How To Save Money On Train / Rail Fares And Tickets

How to save ?100?s off your Underground/Rail travel fares.

If you are reading this then you are probably fed up with hot, stinky, busy delayed tubes and trains and are looking for some sort of relief or compensation. So, take a deep breath because you have finally stumbled across a little bit of relief from those headaches.

What I am about to show you is 100% tried, tested and proven by myself and others.

This document will be as concise and to the point as I can make it, but I?ll start with how to get money back from journeys that you have travelled.

The TFL or Transport for London and all Rail firms have a way of compensating their customers for any inconvenience caused by delayed tubes or trains. The thing is that even though they offer this option for distraught travellers, what 99% of people do not realise is that if a tube is delayed by 15 minutes or more, or train is delayed by 30 minutes or more, then you can claim back costs on your journey. Surprised? I was. How many times have you been standing on a platform listening to the loud speaker of another delay, signalling failure, engineering works etc? A few I bet. If you added all those journeys together and estimated the cost of them, you would be surprised at how much money you could have possibly claimed back.

So, in order to save money off your travel fares the summarised procedure is to pick up the refund vouchers from the tube/train station, fill them in, post them, await the vouchers and then cash them in at any train station in return for your, daily, weekly or monthly travel card. Be aware though, that it can take approx a week or two to end the process, but be happy in knowing that it is 100% proven and will almost certainly work and can be done over and over again at any time of the year.

So, let?s begin with the steps;

1. Pick up the refund form. Now these forms are located at every single tube/rail stop and you have probably walked passed them a hundred times before and not even noticed them. They are situated with the little maps of the Underground and are on one of the walls in a holder close to the gates or ticket machines. They most often than not say ?Our Customer Charter?.

2. Fill in the form.
We will talk about the form in three sections.

Section 1 Fill in your personal details;
Name, address, phone number and email address. Now here you really only need to put your name and address as your phone number and email are irrelevant.

Section 2 Ticket details;
There are 5 different ways to prove your ticket status.

A. Oyster Card details. If you used an Oyster card for your journey you just put in your Oyster card number and what type of card, Adult, Child or odd Period you have.
B. TFL Travel card. Put in the ticket number, issuing station and expiry date.
C. Normal Tube; single, return, daily or 7 day ticket. Of which you need to attach to the form.
D. National Rail Travel card. Again, Ticket number, Issuing station and Expiry date.
E. Or, and the easiest option and failsafe one is if you were travelling on a single journey and the ticket was retained by the ticket machine when leaving, you just have to fill in which tube stop you departed from.

Section 3 Claim details;
This is where you need to fill in the information of your journey. Details include;
? Where you started your journey from.
? Where you finished your journey.
? The date of the delay.
? Approx start time of your journey.
? Approx time of the delay.
? Length of delay. Make sure that you put in at least 15 minutes for a tube journey or 30 minutes for a rail journey as this is the minimum amount of time for a refund to be issued.
? Which station, or between which stations did the delay occur.
? Which line/s were you travelling on.
? Date it and sign it.

Now this all seems like a lot but once you see the form you?ll realise that this can be done all in less than a minute.

3. Post the form.
Another thing to be aware of is that the form needs to be sent into the rail firm within 14 days of when the delay occurred. Postage is free and you just need to seal up the form and drop it in the post box.
The amount of refund you get back depends on your journey. If you travelled from say zone 1 to 3 then you would get back ?2.50 or from zone 1-2 you would get ?2 etc, basically the cost of your single journey.

4. Cash in the vouchers.
So, every time you experience a delay of 15 minutes or more go grab yourself a form, fill it in, post it off, and within a week or two the Rail firm will send you the voucher. You either hold onto these vouchers until you have enough for a weekly or monthly pass or use them for a single journey by taking them up to any ticketing booth and cashing them in. If you experience the type of delays I?ve been experiencing then you can easily save up an abundance of vouchers.

Ok, so now you know how to get money back from journeys that you have travelled, let?s look at how we can make those journeys cheaper in the first place.

Due to the complex ticket structuring, buying tickets for stages of your journey can work out much cheaper than buying a single ticket. And it is completely legit !! It takes a bit of working out, but once you have it you will be quids in!

