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Britain is criscrossed by a large network of railways. They operate frequent trains, and it's generally possible to get to anywhere in the country within a day.

The trains are operated by a range of different companies, but in real terms, this is irrelevant. Tickets and timetables are all centralised and handled by National Rail Enquiries.

For those who have not travelled by train before, this page aims to explain any questions you might have and make the journey easier for you. For those who have travelled by train, some of these hints and tips can make travelling by train a lot cheaper.

Contents 1 Catching the Right Train 2 Booking Tickets 2.1 At the Station 2.2 Online 2.3 On the Train 3 Keeping it Cheap 3.1 16-25 Railcard 3.2 Booking in Advance 3.3 The Right Ticket 3.4 The Right Time 3.5 Split Ticketing 3.6 Refund Vouchers 3.7 Re-using Tickets 3.8 Travelling Short

Catching the Right Train

Many people worry about catching the right train. However, with some key pieces of information, it's easy to make sure you have the right one.

The most important thing is the train's final destination, as this will be shown on the departure board and announced on the station tannoy. When booking your ticket, you can find out the final destinations of any trains you take.

Another important piece of information is the scheduled departure time. This will be printed on your ticket and the same time will be displayed on the departure boards. Trains are timetabled to the minute and it is unlikely that more than one train wll be departing at exactly the same time. Note that if a train is delayed, it is still referred to by its scheduled departure time, although the actual departure time will also be displayed on the board.

When a train is arriving, the station tannoy will play a message which names the final destination, departure time, train operating company and a list of all the stops. It also tells you which platform it's arriving at. This is probably the most useful source of information on a station, so make sure you can hear it!

The departures board is usually a screen hanging from the roof, showing a list of the next few trains leaving from that station and from which platform. Sometimes, each platform has its own departure board as well, with more detail such as stops.

When catching trains, be aware that they like to leave precisely 'on the dot' and the doors can be locked up to 45 seconds before they are supposed to leave. So don't cut it too fine!

If you have any trouble, ask the station staff. Show the guard your ticket and they ought to be able to tell you which train it is.

Booking Tickets

At the Station

Booking tickets in person is pretty easy. Go to any manned station with the name of the place you want to go to and a rough idea of when you want to travel, and they will help you with your booking.

Online

Booking in advance online is also easy. You simply put in where you want to go from and to, the dates and rough times you want to travel, and it will give you a list of trains to choose from. Note how some journeys take longer than others, have more changes or cost more.

Don't forget to select '16-25 Railcard' here to get your 1/3 discount (Obviously you need to buy one first if you haven't yet!). However, some advance fares can be cheaper without a railcard, so check the cost both with and without.

Select the ticket you want and pay via debit/credit card. You may need to register an account with the website before you can pay, but it's a simple process. At the end you will be given a summary of the journey to print out.

When you buy online, you have a choice of ways to get your ticket sent to you. If there's time, you can get them posted. If not, then you pick them up from the station yourself, using a 'FastTicket' machine. You will be given a reference number to enter on the machine, and you will also need to take your credit card with you. The card will not be charged, but you have to put it in the machine to get the tickets. You are supposed to use the same card that you paid with, though in fact you can often use any old card. Don't rely on this at the last minute though!

On the Train

At some small stations, the ticket office closes fairly early (17:00 for instance). At these stations you have to simply get on the train and purchase a ticket from the conductor (assuming they come around!)

You can actually buy tickets from the conductor on most trains, but to be on the safe side, it's best to get them at the station when you can.

Keeping it Cheap

Train tickets in Britain can be very expensive, however there are ways of working the system which can seriously reduce the price by half or more.

Most of these tips assume that you are booking the tickets online. You can buy any ticket from any Train Operating Company, but avoid third party retailers like Raileasy and The TrainLine because they charge an extra booking fee.

National Rail Enquiries is probably the best place to find your tickets and timetables.

Note that many cheap advance tickets can only be bought online or by telephone, and will not be available at station kiosks.

16-25 Railcard

This is the easiest way of reducing the cost of train fares. Costing just £24 for a one year railcard, it saves a third off most rail tickets. This means if you will spend £72 or more in a year, then you should get one as it will pay for itself.

Some Student Bank Accounts, notably NatWest, offer a valuable five-year railcard as part of their freebie package. More details of the railcard are available here.

If you have a railcard, you should always carry it with you on the train because the conductor will want to see it as well as your tickets.

Booking in Advance

It is possible to find very cheap train tickets online at websites such as Megatrain and The Train Line if you book in advance of your travelling date. Not only does this get you cheaper tickets, it also allows you to reserve seats on busy services, ensuring travel is as simple as possible.

