Train ticket splitting: why is it sometimes so effective?

[nickyboy]

Thats a great site if it works.

It works. I inputted my journey details and paid through the site. I got the email confirmation. I went to my local station today and picked up the tickets from the self service machine. Everything fine.

They charge £1 booking fee which is a bit of a pain and they take 10% of the saving as their fee. They do tell you what the tickets are before you buy so you could just make a note of these and buy them directly. But it was only a £3 fee and I don't want to rip off what is a really helpful site

 

[NorthernDave]

Until recently I had to have to go to that there Laaarndan for work meetings every couple of months.
For reasons that I've never been able to understand it was frequently cheaper to get a 1st class ticket to Doncaster and then another 1st class ticket from there to Kings Cross than to get a standard class through ticket, even though I stayed on the same train throughout...the only thing was (like @nickyboy ) I'd be allocated a different seat for both parts of the journey, although it was never anywhere near full so you could stay where you were.
Same on the return leg too.

 

[subaqua]

I like advance tickets where I know I will travel . I did Paddington to Penzance 1st class , then Penzance to st Austell in standard cheaper than Paddington to st Austell in standard . On the same train ! !!!

I know I could have got off a st Austell on the 1st journey by " breaking my journey " but I wanted the Hayle estuary viaduct experience in daylight ! ( well worth it )

 

[mustang1]

Why is it often cheaper to go to London from somewhere than it is to go from London to somewhere? For example, from Liverpool to London one way is £32 but the same journey from London to Liverpool one way is £41.95...

Headwind uses more fuel.

 

[postman]

My daughter did the same.Same seat on train.Edinburgh to Newcastle or Darlington i can't remember.Then To York Then York to Leeds.Saved a fortune.

 

[subaqua]

I like advance tickets where I know I will travel . I did Paddington to Penzance 1st class , then Penzance to st Austell in standard cheaper than Paddington to st Austell in standard . On the same train ! !!!

I know I could have got off a st Austell on the 1st journey by " breaking my journey " but I wanted the Hayle estuary viaduct experience in daylight ! ( well worth it )

Yes it's bad form replying to own posts . However I failed to mention what I paid.

£20 ...

Would have been £85 in standard !

 

[Bodhbh]

That's the beauty. There is no connection. It's exactly the same train. Getting a ticket from A to E (travelling through B,C and D) cost £60, getting tickets A-B, B-C,C-D and D-E cost me £28. Whenever a ticket inspection takes place, I show them the relevant ticket for the bit of the journey I'm on

The only slight inconvenience is I couldn't organise seat reservations myself so I've got 3 different reservations for different bits of the journey but they're all in the same carriage so no biggy

Doh, sorry I missed the fact there's no connection. Regarding the reservations, half the time I travel the train either seems to be too full to reach the reserved seats without serious inconvenience (especially if you're managing getting a bike on and off) or non-reserved seats are the better option. Then there's the fact alot of the time reserved seats are left unoccupied too, tho I can't really talk on that given the above.

 

[Surlydave]

Last year I rode Lejog, so needed train tickets to Penzance and back from Inverness. Single tickets Ipswich to Penzance, £130. Ipswich, London, £9, Paddingon, Penzance, £65. Return prices Inverness , Ipswich £145. Inverness, Edinburgh £32, a bit steep! Edinburgh, London £30, London, Ipswich £14 1st class! You do the maths!

 

[NorthernDave]

Preston to Euston is still expensive, however you try to do it.

Pop up the road to Kings Cross, get Grand Central to Bradford (£15.50), then enjoy one of Northern's fine heritage trains to Preston for another £10 (if you book in advance)

(EDIT to add that it might take so long to do the trip you decide you'd rather pay the extra to travel direct... )

 

[Globalti]

Take Northern Fail? Out of choice? No thanks.

Edit: It seems to have become topical, BBC news are talking about this right now.

 

[Freds Dad]

Over 16 million different fares!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38812175

 

[nickyboy]

Well that all went very smoothly. Stockport to Banbury with 4 different tickets. Just had to remember to keep my tickets organised in case they were checked.
Despite having 3 different seat reservations I didn't have to move.

Really this sort of thing should be a standard part of the booking algorithms on the train company websites. The splitticket website feels a bit home made so the code can't be that complex I would have thought

 

[Globalti]

It's exactly what the Gov't is talking about doing right now.

 

[ColinJ]

Don't try doing this at a local station! I did it once and the people in the huge queue that built up behind me were not impressed ...

 

[ianrauk]

Football fan receives 56 separate tickets when he books split fare between Newcastle and Oxford