Expensive trains to Whitehaven

[Gixxerman]

I am planning on doing the C2C sometime in March or April.
My initial serches for trains have shown that they are extortionate. From Market Rasen to Whitehaven is £77. No amount of searching can better that. The return from Sunderland is a lot better at £13.80.
Anybody got any idea why the Whitehaven train is so expensive? Or a better fare / route to save some money.
I am prepared to cycle 20 - 30 miles to save some money if that helps.

 

[Soltydog]

it might be cheaper to split your journey
Just had a quick look on east coast trains web & you can get a single from Doncaster to Whitehaven for £12.90 booking in advance. (I used 20th April as a date)

 

[mcshroom]

If it helps the single (off peak) from Carlisle to Whitehaven is £8.60 on the day.

Also a warning that the Cumbrian Coastal line only carries 2 bikes at any one time (one of the trains 2 is a struggle to fit) and only runs about every 70mins Sat and 3 times a day Sun (first arriving in Whitehaven abot 1.30pm)

 

[Gixxerman]

Thanks for the suggestion about splitting the journey.
With splitting it 3 ways I have it down to £34.05:-
Market Rasen -> Doncaster £13
Doncaster -> Carlise £12.45
Carlise -> Whitehaven £8.60

I hadn't realised that getting creative in splitting the journey up can save you some serious cash. What is strange (and maddening!) is that the fare for Market Rasen to Carlise is £48.80 and it uses the same trains in a lot of cases.
Arrrrghhh!
What a complete mess. How do they expect people to use the trains when it takes a PHD in calculus to work out the cheapest fare.
Why does it have to be this complicated? Anybody?
In Germany and Holland for example, it is much simpler and a whole lot cheaper. We should be rightfully ashamed of our train service in the country.
There is an opportunity for someone to write a serach engine that does the journey splitting and finds you the cheapest fare. They could charge a small amount for the service. I would definitely pay for it.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

If you ever need to change trains, don't expect any of the booking sites to come up with the best fare (unless, sometimes, the trains are run by the same company). Once, adding the extra little leg from my local station to my 'mainline' station practically doubled the price - I think because there aren't advance fares for some commuter services, so the price quoted for the whole fare becomes 'standard' rather than 'advance'.

You'll need to check each 'leg' by itself so see if that helps. If that doesn't help too much you can try split even further.

Picking a random date in April shows that I can get man picc -> carlisle £14 advance,
carlisle to whitehaven is £8.60 whenever, whereever it seems,
market rasen -> man picc is £27 'anytime'. so that's cheaper but still a bit expensive.
(split further - market rasen -> barnetby is 4.50 anytime, 9.50/11/14 currently showing for barnetby -> man picc; so currently able to do it for £36.60 total).

don't forget advance tickets are that train only, although if national rail stuffs up so you miss your connection they will let you on other trains; but if you mess up it's your problem and std. walk up fare, ta. Also make sure you book the right train, so your arriving / leaving times tie up.

Bit painful to do

 

[SavageHoutkop]

sorry, cross posting

 

[SavageHoutkop]

There is an opportunity for someone to write a serach engine that does the journey splitting and finds you the cheapest fare. They could charge a small amount for the service. I would definitely pay for it.

Only if they buy the tickets as well. I am currently doing a regular split-ticket trip (same bloomin' train, never mind changes) and booking 4 seperate tickets *with* reservations making sure they're all for the right train and seat; and then having to fetch them all from the fast ticket machine with a different reservation number for each is beginning to do my head in.

 

[Darkmarkster]

I am planning on doing the C2C sometime in March or April.
My initial serches for trains have shown that they are extortionate. From Market Rasen to Whitehaven is £77. No amount of searching can better that. The return from Sunderland is a lot better at £13.80.
Anybody got any idea why the Whitehaven train is so expensive? Or a better fare / route to save some money.
I am prepared to cycle 20 - 30 miles to save some money if that helps.

Are you eligible for any railcards? I booked a London-Workington via Carlisle single ticket for £7.50 using a under 25 railcard for May.

Only problem is my train leaves at 5.45am so it will be a 3am wake up

 

[Gixxerman]

Are you eligible for any railcards? I booked a London-Workington via Carlisle single ticket for £7.50 using a under 25 railcard for May.

Under 25? I wish. No mate I'm 45 so no railcards here.

I am just dumbfounded at the lunacy of our train fare system. How can several singles be cheaper than a return when you are using the same route, and in a lot of cases, the same trains. It always used to be the case that a return was cheaper than a single.

 

[PpPete]

Not just singles....
Day return from Eastleigh - Birmingham New Street - exhorbitant
Split ticket Eastleigh-Basingstoke-Banbury-Birmingham is far cheaper, even though it's all on same train with no changes, but getting 3 separate day returns from the machine is a long winded process. Have to be at station about 30 minutes ahead to ensure enough time.

 

[Darkmarkster]

Under 25? I wish. No mate I'm 45 so no railcards here.

I am just dumbfounded at the lunacy of our train fare system. How can several singles be cheaper than a return when you are using the same route, and in a lot of cases, the same trains. It always used to be the case that a return was cheaper than a single.

Yeah its disgraceful the price that they charge for some of the tickets