Train Prices

[Ajax Bay]

"Advance tickets are single (one-way) tickets for many longer and some shorter distance journeys, are available in First Class and Standard Class and offer the best available price for each journey. Tickets must be booked in advance up to the day before travel and tickets are subject to availability. Advance tickets are valid only on the specific booked train"
Having had a quick look at your journey, as if you were doing both journeys on 12 Apr, the total of two singles is £41. Seems good value to me, at the disadvantage of having to choose the trains you are going to catch 12 weeks ahead and some departures will not be available at those prices. Put a marker in your diary for 84 days ahead (for the outbound trip) and a few days later for the return from Newcastle.
Edited to add: I use the GWR website - https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey

 

[subaqua]

If you can plan ahead you can get some great prices . PAD to PNZ first class return for £40 . I can eat and drink more than that in complimentary stuff in first.

Rock up on the day and it can be eyewateringly expensive .

 

[EasyPeez]

"Advance tickets are single (one-way) tickets for many longer and some shorter distance journeys, are available in First Class and Standard Class and offer the best available price for each journey. Tickets must be booked in advance up to the day before travel and tickets are subject to availability. Advance tickets are valid only on the specific booked train"
Having had a quick look at your journey, as if you were doing both journeys on 12 Apr, the total of two singles is £41. Seems good value to me, at the disadvantage of having to choose the trains you are going to catch 12 weeks ahead and some departures will not be available at those prices. Put a marker in your diary for 84 days ahead (for the outbound trip) and a few days later for the return from Newcastle.
Edited to add: I use the GWR website - https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey

Yes, I think you're right. Going for advance singles and Plumping for a specific train is definitely the way forward financially. Just means I'll have to build in a bit of time for possible mechanicals and be sure not to get lost. Should add an element of excitement/peril to the whole affair if nothing else!

I already did as you suggested with the diary marker yesterday.

I'll be travelling back from either Edinburgh, Dunbar or Berwick as opposed to Newcastle (I'll have to make a solid decision about that upfront as opposed to leaving it open to decide on the day as a return ticket would allow) so the cost might be slightly different to the one you found, but should be ballpark.

£40-50 for Hull to Newcastle and then somewhere in Scotland back to Hull is certainly far more palatable than the original £150+ I was looking at, albeit with the need to sacrifice some flexibility.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. As you've probably guesses I'm not much of a user of trains, so this will be helpful planning future forays further afield too.

Cheers.

 

[Blue Hills]

If you can plan ahead you can get some great prices . PAD to PNZ first class return for £40 . I can eat and drink more than that in complimentary stuff in first.
.

Good tip visions of some serious stuffing going on. Surely there must be some limit on what you can eat drink before you roll off the train?

 

[mjr]

Good tip visions of some serious stuffing going on. Surely there must be some limit on what you can eat drink before you roll off the train?

From memory, on GWR you're only limited by how many times the trolley passes through (if it's a trolley service - not sure if it still is on the new trains) or how much shame you can bear by asking the attendants(?) for more food. It's a limited menu, shown at https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/first-class but I've never seen anyone refused except on a weekend service when they asked the buffet for products from the on-sale range rather than the included menu.

On some other services with included full meals like East Coast, they used to keep offering more food on a cycle: starters, drinks, mains, drinks, desserts, drinks. I think it repeated twice during a London-Edinburgh service, with gaps at the ends of the route while they set up and clean up. I've not tried First Class on that route since Virgin took over.

(edited to correct typo: they did not offer us deserts)

 

[Flying Dodo]

Although bear in mind Virgin East Coast don't offer the full food service in 1st Class at weekends - it's wraps, nuts and drinks only, so no hot food.

 

[NorthernDave]

From memory, on GWR you're only limited by how many times the trolley passes through (if it's a trolley service - not sure if it still is on the new trains) or how much shame you can bear by asking the attendants(?) for more food. It's a limited menu, shown at https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/first-class but I've never seen anyone refused except on a weekend service when they asked the buffet for products from the on-sale range rather than the included menu.

