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Cheap Fare - Manchester to London

POSTED BY: dhl84 2 weeks, 6 days ago

Hi guys,
I'm looking at booking some train tickets from Manchester to London in late November (coming to London Fri morning, leaving to Manchester on Sun afternoon). The cheapest train fares I've found are on the National Rail website, which gives me £56 per person. The Virgin Rail site quotes £99 each way... I've searched for deals and all the cheap fares seem to have expired now. I don't suppose anyone knows another place I could get a good deal?
Oh and I checked Megabus and National Express - found reasonable tickets for £20 but the journey takes more than double the time...
Thanks in advance...

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#2

02-11-2009, 13:19
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Well... using VT's website, I could see this available for £39. See below:

:
Journey Summary
Outward
From: Manchester Piccadilly (MAN)
To: London Euston (EUS) Departs: 11:35 27 Nov
Arrives: 13:42 27 Nov 0 changes Ticket Type : Advance Single £28.00 This price last checked 1 hour ago

Return
From: London Euston (EUS)
To: Manchester Piccadilly (MAN) Departs: 21:50 29 Nov
Arrives: 00:58 30 Nov 0 changes Ticket Type : Advance Single £11.00 This price last checked 1 hour ago

£39.00
Where did you get £99 each way??? Personally, if it was any more than £40, I'd get the coach. It doesn't take as long as you think if you bring a few magazines. I've done London to Newcastle countless times by coach in the past and it's bearable. Or you could get a coach down, with a train return - which I found for £11. Megabus should be around £8-9 so you could get a return for less than £20.
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02-11-2009, 13:39
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Yeah I must be stupid... I was searching earlier for 3 passengers... Getting the £33 fare x3 = £99 each way :P
Sorry for the confusion.
That's much more reasonable, but is there anything better?
Also, I can't seem to get the 11.35 fare at £28 - mine shows £33... any idea why this is?
Thanks again for the help.
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02-11-2009, 13:42
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Try this link: http://www.farefinder.virgintrains.co.uk/
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02-11-2009, 13:54
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SamuraiHQ:
Try this link: http://www.farefinder.virgintrains.co.uk/
That's fantastic. Thanks so much again
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02-11-2009, 13:59
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No worries. Good luck!

I travel a fair bit so I'm usually good at spotting a bargain. Be sure to check with local newspapers as well, as sometimes they have tokens to collect whereupon you can travel for like £5. I've used a few of those myself with National Express East Coast to Newcastle and back.

VT normally have cheap tickets on sale all year round though, providing you book early enough. Don't leave it until the last minute though, or you will be looking at £99 haha.

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#7

02-11-2009, 15:31
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Also any morning departure up to the 0835 from Manchester (except the 0700) is £28 on the 27th.

If you take the 2035 from Euston on the 29th that one's £22 so a total of £50.

www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com is my number one for checking this sort of thing - you get to choose from a lot of services rather just 3 or 4 at a time and there's a lowest fare finder too.
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03-11-2009, 12:50
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andythebrave:
Also any morning departure up to the 0835 from Manchester (except the 0700) is £28 on the 27th.

If you take the 2035 from Euston on the 29th that one's £22 so a total of £50.

www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com is my number one for checking this sort of thing - you get to choose from a lot of services rather just 3 or 4 at a time and there's a lowest fare finder too.
Thanks Andy, that's actually a really helpful link. However, when I do a search, it says that there're fares available from £8, but none of those listed are at that price... Is this just a bug, or me interpreting it wrong?
Thanks again.
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03-11-2009, 16:28
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dhl84:
Thanks Andy, that's actually a really helpful link. However, when I do a search, it says that there're fares available from £8, but none of those listed are at that price... Is this just a bug, or me interpreting it wrong?
Thanks again.
The £8 (and any other box that contains a range of prices) refers to the cheapest possible of a specific type of fare (in this case it's the Standard advance single) whose availability is determined by a combination of capacity and demand. The very lowest fares are few and far between and you're most unlikely to find one on a Friday morning or a Sunday evening as these are the absolute peak times for travel.
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