I used to commute from Sheffield to Wakefield to work each day and by buying a South Yorkshire Travel Master ticket together with a season ticket between Moorthorpe and Wakefield was costing me ?107.95 per month instead of the full season ticket price of ?133.50 between Sheffield and Wakefield. This combination of ticket is valid on a through train which does not call at Moorthorpe station (e.g. 0712 Virgin Train) as permitted under Condition 17(c) of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, which says:

17. A combination of tickets
You may use two or more tickets to travel on one train journey as long as together they cover the entire journey and one of the following applies:

(a) they are zonal tickets;
(b) the train you are on calls at the station where you change from one ticket to another; or
(c) one of the tickets is a season ticket, which for this purpose does not include season tickets or travel passes issued on behalf of a passenger transport executive or local authority, and the other ticket(s) is/are not. You must comply with any restriction of use to a particular Train Company's trains shown on the tickets (see Condition 10).

South Yorkshire Zone Travel Master ticket: ?63.50 per month;
One Month season ticket between Moorthorpe and Leeds: ?72.20 per month;
Making it ?135.70 per month altogether.

One full season ticket between Sheffield and Leeds: ?151.00 per month.

By buying a combination of tickets as above, a saving of ?15.30 per month can be made, plus the cost of all public transport to and from Sheffield station as the Travel Master ticket is valid on all buses and trams as well whilst the season ticket between Sheffield and Leeds is valid on trains only, and the cost of a First Month ticket on the bus will cost an additional ?39 per month.

This combination of tickets satisfy condition 17(c) because the Moorthorpe to Leeds season ticket is the season ticket required and the South Yorkshire Travel Master ticket is the 'other' ticket when the condition says clearly that it is not to be regarded as a season ticket for this purpose.

Another ticket is the Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket when it can be used in conjunction with a Cheap Day Return ticket from Burton on Trent for travel to Birmingham.

Derbyshire Wayfarer - valid between Sheffield and Burton on Trent: ?7.50 (includes a free child place!)

Cheap Day Return from Burton on Trent to Birmingham: ?5.90 - making it ?13.40 in total.

A full saver return between Sheffield and Birmingham costs a whopping ?27.30 - plus half fare for a child if you are taking one.

By buying a combination of ticket as above, a saving of at least ?13.90 can be made just for one day out! However, in this case, the trains that you travel must call at Burton on Trent station as neither ticket is a season ticket and so condition 17(b) applies.

All major towns have ?zone? tickets that mean you can travel across a huge distance on just one ticket, or use it in conjunction with the rest of your trip.

For instance, in the Midlands, their ?zone? ticket is the ?Daytripper? this is valid from Stafford all the way to Rugby on the WCML !!

If you ever need to go to Crewe, ask for a ticket to Chester, I know its further, but a B?ham ? Crewe is ?16, B?ham ? Chester is ?10.60 !
And the beauty is, you must change at Crewe to go to Chester, you just don?t use that part of the ticket !

If you travel between London and Scotland, try splitting the ticket at Stafford. It wont always work, but its worked for me many times to break the ticket here, its 2 tickets, but you don?t even get off the train !

The same goes if you need to go to Liverpool or Manchester, try the break at Stafford.

The other day I needed to travel from London to Manchester, not very odd you might say, but I bought an advance ticket from London to Glasgow because it was cheaper than a London to Manchester, and the Glasgow train has to stop in Manchester to pick up passengers !!

If you travel up the East Coast main line ( GNER ) try splitting the ticket at York, or even if your travelling to Edinburgh from the Midlands.

Trains to Plymouth, Cornwall etc, try out Bristol or Taunton

Trains along First Group line, from say Bristol to London, your ticket at Didcot. Or if your travelling from London to Cornwall, try the break or 2 breaks at Bristol and Didcot.

Travelling from the south coast ? try getting to the capital first, then continue your journey. I know you will have to change train, but a lot of cheap fairs originate from London.

There are no hard and fast rules on this but it's usual that you will need to pick a station which is about half-way through your journey, or one which is at a county boundary where you cross from one county to another. But go and have a friendly chat to the ticket agent, most of them will be happy to help you out!

So good luck with it all and I hope this information can make your Rail or Tube journeys a little more bearable.

And remember, always keep hold of your tickets !!

Originally Posted by Paper_Chaser Exactly, you wouldnt really carry idea around at 15, well i didnt, or if the ticket geezer is near just loudly mention summink bout school etc, i always get a child fare on the way to clubbin, you save enough to get a drink or whatever, well worth it. Peace