Trains

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Having not used a train for years I can’t believe the price of a return Chippenham to Paddington is £115 - not peak.

It’s only £70 from Maastricht! I’ve looked at split tickets but to no avail.

If they want people off the roads give them a credible alternative.

[Sippo]

Swindon to Paddington return is £35. Must be going first class.

[Peter Venkman]

Having not used a train for years I can’t believe the price of a return Chippenham to Paddington is £115 - not peak.

It’s only £70 from Maastricht! I’ve looked at split tickets but to no avail.

If they want people off the roads give them a credible alternative.

£63 if booked a week in advance on trainline and pick and choose the time and day to get best benefit.

[Bob's Orange]

I think if you have a railcard you also can save up to 1/3 off the return journey. It is possibly more on a fogeys one.

I go into London twice a week for work and an anytime flexible return ticket is £73. As I get the same trains each time, buying singles way in advance costs £42. I only just realised this week I could buy a railcard for £30 and it reduces the cost of the journey down to £35. I wish i'd done that earlier as the savings are basically paid off in 2 weeks travel!

[4D]

Megabus

[horlock07]

To echo all above get a railcard, I suspect on a £115 ticket the saving will pay for the railcard in the first journey.

I suspect that its something weird to do with ticketing, we have similar up here in that a return to Euston from Lancaster in the morning is considerably cheaper that tickets on the same train from Warrington or Preston to Euston as no trains from Lancaster are considered 'peak' trains!

[dogs]

I use train split nowadays. You can get an off peak return ticket from Chippenham to Paddington for £47 quid.

[Bob's Orange]

Also have a look at any engineering works that maybe happening on that line. On my route I buy my tickets way in advance as it's the cheapest way to get them. But when I was buying I noticed that there was no cheap advance tickets available on the week of 17-21 July. (but there was the week before and after) After a bit of hunting around there is apparently some engineering happening and the 'timetable' for that week hasn't been confirmed so the availability of cheap tickets are not on sale until that has been finalised.

As others seem to be able to get tickets for much cheaper on that route, you have maybe picked a bad day/week/times etc. 

[Wobbly Bob]

According to National Rail site an off peak return from Chippenham is £86.50 if you leave after 9am and come back before 4.30pm or after 7pm.
Super off peak return (after 10.30) would be £63.10

Two advance singles would be cheaper if booked far enough ahead.

[molepar]

Swindon to Paddington return is £35. Must be going first class.

Was about £57 last time I got one at tail end of season.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

I shall castigate Mrs Audrey’s Google skills - or lack thereof.

Cheers, guys.