Last minute cheap train tickets?

[alexl92]

Is there a website anywhere where you can find cheap last-minute train tickets? Do VTEC or others sell off tickets cheap to try and fill the train? My parents had thought about going down to London for a day from Leeds but the cheapest they could find at this stage was £116.

I suspect not but just thought I'd check! Cheers.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Do VTEC or others sell off tickets cheap to try and fill the train?

The answer is "yes and no". You can check the websites, but more often than not it's the early bookers who get the cheapest tickets. Don't forget that they sell "any train" tickets as well, so whether a particular train is empty isn't always known.

Empty carriages is sometimes why first class tickets can be picked up cheaply.

 

[Hadders]

There's no sell off of unsold tickets at the last minute.

I suggest trying trainsplit.com as that website is pretty good at identifying good value fares.

 

[Merseysider]

You could try trainsplit.com.

They sell all of the cheapest tickets you’ll find elsewhere with the added advantage of offering you a combination of separate fares if that’s the cheapest way of making the journey.

 

[Clip]

Check out railcards too - you may find that if your parents or a combination of one of them and you get a two together railcard it will probably pay for itself on that one trip.

of course depending on how old you are a family and friends railcard may be of relevance too

 

[yorkie]

Is there a website anywhere where you can find cheap last-minute train tickets?

Almost any website will sell on the day Advances if they are available. But you may not find them "last minute":-

. Generally it's up to an hour or so before departure from the origin station.

Do VTEC or others sell off tickets cheap to try and fill the train?

Not really, no.

XC do have some fairly cheap on the day Advances for some of their shorter distance flows (e.g. Stafford to Birmingham) at very short notice, this tends to be more likely to occur on flows where they are in 'competition' with other train companies (West Midlands Trains in that example).

My parents had thought about going down to London for a day from Leeds but the cheapest they could find at this stage was £116.

Trainsplit is offering a £78.51 return fare tomorrow, arrriving into KGX 1114 and departing 2035 (in value mode), or if just an afternoon in London will do, then it can be done for £58 return.

It is better to book further in advance (with the caveat that the 20th May timetable change is causing problems on numerous routes)

 

[Joe Paxton]

Almost any website will sell on the day Advances if they are available. ...

Interesting to note that NRE results seemingly don't show any Advance fares that are available for travel on the same day.

...
XC do have some fairly cheap on the day Advances for some of their shorter distance flows (e.g. Stafford to Birmingham) at very short notice, this tends to be more likely to occur on flows where they are in 'competition' with other train companies (West Midlands Trains in that example).

I've also found Transpennine Express to also offer reasonable Advance fares on the day for some journeys.

 

[alexl92]

Thanks all!