I'll be doing a driving tour of Cornwall in mid-October. My family and I want to take the train from London (Paddington) to Plymouth on a Sunday, where we'll start our tour. Do you recommend purchsing the train tickets ahead of time over the Brit Rail website? The website charges $30 per ticket to reserve a seat and mailing charges as well. Not sure if that's necessary. Also, is standard class still a compartment where people can sit anywhere, and some seats have tables, and first class is the "private" compartment with about 6 seats? It's been 15 years since I was last on a British train so I'm not sure if the difference between the classes has changed.

Go to www.thetrainline.com and book there, selecting to collect the tickets from a FastTicket machine at Paddington - prices on 15th October start at around $20 one-way. And both classes are open-plan carriages nowadays.

You will be going on "The Great Western" trains. 2nd class seats are much like a bus or plane with some with a table between forward and backward seats. First is mosly forward facing, again with some tables. No more seperated seating. You might check out the "National rail enquiries" site for details. I did a quick search and I believe you could get an advanced fare, 2nd class for 13 pounds. You could pick up your tickets at the machine at Paddington. Another thought would be to visit the web site for the train company.

Sorry. First Great Western trains.

Thanks for the referral to thetrainline.com. It was easy to use and not only were the ticket prices cheaper but I saved on mailing charges by choosing the option to retrieve the tickets from the FastTrack kiosk. The per ticket price was 69 GBP (roundtrip), which was about 30 USD cheaper than Brit Rail, not including the additional charges mentioned above. Thanks again.

Note that to use the ticket machine, you need to insert the credit card you used to buy the tickets, then type in the code which you should have received by e-mail.

Seems to me that you paid a premium price. $130 per ticket, when you could have paid only $20.00 What am I missing?

Rogerthedodger's making an important point here.

The general principles behind getting the best value on British long-distance (over 100 miles or so) trains have changed lately.

It's often now cheapest to buy two advance purchase singles, rather than a return. The very cheapest advance purchase singles sell out fast, but you MUST invest 5 mins or so going through ALL the fare options at a UK-based site - say, nationalrail.co.uk. Even today, two singles on Oct 1 are a lot cheaper than the cheapest available return.

And under absolutely NO circumstances, trust any foreign site (least of all, as this example shows, the US-based BritRail) for British fares. None of them seem to have the earthliest when it comes to finding value on British trains.

Or maybe they do, and just make their money by exploiting people's gullibilty.

OOOO this brings back memories - i used to do this journey a lot.

depending on what tinme you travel there may be a restraunt on the train - a propper one with waiters, wine and silverwhere. If there is go for the meal. You get to sit in first class seats and the cost of the meal is less than the cost of first class. Also if you are travelling on a weekend you can pay to upgrade to first class, not sure how much these days. It used to be £5 but I think is nearer £10 now.

< Go to www.thetrainline.com and book there >

DON'T go to thetrainline as they are the only UK based ticket seller who charge a credit card fee for booking.

Instead go to www.nationalrail.co.uk, get your prices (which will generally include ALL possible prices) and choose a rail company from there to book the tickets. It doesn't have to be the company you are going to travel with.

BTW seat reservations are FREE on UK trains. Anyone who charges a fee for reservation (hello raileurope) is little better than a thief

To Rogerdodger:

I'd love to know where that $20 fare was, too! The 69 GBP rate was in line with what I got off the Brit Rail site and Let's Go Britain (2006) lists the London to Plymouth train ride as 62 GBP. I must admit I was a bit confused on every rail site I visited. I guess I'm just not familar with the terminology and options. For instance, I was informed it might be cheaper to purchase two single tickets, but I was purchasing three tickets and didn't want to get separated from my party in any way, so I just stuck with buying "saver return" tickets. I'm just happy to have saved a few bucks. As for the credit card usage fee on thetrainline.com, it was 1.50 GPB; not too bad.

Cheapest AVAILABLE one way ticket London to Plymouth on 15th October is £13pp (Standard Class Leisure Advance Single C) on the 10:27 First Great Western service from Paddington.

There is a cheaper one for £6.50pp (Standard Class Leisure Advance Single D) but that isn't available on that date

I used the both the nationalrail & thetrainline websites and got the same results

As I said in my first reply - use "national rail enquires" , Or the rail company "First Great Wester" sites. Obviously you didn't use them. It is a learning curve to figue these sites out. You were given answers, but choose to go another route. Next time you will do better. Have a good trip!

The cheap advance-purchase tickets are fine if you're travelling at a quiet time such as a Sunday morning, but if you want to travel at a busy time, the advance-purchase fares may be no cheaper than a flexible ticket. A saver return from London to Plymouth is £64 which allows you to return on most trains within a month and to break your journey.