On some other services with included full meals like East Coast, they used to keep offering more food on a cycle: starters, drinks, mains, drinks, desserts, drinks. I think it repeated twice during a London-Edinburgh service, with gaps at the ends of the route while they set up and clean up. I've not tried First Class on that route since Virgin took over.

(edited to correct typo: they did not offer us deserts)

In my (limited) experience on Virgin East Coast First Class, they need a bit of a nudge to deliver anything but the minimum service - travelling north they'd often not get the food service going until nearly Peterborough, meaning people travelling there only got a drink rather than the advertised meal - which were little better than supermarket microwave meals, despite the supposed celebrity chef tie-ins
The staff could also be quite good at keeping out of sight once underway making it difficult to ask for another drink or snack.
Plus they'd like to have everything finished and put away before Doncaster (travelling to Leeds).

The extra room and plusher seats were nice, but I struggled to see any value in the £220+ cost of an open single.

 

[subaqua]

From memory, on GWR you're only limited by how many times the trolley passes through (if it's a trolley service - not sure if it still is on the new trains) or how much shame you can bear by asking the attendants(?) for more food. It's a limited menu, shown at https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/first-class but I've never seen anyone refused except on a weekend service when they asked the buffet for products from the on-sale range rather than the included menu.

On some other services with included full meals like East Coast, they used to keep offering more food on a cycle: starters, drinks, mains, drinks, desserts, drinks. I think it repeated twice during a London-Edinburgh service, with gaps at the ends of the route while they set up and clean up. I've not tried First Class on that route since Virgin took over.

(edited to correct typo: they did not offer us deserts)

I concur ..

 

[bruce1530]

It might be a problem but probably wouldn't. If you are concerned, you could always get the return ticket, and another single from somewhere near Newcastle to Newcastle to use to exit the station.

...or feign illness. You’d be very unlucky to find a station employee who’d stop you and insist on messing around with tickets if you are likely to vomit over them.

I have vivid memories as a small child coming home from a foreign holiday, feeling very unwell and holding an air-sick bag to my face. Just before we arrived at the customs check, my gran hid a half bottle of brandy in my sick bag.....

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Looking at ticket prices again for tomorrow, I didn't buy them on Tuesday as not sure what the weather was going to be like, I've just looked the £22.60 ticket is now £45.80

 

[mjr]

Looking at ticket prices again for tomorrow, I didn't buy them on Tuesday as not sure what the weather was going to be like, I've just looked the £22.60 ticket is now £45.80

The £22.60 ticket allocation has probably sold out rather than time-expired, but I don't think anyone's exactly sure of the different train operator's practices with Advance tickets. I've booked a few stonking deals 2 hours before departure, which used to be the minimum time to be able to collect prepaid tickets from a machine - I've rarely used print-at-home and never mobile ticketing, which might not have such restrictions... but none of this really helps you because I've never noticed journeys get cheaper as you get nearer to the day

 

[mjr]

If you can plan ahead you can get some great prices . PAD to PNZ first class return for £40 . I can eat and drink more than that in complimentary stuff in first.

www.brfares.com makes me think that's booked 17+ days ahead for a Mon-Thu off-peak with railcard. Nice when it works out.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Eventually booked it through https://splitmyfare.trainsplit.com/ for £31.06 it was worth not booking earlier for me in case of the bad weather

 

[robjh]

www.brfares.com makes me think that's booked 17+ days ahead for a Mon-Thu off-peak with railcard. Nice when it works out.

I've bookmarked that link, thanks.
It gives a bit of a nerdview of rail fares, but that's alright by me

 

[subaqua]

I've bookmarked that link, thanks.
It gives a bit of a nerdview of rail fares, but that's alright by me

I make no apologies for knowing how to buck the system , the amount of time I have to spend on trains travelling for work means I am learning the 3 digit station codes too.
I gotta get out more ...