Did you know a Railcard can be bought and downloaded immediately?

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• Phillip Ash says:

  15 Feb15 February 04:03

  Also worth remembering there is a “two together” railcard which also gives a 33% discount for two specific people travelling together. That card CAN be used for first class travel.

  • Shoestring says:

    15 Feb15 February 09:34

    https://www.railcard.co.uk/travel-inspiration/maketracks/introducing-the-16-17-saver/
    [Welcome to our new 16-17 Saver, offering you the highest ever discount on rail travel- meaning you can still get half price train tickets! The new 16-17 Saver is now on sale online and offers 50% off most rail fares for anyone aged 16 and 17 years old.]

    includes season tickets

• Craig says:

  15 Feb15 February 04:26

  Two things. Firstly, you can use Tesco vouchers at 3x face value to pay for the card. Secondly, the app is tied to your phone, but it can be transferred. I nearly got caught out after changing phones, opening the app and finding no card. This was followed by a frantic searching of old emails with sporadic 3G/WiFi and a very patient conductor.

  • Lady London says:

    15 Feb15 February 15:42

    Worth downloading or screenshotting any ticket or pass if it’s in an app and holding it as a PDF etc in phone if you could be in train in low/no coverage areas.

• Richard M says:

  15 Feb15 February 06:33

  I wouldn’t bother with the Gatwick Express. The regular Southern service is over £5 cheaper and takes just 3 minutes longer

  • Rob says:

    15 Feb15 February 09:27

    Would normally agree but with luggage and the ability to sneak in via the back entrance makes it worth it.

• BJ says:

  15 Feb15 February 07:19

  “I could download the Railcard and then immediately book my Gatwick Express tickets for use today.”

  This, and similar wording later in the article may lead some people to believe we need to have a railcard before booking tickets with a railcard discount. Just to clarify for anybody who doesn’t know, you can buy tickets with railcard discounts any time; you just need to have got the railcard before travelling. This works to the advantage of infrequent travellers who may want to book Advance tickets 12 weeks before travel but don’t actually need the railcard until their travel date. This is possible online and at ticket machines. I don’t know if staff at ticket counters will sell a discounted ticket without the railcard being presented.

  • Rob says:

    15 Feb15 February 09:26

    Good point.

  • Yorkieflyer says:

    15 Feb15 February 11:07

    Counter staff generally insist on seeing railcard on ticket purchase I’m my experience but obviously no problem on line or from machines as you say

  • Lady London says:

    15 Feb15 February 15:49

    No ticket counters will always insist on seeing the card. They ignore comments that you could just as well have purchased the the same ticket on Trainline etc and gone through the gate with it without showing the card.

    Gatwick has only recently allowed tickets on phones (no paper) to go through the entry/exit gates. That finally gets rid of the security risk of having to haul the credit card you paid with out of your pocket to put into the machine to collect a prepaid ticket. Also avoids the sleazy touchscreens on those machines which must have bugs from all over the world on them

• Anna says:

  15 Feb15 February 07:24

  Thanks for reminding me about rail cards! Got a weekend in London booked in May so it may be worth investing in one.

  • Anna says:

    15 Feb15 February 07:37

    When is the best time to buy rail tickets? I don’t use public transport much (only because it’s rubbish up here), prices showing expensive 3 months out and less so 2 months out, is that usual?

    • BJ says:

      15 Feb15 February 07:59

      Cheapest 3 months in advance on day they are released for your journey. At least that was the long established ‘rule’. However, I don’t know what rail companies are playing at these days. Some look to me like they are releasing 12 weeks in advance on weekly cycle as opposed to 12 weeks to the date. Also notice some releasing tickets 3 months in advance at full fares and only adding the advance fare later (this might be what you are seeing). LNER supposed to sell weekdays to London 6 months in advance according to their own website but they don’t. Scotrail I cannot figure out either. You just have to keep watching for tickets on your travel dates become available. If they don’t look like cheap advance fares they will likely be loaded a few days to a week later. Companies let you sign up to alerts notifying you when cheap fares are released. With LNER I have learned not to rely on those either. By the time I receive the email the cheapest fares on early morning trains are usually gone.

