The big fat guide to buying train tickets
Trains in the UK are some of the most expensive in Europe, not because cheap tickets cannot be found, but because our rail system disproportionately penalises regular travellers like commuters and people buying tickets at short notice — there are bargains to be found if you can book in advance. In this article I will explain what the different types of ticket mean and where to buy them at the best prices, how to avoid fees, penalties and charges and where you can benefit from competition between different operators running the same route. The most important section is Part 3 which explains where to buy the cheapest tickets for your journey. You might wish to refer to Part 2 to understand how flexible or inflexible your ticket is.
Part 1: Some important notes
The companies that operate trains in the UK (Train Operating Companies; TOCs) tend to co-operate, so you can and sometimes will buy a ticket for one train on its rival’s website without paying a premium — useful where one TOC’s website offers incentives like Nectar points or free ticket amendments for booking through their website, even when you travel on another company’s train.
You can also buy through tickets for trains on different operators: a through ticket from Stansted Airport to Scarborough allows you to travel on the CrossCountry train from Stansted to Peterborough, a LNER or Grand Central train from Peterborough to York and a Transpennine Express train from York to Scarborough — all on one ticket. There are exceptions to this though, but these will always be shown on the ticket as a ‘restriction’. Where there are restrictions, they work to your benefit by cutting the price you pay significantly in exchange for reducing the flexibility of your ticket slightly — London to Brighton on Thameslink only can be done for about a third the price of a ticket that would allow travel on a Thameslink or a Southern train.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that the rail system is completely integrated between England, Wales and Scotland, but not with Northern Ireland, should you ever wish to travel by train there (and you certainly should). Train tickets can also include bus travel on the same ticket (e.g. York to Whitby by bus).
When buying tickets, you are usually best off opting for paper tickets whether by collection at the station or by delivery by post because mobile tickets and tickets printed home are often harder to amend.
Part 2: Types of train ticket
This guide will explain every type of ticket for travel in Standard Class. If you are travelling in First Class, the ticket types are exactly the same in terms of flexibility, but you pay a premium to sit in better seats. It is a bit long, so check out the table below for a summary.
In short — Advance tickets are the cheapest but are inflexible and non-refundable, Anytime tickets are totally flexible, Off-peak are flexible outside of weekday mornings, Super off-peak means weekends and bank holidays only.
IMPORTANT: these definitions are meant as explainers and you should not worry about these when booking your tickets as online journey planners automatically show you the cheapest valid ticket for the trains you want to travel on. These definitions are intended to help you understand which trains you can and cannot travel on with your ticket should you wish to take a different train to the one you chose when purchasing your ticket.
Advance tickets
Summary: if you can plan ahead, a good rule of thumb is to go for Advance tickets unless a cheaper option is pointed out to you as they are pretty much always cheapest. However, bear in mind that any changes in plans can cost a lot, so if you think you will need to change your ticket, book it using the CrossCountry website whether you are using a CrossCountry train or not as they charge no admin fee for amendments. Advance tickets are never refundable but you can pass them on or sell them to others.
On services for which they are available, Advance tickets are always the cheapest ticket on sale if you are travelling one-way. If you are travelling return, it is usually cheaper to buy two advance singles than a return — it will be pointed out to you if this is not the case. Two operators in particular offer further discounts on Advance tickets to NUS Extra card holders (see below). Advance tickets are not available for every route, but they can nearly always be found for long-distance journeys on limited-stop trains (e.g. London to Edinburgh or Newcastle to Cardiff). They are also sometimes — but not reliably — available on shorter-distance regional trains, e.g. London to Chichester or Leeds to Manchester.
The trade-off for being the cheapest ticket type available in every case is that Advance tickets effectively give you no flexibility whatsoever in much the same way as plane tickets. They permit you to travel on one train, at a given time, on a given day, once. If you miss the train, you have to buy a new ticket at the full walk-up price — sometimes ten times what you paid in advance — without your original ticket being refunded at all. Don’t let this put you off using Advance tickets, just allow extra time to get to the station when doing so.
Advance tickets can be amended but never refunded. Amendments are subject to a £10 administration fee (unless you booked on CrossCountry, who waive this charge, regardless of which company you are travelling on — see Part x) and paying the difference in fare between what you paid for your ticket and the cost of the ticket you are switching to. If the latter is cheaper, you just pay the admin fee (if applicable).
If you have a NUS Extra card, Grand Central offer 25% off in addition to the standard Railcard discount and CrossCountry offer 10% off. These discounts only apply if you enter you are travelling on a Grand Central or CrossCountry train, book using the website of the company that you are actually travelling with and enter your NUS card number when booking.
Single tickets
Depending on whether your ticket is Anytime, Off-peak or Super off-peak, single tickets allow you to travel on any train (Anytime), any weekday off-peak, weekend or bank holiday train (Off-peak) or any weekend or bank holiday train (Super off-peak.) Single tickets are valid ONLY on the day marked on them. Advance tickets are single tickets too, but they only allow you to travel on the exact train marked on the ticket, so it’s worth thinking of them as a different kind of ticket altogether.
