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Airport Services

Gatwick Airport (London).  Gatwick Airport has a dedicated Gatwick Express service from London's Victoria Station to the airports own rail station.  The service leaves central London and the airport every 15 minutes for a 30 minute non stop journey. Fares are £14.90 for a single and £26.80 for a return.  First class tickets are also available.  However while this service is excellent for air passengers (luggage space, fast service and dedicated to the airport) there are cheaper options.  For a cheaper train ticket to Gatwick Airport, the Southern Railway operates it's own regular service between the airport station and London Victoria.  By comparison to the Gatwick Express the single fare is £8.90 (a saving of £6 compared with Gatwick Express) and you can use railcards!  While it's not a dedicated train it operates with similar frequency, almost as fast journey times and has modern, comfortable air conditioned trains.  Tickets can be purchased on the day at either Gatwick Airport Station or Victoria Station. 

Heathrow Airport (London).  The Heathrow Express train connects London's Paddington Station and Heathrow Airport in just 15 minutes non stop.   It offers return standard class fares for £28 and single tickets for £14.50 - if booked online, if you buy at the station they cost even more.  They also have a first class return for £48.  For a 15 minute journey this must be the UK's most expensive first class ticket.   However, if you have an extra 10 minutes to spare, Heathrow Connect Offers a service from Heathrow Airport Terminal 1 to London Paddington which takes 25 minutes and costs only 6.90 single and 12.90 return.  For further savings you can even use your Railcard on these trains to get 1/3 off these prices.   Alternatively the London Underground still runs its regular services to the airport for a fraction of the cost.  Since you will probably transfer to a tube train anyway to reach your destination in London, why not complete the entire journey this way! 

Prestwick International Airport (Glasgow, not to be confused with Glasgow Airport).  The airport has it's own railway station only 32 miles from Glasgow city centre with a frequent and fast electric railway linking Glasgow Central Station and Prestwick airport.  From Glasgow you can connect to trains all over Scotland.  Still on offer is free train travel!  For the first 6 months of any new route all passengers are entitled to FREE rail travel to/from Glasgow Prestwick Airport . The rail travel is only applicable on the days that you travel to and from the airport. You can only use the free offer out with this time if there are no trains from your designated station on your day of travel to the airport. The route that currently qualifies for the free rail offer is Katowice (from 3 September 2007 - 5 March 2008). To get your free travel tickets, produce your original flight confirmation (your booking confirmation with the airline logo) at a First ScotRail Booking Office or the airport's information desk where you'll be issued with a FREE travel voucher to anywhere in Scotland. These free tickets are not available on train.  For all other air routes you can claim half price train travel!  Passengers travelling to and from the airport for all other flights will receive 50% discount on the standard fare.  To qualify for the discount passengers have to show their official flight confirmation and photo id to the train conductor when buying their ticket. 

Bus Links

Free Bus - Chester City Bus Link.  A free bus is available to Rail users from the front of Chester station to Frodsham St, in the town centre. The bus operates Monday to Saturday between 07:30 and 19:30 and runs every 6 minutes.  The bus does not operate on Sundays.  Simply show your rail ticket to the driver. 

Free Bus - Glasgow Central to Queen Street Station.  Glasgow's two terminals are linked by a free bus for rail passengers.  Buses leave from outside the rail stations and run up to every 10 minutes.  If walking it is a ten minute walk and signposted. 

England - North

Transpennine Express.  Transpennine Express are offering students with a Student Railcard 50% off train fares on their network.  The usual Railcard discount is 30% on other train companies.  These fares are only available when you book online at Transpennine Express.  Remember that your Railcard can also be used on all other National Rail companies for 30% discount.  Also, with changes to the ticket terms and conditions it can now be used on Advance (the cheapest tickets) fares for the best possible prices.

Hull Trains have special Pioneer Advance fares from Hull to London starting at £15 one way.  They also have a discount code with 'Carry my Luggage', a service which takes your bags to your destination for you.  Quote  'HT101' and call 0845 009 0362 when traveling with Hull Trains to take advantage of this offer. 

Hull Trains have now introduced an even lower fare for their two off peak services.  The Advance Purchase 4 ticket is only available on the 19.18 service from Hull to London and the 20.27 service from London - Hull on Mondays to Fridays.  The ticket is lower than the normal lowest value fare of £15.00 and costs only £9.00 single. 

Chester City Bus Link - Free Bus.  Rail passengers travelling to / from Chester Railway Station may take advantage of a free Rail Link bus to Chester City Centre.  A free bus is available to Rail users from the front of Chester station to Frodsham St, in the town centre. The bus operates Monday to Saturday between 07:30 and 19:30 and runs every 6 minutes.

The bus does not operate on Sundays.

England - South

Chiltern Railways.  London to Birmingham for £5.  The usual method of reaching Birmingham from London is by Virgin Trains and their High Speed Pendolino which covers the journey in only 1 hour 31 minutes (2 hours 12 minutes for non express) for express services.  Alternatively though, head to London's Marylebone Station for the Chiltern Trains service to Birmingham from only £5 each way!  The trains have a catering service, are comfortable and air conditioned and take only slightly longer at 2 hours 20 minutes.  However if time is not too great an issue, it's a great saving!   Tickets can only be purchased at Chilternrailways.co.uk
in advance and are not available from stations or onboard. 