      • Anna says:

        15 Feb15 February 08:14

        Thanks BJ. Apparently there is an issue currently with some northern services and some ticket prices aren’t being released until 6 weeks before travel date. First class prices are around the £100 mark 6-8 weeks out, but nearer £300 later than that!

      • RussellH says:

        15 Feb15 February 11:05

        Problem for the TOCs – particularly at weekends – is that they cannot release advance tickets for days when they have still not been told by Network Rail whether or not they will be able to actually run trains.

        Engineering works are planned well in advance, and the exact days it finally happens are supposed to be notified in time to give TOCs 12 weeks notice. But in practice, it does not always happen.

    • Craig says:

      15 Feb15 February 08:31

      Not sure which line you are looking for but when I use LNER I set 2 ticket alerts, one for the outbound journey and one for the inbound. Sometimes a weekday may be listed much earlier than the weekend and it almost always cheaper to book 2 singles.

      • Stu N says:

        15 Feb15 February 08:59

        LNER is three months out for advance tickets but with exceptions when timetables are not confirmed (usually weekends with engineering works).

        LNER’s ticket alerts page has good, clear info on when Advance tickets are being released and you can sign up for alerts, through they can be a bit slow.

        Two Together railcard definitely works on First Class but not before 0930 on weekdays, you need to be spending approx £100 a year for it to pay for itself – ours washes its face many times over and we probably only do three or four weekends by train a year plus some local journeys.

        • Anna says:

          15 Feb15 February 09:49

          On checking my travel dates there is so much rail disruption over the weekend in question it’s looking like a better option would be actually to fly! Euston to either Preston or Manchester is going to take nearly 5 hours (if all the trains are on time) and involve 3 changes.

        • Lady London says:

          15 Feb15 February 20:19

          If I really need to snag a cheap fare I usually set an alert for a given number of days ahead then watch manually daily. As BJ mentioned waiting for an email alert may not come through soon enough.

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  15 Feb15 February 08:03

  Holders of an Annual Gold Card season ticket (including Travelcards) can also buy a Railcard for themselves or someone else for just £10. Can’t be done online though.

• JMac says:

  15 Feb15 February 08:17

  Am I missing something with Gatwick Express? There are other trains run by Thameslink and Southern that appear to only take 3-5 minutes longer and are usually much cheaper! I’m not sure but I’m sure that railcard would work on them too.

  • Bagoly says:

    15 Feb15 February 09:08

    Railcards do work on the other services.

    When Gatwick Express first started in 1984 there was an advantage of large luggage racks (I think the other services still had single entrance doors?) and not-so-packed trains because they ran only VIC-LGW and back again.
    GWE trains also seemed to get priority in case of track closures causing delays.
    When the governement allowed GWE to carry on to Brighton (in “competition” with other Govia-owned services) the advantage of avoiding overcrowding disappeared.
    At some stage the luggage racks got smaller, although it is still somewhat easier with a suitcase on GWE.
    Does anybody know whether there is still differential treatment in case of track closures?

    (But per subsequent post, for three years from May the Southern option won’t exist from Victoria)

  • Rob says:

    15 Feb15 February 09:23

    There is a secret back entrance onto the GEx platforms (and only get GEx platforms) with lift and escalator from the car park behind the station. Cab can drop you at the top of the escalator and you are on the train in 30 seconds. Job done.

• JohnT says:

  15 Feb15 February 08:54

  Lots of upgrade work starting at Gatwick from May for 2 years! Gatwick Express reduced service plus no through trains from Brighton to Victoria. However off peak tickets will be valid on GX trains. See https://www.gatwickexpress.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/gatwick-station-upgrade

  • Axel says:

    15 Feb15 February 13:21

    Yup. Hence the GX is going to be absolutely packed (half the normal number of services per hour, which will also have to absorb all the off-peak Southern Victoria to Brighton passengers) during the 2 years of works at Gatwick train station.

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