Train travel (to City games)

Trainsplit.com is a good way to save money on the same journey by splitting the tickets into a few different singles rather than just 1. Also if he is aged 16-30 he can get either the 16-25 or 26-30 rail card which gives 30% off tickets. It costs £30 for 1 year so need to spend £90 to get your money back but I wouldn't have thought that would be many journey's from Durham to Bradford.

 

Tickets booked well in advance, on line , can save a fortune.

 

You can book too far in advance. The cheapest tickets tend to be released about 8 - 12 weeks ahead but at the weekend engineering works mean they aren't released until nearer the time. Good advice here.
https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-britain.htm#how-to-buy-tickets

 

That’s the best way RT. Time of day, day of week can also make a huge difference, however the more in advance you are able to plan the better. In my days the nominal time for cheapness used to be 6 weeks ahead. The Rail Delivery Group keep messing with rules and regs , so spend a bit of time on the net after deciding which games your lad wants to attend.

Beware of strike days and engineering works too.

 

Rail cards are brilliant - instead of £30 you can use your Tesco Clubcard vouchers to buy one for half price. I bought a couple of 2 togeather rail cards earlier this year for £10 each (this has changed to £15). Our trip to Sutton on the 28th more than saves the fee.

 

You’d think that should be the case but rail travel in this country is a massive rip off.
I’d been searching for reasonably priced train fares from Shipley to Wimbledon since the fixtures were announced in June and never found anything cheaper than £300 for the 4 of us.
Instead it cost us £70 to drive. It’s a no brainer so sadly I’ll continue to pollute the planet.

 

I agree wholeheartedly . Ticket purchasers pay far , far more, than all European countries who also operate High Speed railways whilst we still operate on Victorian infrastructure .

 

Driving down to Plymouth a week today looked at train prices which were extortionate and possibly disrupted. So it’s a long drive once again for this old codger

 

I booked 4 train tickets for Sutton from Low moor - grand central to King Cross - then a walk to St Pancras - train to west Sutton.
£57 a person - not too ridiculous.

I agree with the comments in Europe - in Italy we got a day ticket for €9 anywhere all day.

 

I think £228 travel costs to attend a football match just 200 miles away is ludicrously ridiculous for a family.

 

Out of interest did you park near the ground? Traffic and parking looked a nightmare plus it said the M4 was shut so I opted to park at Stanmore, and me & the lad tubed it to Tooting Broadway. Unfortunately it was 6.45 by the time we got back to the car, didn't get home til 10pm so swings and roundabouts I guess, but I didn't want to risk the stress of driving into London

Sutton will be different, as there is plenty of street parking around the ground so i'll drive all the way

 

The initial idea was to park at Stanmore but then found out the line to Wimbledon Park was closed and the faffing around getting to Tooting Broadway changed our minds into using justpark which was close to the Woodman pub.
Getting through London was surprisingly easy, following the North circular road to Hammersmith , through Fulham and out the other side.

 

Good luck with that, the last three experiences I've had with that Train with GC have resulted in two cancellations and a broken down train that resulted in five hours sat outside Newark. Grand Central's rolling stock might as well be steam driven for its efficency.

 

I totally agree with you on that - you are correct of course. I was just talking as a 5 single people.

 

Good old Low Moor Station. Do they still have those things in the yard behind the station that look like massive things from Pokemon??!