Just 15.  Chiltern Railways have a special off peak saver ticket which is priced at £15 for a single journey from the West Midlands to London.  It's a walk up fare so no advance booking is necessary and railcards can also be used for further savings.  Just 15 is also available for many other longer distance journeys (not involving London) on Chiltern Railways, e.g. High Wycombe to Leamington Spa, Denham to Solihull or Gerrards Cross to Stratford-upon-Avon, offering great savings compared to Cheap Day Return or Saver fares.  Find out more from the Chiltern website or any Chiltern Railways staffed station. 

Chiltern Rover Ticket.  3 days unlimited travel out and about anywhere along the Chiltern Railways route, including London, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shakespeare Country and the West Midlands.  The Rover can also be used on the 3 chosen days for unlimited free travel on Stagecoach in Warwickshire bus services throughout Shakespeare Country, including routes from Leamington Spa to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, Coventry, Compton Verney, Kenilworth and Rugby. *Chiltern Rover is not valid before 0915 on Mondays to Fridays, except you CAN use it on the 0854 departure from London Marylebone to Stratford-upon-Avon. PRICES: £39 (Adult), £19.50 (Child).  It is only available at Chiltern's London Terminus - Marylebone Station. 

Southern Railway.  The Southern Railway operates and excellent rail service south of London.  There are now a number of amazing value tickets for days out on their network.  All of the following tickets can ONLY be purchased online at SouthernRailway.com.  They must be purchased at least 7 days in advance at all times and 14 days in advance at busy times of year and or if you live outside the UK. 

Daysave - Travel all day for only £10!  The Daysave ticket is valid for unlimited travel all day on Southern Rail services.  DaySave can be used as follows: - Anytime on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays - Not before 10:00 Monday to Friday - Not between 16:45 and 19:15 Monday to Friday from London stations (Victoria, London Bridge and Clapham Junction) - Not valid from London Waterloo or north of London Bridge # Group tickets are valid for up to four people (adults or children) who must travel together at all times. # Tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded.  If traveling as a group, up to four adults can travel for £20 and accompanied children are £1. 

Downlander - From only £10, travel to as many places in the South Downs in one day as you wish using train services provided by Southern and bus services from these companies: Brighton & Hove Buses, The Cuckmere Community Bus, Eastbourne Buses and East Sussex County Council ‘rider buses’.  With Downlander tickets, discounts are also given to a number of great attractions.  Downlander e-tickets are sold exclusively online and cannot be bought at stations.  Downlander comes in two types; the South Coast Downlander and All Network Downlander, both giving different ranges of travel.  The Southern Railway website (above) gives details of the tickets, rail services, bus routes, visitor attractions and discounts to attractions offered by these tickets. 

England - Southeast

C2C trains are offering 20% off weekend and Bank Holiday travel throughout 2008.  There are Weekend Cheap Day Returns, Travelcards (London Transport) and Groupsave - where three or four adults can travel to London for the price of two.  They suggest you ask at any C2C for advice on which option would suit you best. 

England - Southwest

Southwest Trains.  You can travel on some selected off peak normal Southwest Trains services for only £1 with their Megatrain option.  Currently, megatrain seats are available on a number of our selected off-peak Monday to Saturday services from London Waterloo to and from Bath Spa, Bournemouth, Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter Central, Exeter St Davids, Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth & Southsea, Salisbury, Southampton Central, Weymouth and Yeovil Junction.  Fares start at £1 and increase as more people book onto the particular service.  The tickets cannot be used to travel to intermediate station and are very restricted on which trains offer them.  However if you feel like a day out and can be flexible with your travel times this could be Britain's cheapest train ticket!  Tickets are only available online at Megatrain. 

Intercity Operators

Tickets from £10.00 on National Express.   National Express have continued the GNER discounted Value Advance fares.  The tickets start at £10, however the discounted tickets are extremely limited so the best advice is to book as far in advance as possible as the fares go up the busier the train gets.  One handy thing is that National Express will let you sign up to be notified when booking opens for new dates, see the website for details - National Expresseastcoast.com.

Discounted Tickets on National Express East Coast in Scotland.  Although the lowest NE East Coast fares in England start at £10.00, fares in Scotland are even lower.  These are rarely advertised as the lowest fare available on most services is the £10.00 fare available for certain trains between York and London for example.  However if you are traveling entirely within Scotland, NE East Coast have lots of value fares.  Edinburgh to Inverness for example starts at just £8.90 single, while Aberdeen to Dundee starts at £6.00.  Even better news is that north of the boarder these fares are available most of the time (as the trains are less busy) unlike the more expensive routes to and within England.  The only down side is that NE run very few trains on these routes (most are First Scotrail) so you need to pick your journey times carefully.  Also First Scotrail's bargain tickets are all offered as returns - so you cant use one of these in one direction and Scotrail in the other.  So the best strategy is either to use NE both ways or perhaps take a bus one way (Megabus or Citylink) and the train the other. 

National Entitlement Card (Scotland).  If you are aged 16-18 (or a young full time volunteer aged 19 - 25) and living in Scotland, you can get 1/3 off most single bus fares, 1/3 of most rail fares and 2 free ferry journeys each year if you live on a Scottish Island.  The card is free and you can apply for it online at What's in it for me?

Transpennine Express.  Transpennine Express are offering students with a Student Railcard 50% off train fares on their network.  The usual Railcard discount is 30% on other train companies.  These fares are only available when you book online at Transpennine Express.  Remember that your Railcard can also be used on all other National Rail companies for 30% discount.  Also, with changes to the ticket terms and conditions it can now be used on Advance (the cheapest tickets) fares for the best possible prices.