Help with Birmingham to Ludlow

[ahad]

I need to start travelling regularly between Birmingham and Ludlow, and am struggling to make sense off the cheapest ticket combinations, peak restrictions and going via Shrewsbury Hereford.

Any help to demystify or top tips appreciated.

 

[signed]

How many time per week and how flexible time-wise are you?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The route "via Craven Arms" tickets from Birmingham Stns to/from Ludlow, priced by TfW, don't have any time of the day restrictions and are priced at £40.20 for an Off Peak Return or £39.00 for an Anytime Day Return. That's what you'd need to travel via Shrewsbury. Don't think that any Break of Journey is permitted, however, on the Off Peak Return. The prices would of course be reduced with a valid railcard.

The route "Any Permitted" tickets priced by West Midlands Trains are £32.20 for an Anytime Return, £28.60 for an Off Peak Return, £27.70 for an Anytime Day Return and £26.90 for an Off Peak Day Return. These are what you'd need to travel via Hereford. N.B. The two Off Peak tickets mentioned here are only valid midweek at or after 0900. Similar railcard reductions possible.

Seven day season tickets are priced at £155.80 for the "via Craven Arms" variant and £130.80 for the "Any Permitted" variant, so you'd need to be travelling four or more days per week for these to be value. No railcard reductions normally available on season tickets.

Edited: In view of the helpful comments below regarding valid routes. Birmingham to Ludlow via Hereford is c. 78 miles, via Shrewsbury and then Craven Arms it's c. 70 miles.

 

[Watershed]

The "Any Permitted" fares are valid via Shrewsbury as well as via Hereford. Travelling via Shrewsbury is the shortest route to Birmingham and so the negative easement (700004) which purports to exclude this route is of no effect.

Journey planners which are correctly programmed (such as that used by TrainSplit) therefore ignore this easement, and offer the "Any Permitted" fares on itineraries via Shrewsbury.

It may be cheaper for the OP to use the relatively cheap Advance tickets which TfW now offer on many of their routes and services, but it very much depends on how long beforehand they book, and the exact times they want to travel on, as well as the frequency of them undertaking this journey.

 

[yorkie]

The route "via Craven Arms" tickets from Birmingham Stns to/from Ludlow, priced by TfW, don't have any time of the day restrictions and are priced at £40.20 for an Off Peak Return or £39.00 for an Anytime Day Return. That's what you'd need to travel via Shrewsbury. ..

Not so; the shortest route is always permitted, and if that happens to be via Craven Arms, then the existence of a .ore expensive ticket does not in any way invalidate the Any Permitted fares.

 

[ahad]

Thanks for the replies! Glad it wasn’t me just being dim.

To clarify I’ll be looking at maybe 30-40 returns a year, no set times so will probably need Anytime or Off-peak returns.

My understanding based on the above is I can pay the £28.60 for an Off-peak return or £32.20 for Anytime. This will allow me to travel via Shrewsbury or Hereford (despite Trainline etc. only selling this for trips via Hereford and not Shrewsbury).

 

[yorkie]

Thanks for the replies! Glad it wasn’t me just being dim.

To clarify I’ll be looking at maybe 30-40 returns a year, no set times so will probably need Anytime or Off-peak returns.

My understanding based on the above is I can pay the £28.60 for an Off-peak return or £32.20 for Anytime. This will allow me to travel via Shrewsbury or Hereford (despite Trainline etc. only selling this for trips via Hereford and not Shrewsbury).

Trainline will charge you a booking fee.

We not only apply the correct routeing rules, but also won't charge you that fee!

Results | RailUK Tickets

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

tickets-beta.railforums.co.uk

Booking with us also helps support the forum's running costs.

 

[ahad]

Trainline will charge you a booking fee.

We not only apply the correct routeing rules, but also won't charge you that fee!

Results | RailUK Tickets

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

tickets-beta.railforums.co.uk

View attachment 169916
Booking with us also helps support the forum's running costs.

Sold!

I was a little nervous about whether I’d get stick from a ticket inspector too, so helpful that I can use your site to actually select a train via Shrewsbury.

 

[yorkie]

Probably best purchased as a barcode e-ticket (which can optionally be printed) rather than a traditional paper ticket, as the itinerary will be printed on the ticket.

If questioned, simply say you are showing the itinerary on the ticket.

However it's unlikely anyone would say anything.

 

[daodao]

Thanks for the replies! Glad it wasn’t me just being dim.

To clarify I’ll be looking at maybe 30-40 returns a year, no set times so will probably need Anytime or Off-peak returns.

My understanding based on the above is I can pay the £28.60 for an Off-peak return or £32.20 for Anytime. This will allow me to travel via Shrewsbury or Hereford (despite Trainline etc. only selling this for trips via Hereford and not Shrewsbury).

Have you considered the rail/bus alternative of travelling from Birmingham (Moor Hill/Snow Hill) to Kidderminster by rail and then by bus (Diamond route 292) from Kidderminster to Ludlow?

The bus service runs every 75 minutes Mon-Sat daytime (up to 1830 from Kidderminster/1940 from Ludlow). The approximate journey time of about 2 hours by this direct route is not dissimilar from the indirect rail routes via Hereford or Shrewsbury. For example, from Birmingham (Snow Hill) one can leave at 0731 (Mon-Fri) and be in Ludlow at 0936; from Ludlow one can leave at 1715 (Mon-Fri) and reach Birmingham (Snow Hill) at 1916. Individual journeys by both rail/rail and rail/bus can be found by using Traveline ( https://www.traveline.info/ )

The journey cost for the rail/bus combination is currently £11-90 (anytime day return) or £9-80 (off peak day return) for the rail segment, plus £6 from January 2025 (£3 each way) for the bus journeys.

 

[chris_in_salop]

Unfortunately the 292 is pretty unreliable these days. A pity, as it was a brilliant service 20 years ago (when it was still the 192 and ran through to Birmingham).

 

[ahad]

Just to report back on this, booked a £26.90 of peak day return (via RailUK tickets) and travelled earlier.

All worked fine. Ticket was scanned 5 (!!!) times on the way out and no issues from machine or human.

Thanks again for the advice.