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The Rail Travel BlogNews, offers and happenings of interest to the train traveller. Updates and new sections on this website are listed in what's new.
New Rail Ticket Types For many years passengers and passenger groups have complained that rail fares have been too complex to understand. From the 18th of May a new fares structure will be partially introduced with full introduction from September. Instead of the huge selection of fares which are currently available, there will now only be three - Advance, Off Peak and Any Time. Advance will be the ticket you purchase in advance, travelling on specified trains and therefore getting the best price. Off Peak will be a ticket you may purchase any time, and travel any time. In return for the extra flexibility it will be more expensive than Advance but not the most expensive ticket as you will be travelling off peak. Any Time will be the most expensive ticket with no advance booking required and allowing you to travel any time on any train, simple really - and at last! Now, does this represent value for money for the passenger? Having had a look at the detail it would appear that it does. Keep in mind the rail companies didn't ask for this or probably want it. This has been in response to passenger demand and looks like a good deal for the passenger. Aside for the simplification of fares the two most exciting developments are common conditions and more railcard discounts. These are very significant developments. For example, all advance tickets are now single fares. In the past for example, First Scotrail had return advance tickets so you couldn't come one way with Scotrail and return with Cross Country or National Express. Now you can mix and match for the best possible fare. Even more exciting is that Railcards will be allowable for Advance Fares! Previously these tickets did not allow Railcard discounts. This means the cheapest tickets will instantly get 30% cheaper for Railcard holders. Perhaps this is why rail companies have been rather silent about this new railcard discount...
Posted 10th May 2008
Win A Year's Free Travel - Again! In addition to Cross Country Trains (below) C2C are also running a competition to win free rail travel for a year. This offer is only available on the company's routes so won't be relevant to as many people. However if you use the train a lot or are a commuter on those lines you could really make some savings if you won. The routes the competition is available on are: London to/from Southend Central and Shoeburyness and intermediate stations. The competition is free to enter. See the C2C Line for details. Posted 13th April 2008 Win A Year's Free Travel
Cross Country Trains are currently running a competition to win a year's free pass to travel anywhere you like on the Cross Country network. Cross Country trains serve almost all parts of the UK and include many scenic and interesting places to visit. The competition is free to enter. See the Cross Country Website for details. Posted 7th April 2008
New Pages - Tourist Information These new pages have some links to good sources of tourist information for Britain. Links will be added as I come across them. There are also some links to online radio so you can find out a bit more about Britain before you arrive (or if you are a UK resident and didn't know you could get radio online, have a listen!) Posted 8th March 2008 New Pages - How to use the London Underground and other Light Rail Systems This site has been rather dominated by the mainline railways of Britain. Perhaps you are only visiting one city, if so help is at hand with the new handy page on Britain's light rail systems. The first entries are for the London Underground, Croydon Tramline and Blackpool Transport with others to follow. Posted 3rd March 2008 Win Rail Family Rail Tickets and Admission to the London Aquarium
2 for 1 Admission to London Attractions is currently offering a chance to win five pairs of family return tickets and admission to the London Aquarium. The competition is free to enter and even if you don't win there are some discount vouchers to download for cheaper admission to the Aquarium. Enter here. The closing date is the 31st March 2008
Posted 23rd February 2008 Free First Class Ticket from Virgin Trains Between the 31st Dec and 3rd Jan 08, Virgin Trains services out of London Euston were seriously disrupted by overrunning enginerring work being carried out by Network Rail. If you happened to be travelling with Virgin Trains on those dates on services out of London Euston, Virgin is offereing you a free first class ticket anywhere on their network. To find out about how to claim this offer, see the special virgin website. Applications for tickets will be accepted until March the 10th. Posted 23rd February 2008 New Railway Opens in Wales! On the 6th February trains returned to Ebbw Vale when the railway to Cardiff was re opened to passenger trains. The £30 million project has introduced an hourly rail service for communities along the line and opened up new travel options. Trains are operated by Arriva Trains Wales and you may find out more at Ebbw Valley Railway Posted 9th February 2008 Support your favorite charity with Easy Fundraising Register with Easy Fundraising to raise money for your preferred charity. The service is free to use and it doesn't cost any extra. Posted 8th February 2008
Club 55 is back - travel anywhere in Scotland for £15 First Scotrail have reintroduced Club 55 between 21 January and 31 March 2008 for journeys within Scotland. Anyone aged 55 or over may travel for just £15 return for any journey. If you have a Senior Railcard you can get an extra £2 discount so that it will only cost you £13! Also keep in mind that if you are travelling on the Edinburgh / Glasgow to Aberdeen or Aberdeen to Inverness routes you may upgrate to First Class for just £4 extra. To take advantage of this offer you may book on the First Scotrail website or at any staffed station in Scotland. You don't have to be a Scottish resident either, so keep it in mind for any visits to Scotland this winter! Posted 20th January 2008 Half Price Tickets each Weekend in Devon and Cornwall
Every weekend in
January and February, you can enjoy half price Cheap Day Return/Single
tickets on the following branch line routes in Devon and Cornwall: Posted 12th January 2008
Fare Increases - 92% of passengers think they are not value for money.
