UK Rail Hub

Welcome to the MaxYourTrip UK Rail Hub – our starting point for getting more from train travel across Britain.

Travelling by train can be expensive, but there are dozens of ways to cut the cost if you know where to look. From booking Advance tickets at the right time and using Railcards or split tickets, to secret fares, lesser-known discounts and operator loyalty schemes, paying the headline fare is often unnecessary.

We’ve brought together our best advice, guides and discoveries in one place to help you save money, find better fares and get more from every rail journey.

What Types of Tickets Are Available?

Most standard train tickets in Britain fall into three broad categories:

- Anytime – The most expensive, travel when you want
- Off-Peak – Travel on any off-peak train (weekends are always off-peak but during the week, the definition of off-peak depends where and when you are travelling)
- Advance – The cheapest, travel on a specifically booked train

Child discounts:

- under 5s: travel for free
- 5-15 year olds: get 50% off
- 16 and overs: pay full price unless they have a railcard

Rangers & Rovers

In addition to the standard tickets, Ranger (1 day) & Rover (multi-day) tickets are available and can be ideal for exploring the country. These are fixed price tickets that offer unlimited travel within a specific area of the country, such as the Northern Explorer.

Child/Railcard discounts are available but tickets typically need to be purchased in person either at the station or on the train.

See the National Rail website for details of all 92 different Rover & Ranger tickets that are currently available (do not use the drop-down filters as they will hide tickets you might want to see).

Finding Cheap Advance Tickets

Dynamic Pricing

Advance tickets are sold in pretty much the same way as those on budget airlines. As the number of available seats slowly falls after tickets go on sale, prices then rise. This means that the bargain peak-time tickets are generally snapped up well in advance but if you are looking for a cheap ticket at short notice, it is probably best to travel during the middle of the day or later in the evening.

Even if you book the night before, you will likely still save money compared with buying a ticket at the station.

Book 8-12 Weeks Ahead (or more)

The national railway timetable is locked-in place 12 weeks in advance and cheap tickets are usually released 8-12 weeks ahead of departure. However you may find companies such as LNER, GWR and TransPennine Express offering cheap weekday tickets up to 24 weeks ahead.

Not too far ahead though!

Just be careful about booking too far ahead – many operators offer standard, undiscounted tickets on sale before the cheap tickets are loaded. Be careful not to book a weekend ticket 4 months in advance and end up paying a lot more than if you had waited another couple of weeks more.

Set up Alerts

You can set up alerts for when cheap tickets become available on sites such as TheTrainline (works nationally) or on many operator sites like LNER and Avanti (works only their own services) but in my experience there can be a delay between the tickets being released and receiving the email alert.

My tip is to set up an alert for the train you want using the dates exactly a week in advance of your planned travel. Each day afterwards, you can check if your desired tickets are available and get them as soon as they are released.

Try Split Ticketing

Split Ticketing is where you buy two or more separate tickets covering your journey, which can be cheaper than buying one through-ticket.

So for example, buying Newcastle-York and York-London Kings Cross rather than a straight Newcastle-London ticket.

You don’t necessarily need to change trains where the tickets split, but the train must call at the station where one ticket ends and the next begins.

It is a perfectly legal thing to do and you can save a significant amount of money using this method, especially if you are travelling long-distance.

There are several websites that offer split-ticketing including TheTrainline and Virgin Trains Ticketing, plus there are some dedicated split-ticket websites but watch out as many of these charge additional fees.

Check out our guide to Split Ticketing which includes a comparison of the most popular split-ticketing websites.

Railcards, Discounts & Special Fares

Do not pay a booking fee

There are no booking fees if you book directly with one of the major train operating companies. Note that you can use any of the operating company websites or apps to book a train on the GB network, even if the route is not served by that company.

Look into getting a Railcard

Most railcards cost £35 for a year and save 1/3 off most adult travel. In total, there are 10 national railcards to choose from (plus some regional ones too) and our guide will help you identify which is the best railcard for your circumstances.

3 or more adults travelling together?

GroupSave gives a 1/3 discount to groups of 3-9 adults all travelling together on the exact same route. Applies to most off-peak timed tickets on the majority of train operators.

Flexible? Try Secret and Flexible-Time Fares

A few train companies offer discounted fares to customers who have flexibility in their plans. Travellers pick a morning, afternoon or evening slot on their desired day of travel and in return for a heavily discounted ticket price, only find out their travel time the day before departure.

We have covered Superfares from Avanti and Secret Fares if you want to travel with East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway (GWR), Greater Anglia, South Western Railway or TransPennine Express.

Check for lesser-known discounts

Additional discounts are available on TransPennine Express and Northern Rail by joining either Discounts for Teachers or Discounts for Carers. If you do not have your current work ID to hand, don’t worry as no proof of employment is currently required.

See our two articles on how to get 20% off TransPennine Express and 25% off Advance Tickets on Northern Trains. These companies have also offered fixed prices on Avanti West Coast trains too so these sites can be well worth checking out.

If you book 30 days ahead, you can travel on the Heathrow Express for £10 each way, plus each adult can take a child on board for free.

Kids for a Quid

Up to four under 15s per paying Adult can travel on ScotRail and Southeastern at off-peak times for £1 each. Southern Trains have a similar offer at £2 per child

Special Tickets & Promotions

Alongside the various railcards and ranger/rover tickets, there are over a hundred different promotional tickets and discounts available across the GB rail network. See this page on the National Rail website (do not use the filters, they do not work properly).

Get More From Your Journey

Choose your seat

While you can use many different companies to book a train ticket, if you want to choose your seat, you can usually only do so when booking your ticket on the website/app of the operator of the train that you are travelling on.

Bid for a First Class upgrade

If you have a standard class ticket and are travelling with either Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Grand Central, Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia, LNER, TransPennine Express or Transport for Wales, you can bid for an upgrade to first class. Read how I used Seatfrog to upgrade to First Class on LNER for £35.

Get Rewarded for your Spend

Consider joining one of the available Loyalty Programmes

Some of the major train operators have loyalty schemes such as LNER Perks, GWR Rewards, Club Avanti and c2c Loyalty Rewards. These offer various incentives such as discounts, credit to buy future tickets and money off on board refreshments.

Look for cashback and statement credits with your bank or credit card

Programmes such as Amex Offers and MBNA Smart Rewards often feature promotions with train operators (eg 5% statement credit on spend) and, as you can book nationwide travel with any train company, these can be worth extra cash.

When Things Go Wrong

Track your train in real time

The realtimetrains.co.uk website is an amazing resource. It shows the live location of all trains on the network together with the actual arrival/departure times at previous stations and anticipated station arrival times for the rest of the journey. You can even see platform numbers which can help if you have a tight connection.

Claim your Compensation

The Delay Repay scheme is used by the majority of train operating companies and in the event of a delay, compensation is awarded to the traveller based on the ticket price paid. The rules vary slightly according to the operator so see our guide to Delay Repay here