At the moment the UK is in a lockdown which means I can’t travel which I am finding really difficult as it is one of the only things I enjoy. So, while I cannot travel, I thought I would plan journeys to do in the future and share my planning process with you.
I was supposed to do an “7-day All Line Rover” last year which I crowdfunded for and also raised money for local mental health charity (TIC+), but COVID put a stop to that. Planning train journeys at the moment is more difficult due to the fact there is a heavily reduced timetable but it is still possible. Websites like RealTimeTrains (RTT), which give you train timetable data, for the most part only show the reduced timetable so I have to use old digital paper timetables which you can find on the internet to plan more realistic train journeys. If you can complete a train journey using RTT at the moment with a reduced timetable then it is more than likely you will be able to do it when the timetable returns back to “normal”. If you can’t find a way to complete a train trip on RTT then you have to be a bit more creative, you need to try and find records of old timetables from ideally the summer of 2020 but if not try looking for 2019 timetables which will give you a rough idea of what is manageable in a day.
Once you have found the appropriate timetable data, another important aspect of planning is pricing. I am no ticketing expert but I have a mediocre knowledge of the UK train ticketing system, so I can give you a rough idea idea in this blog post. Rail travel in the UK is relatively expensive in comparation to other places in the world.
Advance Tickets:
These tend to be the cheapest way of travelling but have to be booked in advance and you have to stay on your booked train. These ticket options remain okay for best value for money but at the moment with the pandemic your plans have got to be flexible as who knows when/if the next lockdown might come in.
Anytime Tickets:
These tickets can be bought on the day and can be used, as the name suggests, anytime on a particular route that you choose e.g. from Gloucester to Inverness so you could use the ticket on however many trains it takes you to reach your destination. However, at the moment some train companies require you to have a seat reservation before travelling, notably LNER, so this means you still have to book a seat on the particular service you want to travel on.
Off Peak Tickets:
Similar to anytime tickets these can be used on any service off-peak, but the definition of off-peak isn’t the same across the whole network (confusing, I know). A general rule of thumb is that these tickets can be used after 09:30 then all day with some exceptions, to check go to www.nationalrail.co.uk/.
Rovers/Rangers:
These tickets are quite exciting (in my opinion anyway) as they give you unlimited travel in an area for a set amount of time. For example, a Freedom of the South West 3 in 7 day rover lets you travel anywhere in a predetermined area for any 3 days in a 7 day period, so for example you can have a rover start on a Monday and then use it Monday, Wednesday and Saturday or for any number of combination of days in a set period. To view all the rail rangers a good place to look is a 3rd party website called railrover.org/ but if you prefer you can look at all the rovers on www.nationalrail.co.uk/.
Split Ticketing:
This is sometimes the cheapest way of travelling on the railways, it is totally legal and can save lots of money. It is a way of buying multiple train tickets that can save money, so for example if you wanted to buy a ticket from Gloucester to Edinburgh, you could buy a ticket from Gloucester to Wolverhampton then Wolverhampton to Preston and finally Preston to Edinburgh which could save you about £60. Sometimes it only saves you a couple of pounds so wouldn’t be worth the effort but it can save you lots of money.
Sometimes you can mix and match tickets to make the overall price cheaper and to give you more flexibility. So if you wanted to travel to Devon from London it may be cheaper to buy a Devon Day ranger and then buy an advance ticket from London to Tiverton Parkway (the boundary station of the rover), it may save you some money and give you a lot more flexibility when you arrive at your destination.
Railcards:
Railcards can also save you a lot of money while travelling in the UK. They are quite confusing so I would recommend looking at this website https://www.railcard.co.uk/. Most railcards cost £30 but there are some exceptions. Also, some railcards can only be used to get a discount on standard class fares and others first class too so check first.
Here are a few of the ones I think are most accessible to the majority of people:
Two Together Railcard – this gives you a third off when two adults are travelling together.
Family & Friends Railcard – this gives you a third off two adult fares when travelling with up to four children and gives 60% off the child(ren’s) fare.
Disabled Persons Railcard – if you meet certain criteria you could be eligible for this railcard, this gives you a third off the named adult fare and also a third off an unnamed adult carer.
Senior Railcard – if you are over 60 then you can get a third off rail travel.
Now back to planning journeys. There are a few top tips I would like to share about planning train journeys.
- Try to leave plenty of time between trains, I aim for 20 minutes which allows for a short delay but in an ideal world I would leave more time and especially at bigger stations.
- Make sure you can adapt your plan at short notice, try and make sure you’re not on the last train out of a particular station to your destination. No-one wants to be stranded at a station all night!
- Plan as far in advance as possible to give you maximum flexibly with tickets.
- Give as much detail in your plan as possible to make it easier for when you do travel as you won’t spend hours on the train trying to figure out the times of trains.
- The most important thing is to have fun, it can get frustrating when connections don’t work but just keep trying different combinations of trains and you will get there eventually.
If you have any questions about travelling/planning train journeys don’t hesitate to contact me.
Have fun on travelling on the railways and enjoy planning train journeys.
Leave a Reply