Cheap train ticketsCheap train ticket investigation

Our investigation looked at how easy it was to find cheap train tickets for peak and off-peak journeys.

For 12 weeks between August and November 2008, we used the National Rail Enquiries website twice a week to find the cheapest return train journeys between London and Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leicester, Norwich and Cardiff. We checked the train ticket price for each journey, departing London around 3pm on Friday 14 November and returning around 4pm on Tuesday 18 November.

The table below shows the cost of the cheapest off-peak train ticket combination we found – with the saving shown as a percentage of what it would cost you to buy a return walk-up ticket on the day of travel.

Best times to book cheap train tickets

If you buy your train tickets on the day, it's much cheaper to travel off-peak

We found the cheapest train fares were generally available as soon as tickets went on sale. However, the length of time the cheap train tickets were available for varied. 

For example, we only found the £31.40 advance fare (80% cheaper than the £158.50 on-the-day ticket) for London to Edinburgh once – when we checked again a couple of days later, the cheapest available train ticket was £70 (still a saving of 66%).

Most companies had advance train tickets for both legs of the journey we wanted to make available by around 10 weeks ahead of departure. But there’s no guarantee that if you book an advance ticket at this point, a cheaper one won’t become available later on.

If you’re not able to plan your life 10 weeks ahead, you’ll be pleased to hear that good savings were still available on most off-peak train services until at least two weeks ahead of departure. And on peak trains, we found that advance tickets costing between 50% and 60% of the on-the-day price were available to Birmingham, Norwich and Cardiff from London on the day before departure.

The train companies say that advance tickets can be bought up to 6pm the day before you travel. However, if you leave it that late, you may find that the best deals have gone – or that there aren’t any advance fares left at all. Generally, the longer before departure an advance fare is booked, the cheaper it will be. However, sometimes fares will be reduced closer to departure if there is still a large amount of space on the train.

Cheap train tickets - peak and off-peak

On-the-day fares on peak trains are much more expensive than off-peak. On the Cardiff service, for example, the on-the-day ticket cost £158 for peak trains, but only £57 off-peak. So even though the saving is bigger, it may still cost you more in real money.

Advance train fares tend to offer the best value in terms of total discount if you’re travelling on ‘peak time’ trains. Generally this falls on weekdays between 6.30am and 9.30am and 3.30pm and 6.30pm, but can vary by train company. For example, none of the five Edinburgh trains we looked at were peak trains, while all but one of the Birmingham trains were, despite leaving at around the same time.

Advance train tickets aren’t always worthwhile

On the Leicester and Edinburgh rail services, there would have been little point buying advance train tickets less than two weeks before departure, as the more flexible off-peak walk-up ticket would have been cheaper or only slightly more expensive.

On the Norwich and Cardiff trains, we found advance off-peak train tickets for around 20% cheaper than on-the-day tickets, available the day before travel. But as this only amounts to fairly small savings of between £8 and £11, you will have to decide if such a saving is worth the loss of flexibility.

Which? says 

Eye-wateringly high prices for on-the-day train tickets on peak services mean that those who have to use these trains should take advantage of advance fares – we found much cheaper train tickets available right up to the day before departure. 

However, for many people, even a 50% saving on, say, a £158 return fare from London to Cardiff, might not be enough to justify the limitations of being tied to a particular time, date and train for their journey.