed and the ticket office people in both of the stations in Warrington had independently told us that our tickets would be valid on that route only for the ticket inspector on the train from Leeds to try and bust us because they weren't. Apparently it's not good enough to have asked the people who work for the train companies, you actually have to know their system better than they know it themselves...

And that's before we get on to the system for determining what constitutes a 'valid route' for an open return - which is a byzantine horror that has more in common with a nightmare about a graph theory exam than a sensible real world system...
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Slothrop said:
Apparently it's not good enough to have asked the people who work for the train companies, you actually have to know their system better than they know it themselves...
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Yeah last time I got on a train I got taxed for extra money even though I'd checked with the person I bought it off, the whole thing felt like one big scam.

Glad it's not just me finds it hard though, kinda.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
where'd you wanna go to?

Edit: ah, Liverpool, I got a ticket for £10, lemme find the details....yeah, some deal from London Midland
 
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M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Thanks for all of these, in the end I got to Liverpool on a day return with Midland for 25 quid, they dont seem to advertise it but it was at the station. It did take forever though, but the difference between 70 quid and 25 is alot. And I got to touch (when the envigilator wasn't looking) Nam June Paik's video synthesiser, which for me felt like going on the Haj.

Moral? Check at the stations cos you can actually travel round the country cheap!
 
B

BareBones

wheezy
anyone know the cheapest way of getting a train from london to brighton on a saturday, returning sunday - the catch being I can specify a particular train going there but could be coming back on sunday at any bloody time.

train fares and websites really are a maddening fucking mess
 
D

don_quixote

Trent End
oh they are beyond a joke. i decided i just couldnt be arsed with the stress of having to catch a particular train on sunday so just bought a day return for £52. more than my ticket for the football match i was going to watch.

next season i'll just do it in the fucking car. which is a joke.
 
A

alex

Do not read this.
Slothrop said:
We once got a train from Warrington to London via Leeds because the west coast line was closed and the ticket office people in both of the stations in Warrington had independently told us that our tickets would be valid on that route only for the ticket inspector on the train from Leeds to try and bust us because they weren't. Apparently it's not good enough to have asked the people who work for the train companies, you actually have to know their system better than they know it themselves...

And that's before we get on to the system for determining what constitutes a 'valid route' for an open return - which is a byzantine horror that has more in common with a nightmare about a graph theory exam than a sensible real world system...
Click to expand...

yea but if you did get caught by the inspectors you would give a fake name surely? dont think ive ever given my real name to a bus/train inspector.
 
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