You can book train tickets up to 12 weeks in advance, and in theory the cheapest tickets go on a first-come-first-served basis. However this doesn't always work and there is an element of luck involved. Sometimes cheap tickets don't become available until nearer the date. Sometimes they sell out quickly, other times there are still some left the night before. As a rule of thumb, check as early as you can. If no cheap tickets are available, then wait, unless the day of travel is less than a month away, in which case the cheap tickets probably all got sold already.

Certain companies such as National Express East Coast and Virgin Trains offer advanced tickets that can only be bought from their websites. Virgin Trains and Stagecoach run a website called Megatrain, which sell cheap tickets. National Express East Coast sell their really cheap tickets directly through their website.

Pre-booking your tickets also means that you should be able to reserve seats (for free) as well. This is strongly advised if you are travelling at rush hour, otherwise you might spend the journey standing up! However, be warned that train companies sometimes screw up their seat reservation systems and people often ignore the reservation tickets. You may find you will have to negotiate your way into your reserved seat.

Most reserved seats are marked by a ticket at the top of the seat, but Virgin Trains as well some CrossCountry trains put their reservations on an LCD display above the seat.

Note that cheap advance tickets are usually restricted to one particular train, whereas with a regular ticket you could catch any train you like, as long as it's going the right way. If you miss your train, your advance ticket should not be valid on the next one, however conductors usually let you get away with it. If you miss a connection because your incoming train was delayed, then your ticket will be valid on the next available train.

Beware when booking a long time in advance that the timetable does change at short notice, especially on Sundays. Always check the day before because your train might be at a different time than it was when you bought the ticket!

The Right Ticket

When buying on the day, return tickets are cheaper than singles. However, there are no cheap advance return tickets, so when buying in advance, it's often cheaper to get two singles instead of a return. Nationalrail.co.uk will show you all the options, so you can easily see which is best.

The Right Time

A little bit of timing can help save you a lot of money. Trains are more expensive during rush hour, so if you can avoid travelling before 10am and between 5pm and 7pm, you will find more cheap tickets available.

If your journey is long or you can't avoid travelling during rush hour, you should definitely consider split ticketing below.

Split Ticketing

This little-known trick may be the one that saves you the most money. The principle is based on the fact that not all train journeys are equal. A lot of factors go into the price of a ticket. Some routes or areas are more expensive. Some times of day are more expensive. Some phases of the moon might even be more expensive. Who knows?

For example, your journey is all during off-peak hours, then it should be pretty cheap. However if only a small part of that journey goes into rush hour, then the whole journey will be charged at the higher rate.

With split ticketing, you aim to cut the journey up into sections, so that only the peak-time section is charged at peak-time rates.

By doing this, you don't alter the journey itself at all - you stay on the same train as if you had one ticket. You just have a bulging wallet full of tickets to show the conductor!

Here's an example of how to try it for yourself. On a long journey, try to work out the last station you pass through before you get into rush hour. Look up the price of just travelling as far as there. Note the time of arrival. Then look up the price of travelling from there to your destination, on the same train as it departs 2 minutes later. Add them together and see if the total is less than the price of one whole ticket.

This doesn't work every time, and takes a bit of trial and error, but it has saved me hundreds of pounds this year alone. On my regular route (a return journey), advance tickets are only cheap on half of the journey. So I buy two advance tickets for this part, and one ordinary return for the other part. It saves me about £5-£10 every time. --iMacThere4iAm

Refund Vouchers

If your train is badly delayed, you are entitled to compensation. They give you this in the form of vouchers which you can redeem for tickets at station kiosks or over the telephone (not online).

Normally half an hour is considered 'badly delayed', so if your train is over half an hour late (happens a lot on Sundays), ask at the station for a complaints form. You will need to know which train company it was, as each one has a slightly different policy and a different form.

To claim back, you will need to know when the train you wanted was timetabled to arrive at your destination, and when it actually did arrive. You will need to send off your tickets with the form, and a few weeks or months later, you will get back a bundle of vouchers.

To spend the vouchers, telephone the National Rail Indian call centre on 08457 484950. When buying tickets using vouchers, make sure you leave enough time to post the vouchers to them and for you to recieve the tickets back. It generally takes about a week.

Re-using Tickets

If you have a 'saver' return ticket, the return part is valid for a month after the date of the going out part. I travel the same journey once a fortnight. This means that if the conductor doesn't stamp my return ticket, then it is still valid the next time I make that journey, saving me the price of a trip!

Note the going out part of a 'saver' return is only valid for one day so you can't re-use it.

Travelling Short

This trick is not as legit as the others. If you get caught travelling short, you can be fined.

Travelling short means buying a ticket to go further than your destination, then getting off before the eng. Why would you want to do this? Because it can be cheaper.

Tickets between major stations sometimes cost less than between minor ones, so it can work out cheaper to get a longer ticket that goes on to a major station.