Return tickets (n.b. different to Day return tickets)
Depending on whether your ticket is Anytime or Off-peak, return (not Day return) tickets allow you to go out and return on any train (Anytime) or any weekday off-peak, any weekend or any bank holiday train (Off-peak). The outward leg ticket is valid on for trains departing on the day marked on the ticket and the two days following that. The return leg is valid for trains departing within 30 days of the date marked on the ticket.
For example, if you have a return ticket commencing on 1st September, you can travel outwards on 1st, 2nd or 3rd September and return on any day from 1st to 30th September inclusive. Off-peak returns can only be used on off-peak services both outward and return.
Day return tickets
These are return tickets where you must return and depart on the date marked on the ticket and only that date. Depending on whether your ticket is Anytime, Off-peak or Super off-peak, Day return tickets allow you to go out and return on any train (Anytime), any weekday off-peak, weekend or bank holiday train (Off-peak) or any weekend or bank holiday train (Super off-peak). They are cheaper
Anytime tickets (single, return and day return)
These are the exact opposite of Advance tickets, offering near-total flexibility at a far greater price. They allow you to travel at peak times and at off-peak times. Railcards can be used against these tickets to take some of the sting out.
You should usually steer clear of Anytime tickets because of the sheer cost of them, but sometimes they will be the only option. Use any online journey planner to see if your train is a peak-time service (Off-peak or Super off-peak tickets will be on sale if not).
Off-peak and Super off-peak (single, return and day return)
Off-peak tickets allow you to travel on any train that is not a peak-time train. They are considerably cheaper than Anytime (peak-inclusive) tickets and do not bind you to a particular train so long as you don’t travel during the peak. Super off-peak tickets are exactly the same, but they are only permit travel on weekends and bank holidays (i.e. they exclude the weekday off-peak) and are available at an even lower cost than normal off-peak tickets.
You should use these tickets where Advance tickets are not available. Super off-peak tickets in particular can be very cheap indeed while still being fairly flexible, but not all operators offer them. All operators do offer off-peak travel, though.
Part 3: Who to buy train tickets from
This section has many caveats, so use the flowchart below for fast reference.

A useful general rule is to avoid third-party websites like Trainline, Red Spotted Hanky and so on, because they charge booking fees of around £1.50 per transaction. You can buy the exact same tickets at the exact same price without any booking fees by booking through a train operating company’s website. You don’t need to book on the website of the company that operates the train you will travel on, allowing you to take advantage of incentives offered by particular companies like GWR’s Nectar points, CrossCountry’s fee-free amendments or Southern’s ‘Rainy Day Guarantee’.
It is generally advisable to avoid booking on any mobile app and/or using e-tickets or mobile tickets because tickets can be harder to amend and discounts and promotions don’t usually apply to apps. If you do want to keep an app on your phone, the Trainline’s app is very good, despite the small(er than the website) booking fee, as it is easy and pleasant to use. It goes without saying that you should always keep the National Rail app installed, but it does not allow you to buy tickets.
CrossCountry — free Advance ticket amendments (all operators) and NUS discount (CrossCountry trains only)
CrossCountry offers:
- 10% off Advance tickets for NUS Extra cardholders in addition to railcard discounts when you are travelling on a train operated by them, AND
- admin fee-free amendments to Advance tickets booked with them, regardless of the operator of your train, if tickets are collected from a machine or posted to you.
You should therefore book with CrossCountry if you have a NUS Extra card and are travelling on one of the trains AND/OR you think you might need to amend the date and time of your Advance ticket.
Grand Central and Transpennine Express — NUS/student discount
NUS Extra Card holders get 25% off on top of railcard discounts when booking with and travelling on Grand Central.
The same goes for Transpennine Express, but you just need to be a student, not a NUS Extra cardholder.
Southern — money back on all tickets except Advance if you decide not to travel
This is simple. If you buy any non-Advance ticket from Southern’s website and decide not to travel for any reason, you can get a full refund of all tickets. There is no point in terms of cost in buying non-Advance tickets before arriving at the station, but if you wish to do so anyway, you should book with Southern to allow yourself some flexibility.
GWR, Virgin Trains, LNER (and others)— Nectar points
These websites offer you Nectar points for booking with them, but nothing else. Use these websites only if you are sure that you will not need to change your plans at all and if you are not eligible for a NUS/student discount. (See above)
Part 4: Route competition
Sometimes there will be more than one operator for your route. This is sometimes because of what are called Open Access Operators, like Hull Trains and Grand Central. They can undercut the main operator for that route.
For example, most trains between London and York are operated by LNER. Grand Central also operates this route at a lower frequency as part of their London-Sunderland route. It is usually worth travelling on Grand Central because they tend to undercut LNER and offer a further discount to NUS Extra cardholders. Hull Trains operate a similar route on the East Coast Main Line from London to Hull, calling at intermediate stations and competing with LNER. Using Thameslink rather than Southern when heading to Brighton can save you a lot of money, too.
Other operators take different routes. London to Portsmouth, for example, can be done using South Western Railway via Woking or Southern via Horsham. Southern is a bit slower, but it can be done for about £4 booked in advance with a railcard. It’s often worth checking out if your journey can be done by another route more cheaply, and this won’t always be slower.