Passenger Focus are running an online pole of whether you think the new fare increases for the New Year offer value for money (see below if you've not heard of them yet). So far 92% of voters think they are not value for money. If you want to vote head to www.passengerfocus.org.uk to take part. Posted 1st January 2008
January Fare Increases - and how to avoid them!
Britain's train companies have announced above inflation fare increases starting January 2008. Regulated fares (e.g. Season Tickets, Savers and Standard Day Returns) will rise by an average of 4.8% while unregulated fares (e.g. Cheap Day Returns, long distance Open and Advance Purchase fares) will rise by an average of 5.4%. The Association of Train Operating companies (the body representing the rail companies) said that the above inflation rises were needed to investment and improvement to services. However if you read the small print of the ATOC press statement you'll find that much of your fare increase revenue will not go anywhere near an improvement to a rail service near you. Rather it's going towards reductions in subsidy and premium payments for franchises (which the rail operators bid for from the government). The ATOC statement says "Fare increases are also needed to fund reduced subsidies to some train operators and premium payments by others to the Department for Transport - an increasing feature of franchise agreements. Around £148 million of premium payments will be paid by train operators in 2008/9 rising to £1.28 billion of premium payments in 2014/15." The government keeps saying it want's to encourage us to use public transport, but the reality of these increases are that they are designed to bring in more money for the Treasury - not change travel methods. If more people really did travel by rail greater investment would be required to put in the capacity. So much for government climate change targets, lets turn to how to reduce the impact your wallet. If you want to reduce your travel costs, check the cheaper fares pages. There's still plenty of bargains for the leisure traveller, but for the commuter without much choice be ready to pay even more for your ticket this New Year. Full details of the fare increases (and those companies who are reducing fares!) may be found here. Posted 1st December 2008
Looking for Adventure? - Try the Sunset Limited
Tired of commuter land rail travel, try a great rail adventure in the USA. This New York Times, Article is worth reading if anyone is wondering what a journey on one of America's great trains is like. The Sunset Limited is the US's oldest named train and crosses through some wonderful scenery in the South West. One point the article did get wrong, it's not actually more expensive than flying for a coach class fare unless you add on sleeper cabins with all meals included for two nights. However it's well worth it. Also it's worth considering breaking up the trip and visiting places along the route which also makes Coach class more appealing. Posted 30th November 2008 Where have all the Virgin Trains gone? If
you've been on the
Virgin Trains
website recently you may be wondering where all their routes have gone.
No more Aberdeen, Dundee, Newcastle, York, Bristol, Bath, Gatwick,
Penzance or Brighton to name but a few. Do
Click here to download a route map for Cross Country.
Posted 24th November 2008
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n't
worry the trains are still running. In fact had the stopped Virgin
would have told you. That they haven't made a big deal of it simply
means that someone else is. The someone else is Arriva. You'll find
all your old favourite Virgin Cross Country routes at the new franchise
- This site was last updated 10-May-2008
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