JJ After looking, all the train operators claim to have released their tickets. There are tickets from Lancaster to Glasgow on virgin trains but nothing yet on the tp express leg to join it. I've booked Lancaster to Glasgow (£10 advance) I'll wait a few days for a Stockport to Lancaster ticket to be come available if not The standard price is £24 so still better than full price to Glasgow.

I don't think the Glasgow Mallaig tickets will sell out - Scotrail basically don't do deals so they are standard advanced purchase tickets that will be available until 24 hours before travel.

With respect I think the info about ScotRail ticketing is likely to be misleading. ScotRail does indeed state that Advance tickets can be purchased at 'up to a whopping 75% off' until 6.00pm the day before. However, ticket pricing on this line does change. The ticket bought last week for Edinburgh to Oban (catching the popular 12.21 out of Glasgow Queen Street) for £14.60 is now £22.20. Earlier/later trains are still available for £14.60. Interestingly, all these tickets are called "Advance". I see no reason why this wouldn't potentially be the case for tickets to Mallaig or anywhere else.

A good place to request ticketing help is the very nerdy ww.railforums.co.uk Here you will find 'Fares, Ticketing & Routeing > Fares Advice & Policy', offering 'Requests for good value tickets and routeing advice, as well as general discussion on fares policy.' Several forum members work for train operating companies and hence have access to/understand the fine detail of both ticketing and fares, and the rules that apply.

A few years back, we discovered Advance Day Single tickets for Glasgow to Mallaig on the Thursday before a Friday start were £30 (but £15 either side of this day for some reason). Within an hour of posting a request for advice we were advised to buy a Anytime Day Single, Glasgow Central/Queen Street to Dalmuir (one stop up the line), cost £3.20, and an Advance Single, Dalmuir to Mallaig, cost £14.70, total cost £17.90.

A quick check using this work-around shows savings currently for Glasgow to Lochailort (i.e. Glasgow-Dalmuir, Dalmuir-Lochailort). And no jumping out of windows required!

My policy is always to sign up with East Coast for email alerts and buy tickets as soon as released (assuming Virgin/Stagecoach continue the same practices as EC following re-privatisation in a few weeks time). Also, as the example above demonstrates, split ticketing should always be tried for any journey.

We can afford to be smug this year. 2 x York to Edinburgh standard singles: cost £0.00 (using our East Coast Rewards points - unfortunately valid only on EC trains so only to Edinburgh, not Glasgow); 2 x Edinburgh to Oban Advance singles (one railcard): cost £24.25. Total cost for two, York to Oban: £24.25

Thanks Graham - paradoxically, it's actually cheaper to buy a ticket from Edinburgh to Oban than from Glasgow!

In fact, Scotrail will probably have its Over-55 deal in May, where tickets will be £19 but we can't be sure of that as ownership changes in April (and I guess fares might change then too)

JJ, Lyndsey, Stan and all,

Wed.6th May Pitmachie(Old Rayne) - Inverness -- Stagecoach 10
Inverness- Fort William --Citylink 919
Fort William-Kilchoan -- Shiel Bus 506


grand total: £0.50p

Thanks Alex and Nicola.

Not that I am trying to ram it down your throat of course!!!!!!

cj,
in a very dull, dank, dismal, drizzly
Aberdeenshire

ps JJ have you never thought of starting some sort of independence referendum for Altrincham or even just devolved authority for old phoagies transport issues?????!!

A wee funny with tickets that nearly caught me out on trainline

I did a glasgow any station to oban search and got a £9.80 quote, I didn't complete the transaction but went back later and re-did the search.

This time without thinking about it, I must have put Glasgow Queen st to oban and it came up at a ridiculous price, I assumed all the cheap tickets had gone.

Eventually I decided to just pay the ridiculous fare so went back online again and inadvertently (luckily) entered Glasgow any station rather than queen st and low and behold the cheap tickets came back on.


Worth trying different versions of the same route if poss.

Oh, the curious world of Network Rail and ticket pricing !

I seem to be quoted far more to go from Harrogate to Preston than for my sleeper from Preston to Fort William.
I appreciate that I'm crossing the Roses border and I may have to pay a tariff for the dubious privilege but whether buying one ticket or splitting it seems to come out the same. The system only wants to sell me a return (it must assume nobody wants to remain in Preston).
Mmm, perhaps wait a few days and see how it develops.

Sadly, each year is the same!

Advance tickets are released only to be more expensive than if you wait a couple of weeks.

Breaking the journey works - sometimes.

Thankfully, I'm booked all the way to Shiel Bridge, but, I've jumped through more hoops than a circus dog!

Scotrail idiocy. Edinburgh-Mallaig single, £20.40; Edinburgh-Lochailort, £32.50. Same true if you are travelling from Glasgow.

No ticket checks at Lochailort so obvious what to do.

We've just booked Manchester (6.14) to Kyle (16.12) on 7 May for Sue (adult) and me (Senior Railcard)for £84. Man to Ed to Perth to Inv to Kyle. Via Glasgow is about £70 but gets you to Kyle at 20.31, which is when we will arrive if we miss any of the tight connections. Four separate tickets were needed, or the price is £237.
Maybe we could have done better, but that cost for the two of us is acceptable.
We haven't yet thought about getting back from Montrose.
Martin, with thanks to HMP3 for starting this thread.

This morning I booked tickets for 7th May:

Manchester to Glasgow (7.16am): £10.75
Glasgow to Fort Bill (12.21pm): £8.80

These prices include my Old Fart's Discount of 30%

JJ

I've saved about £120 by splitting my journey into 3 legs (Penrith to Glasgow, Glasgow to Inverness and Inverness to Strathcarron).

But one word of caution. If you do miss a connection at one of the breaks in journey an advanced ticket becomes invalid, whilst a through anytime ticket can still be used on later journeys if the missed connection is down to a train being late.

Finally, on the nonsense of ticket prices, whilst playing with the options I noted that anytime tickets were often cheaper than off peak only tickets. What's that all about then? Goodness knows what Challengers from overseas must make of our rail pricing!

Sorry, my message above. It should read that a through 'advanced ticket' can be used on a later train if you miss your connection because of a later train.