I am travelling to London from Edinburgh on theTuesday 15th of September, 2009 with my wife. We would like to go first class. I checked the National Rail website and the cost for that September date is as of today (June 24) 107.80 pounds one way for one--cheapest available. And 186.5 pounds for first class. But the week before, on Tuesday September 8, the fare is listed on same train as 18.15 pounds cheapes available and 53 pounds first class.

Why is this? Should I wait to book? Do fares get cheaper with time? HELP!

Guessing that you are just out of the time frame for discount tickets. Wait another week and it could show a different price. Either that or something special is going on on your date.

One piece of advice-- make sure to reserve seats. I had purchased a ticket (and it was quite expensive too) from Cambridge to Edinburgh, but it didn't come with a seat reservation, and I didn't know that until I was on the train. I chalk it up to being young and inexperienced, but I had to sit on the fold-down seats inside the door for the LONG journey. Never again. Make sure you get a seat reservation for sure!

I agree with rogeruktm, I'd wait to see if they release any more discount tickets.

The £107.80 is a standard, non-discount price (assuming it's the "Super Off-Peak Single" I'm seeing) so you don't have to worry about things selling out or the price going up.

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/pj/...etTypeCode=SSS

In my experience fares do not get cheaper with time. I encountered the same problem last fall when trying to book a return ticket from London/Edinburgh. One day the 1st class fare was surprisingly cheap and a day or two later it would be surprisingly expensive.Unfortunately that was the last time I ever saw a cheap fare. The last time I checked prior to my journey (about six weeks in advance) the price for 1st class was 55pds each way. I didn't travel 1st class.

Assuming that the £107.80 fare is the "Super Off-Peak Single" I'm seeing then you have nothing to lose by waiting - it's not a limited availability ticket so you don;t have to worry about the price going up.

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/pj/...etTypeCode=SSS

Sorry for the repeat, the site was playing silly-buggers and I thought it had eaten my first posting.

I booked this journey in the other direction back in 2007 (franchise operator has changed since then), and back then, they did not release the discount tickets until about 7 weeks prior to any given date (actually, I think they released them in one week blocks, so I can't give you a precise number of days). I think we ended up paying £35/each for one way, first class tickets with reserved seats.

This came up several months ago, and I suggested to the OP on that thread that she start checking travel dates for whatever day of the week she was interested in, in one week intervals and find out when the discount tickets were put on sale. I would think that you could do the same thing.

At GBP186 you might do well to consider a rail pass. See B.E.T.S. at http://tinyurl.com/nyxc9p for options and prices.

OK, here's what's going on:

There are 3 types of ticket: Anytime, Off-Peak & Advance.

Anytime = business fare, no restrictions, fully-flexible.
Off-peak = like anytim, but with time restrictions, you must avoid the business travel periods Mon-Fri
Advance = like air fares, only valid on one specific train, price varies, no refunds.
I've put an explanation at www.seat61.com/UKtravel.htm

The £107 is the always-available anytime fare, always available at the same price even on day of travel.

Looking at the excellent Trainline.com 'Best Fare Finder' (http://www.thetrainline.com/farefinder/) I can see that there are PLENTY of cheap Advance fares up to and including a date around 10 September. After this, it seems the cheap fares haven't been loaded yet, so the system defaults to the always-available Anytime fare.

So normally, yes, the cheaper fares get sold and the price rises as departure approaches, but in this case you're at the limit of the 12-week (variable!) booking horizon, looking at a date just outside the period for which reservations have opened and cheap reservation-dependent fares have been loaded into the system.

Just wait a few days and keep trying and the stock of cheap fares will be added to the system for the dates you want.

I went from Lonon to Edinburgh for £21 a few weeks ago. Incidentally, www.nationalexpresseastcoast.co.uk offers a further 10% discount on Advance tickets, and zero booking fees, not sure if it will accept non-UK credit cards though, but worth trying.

The website www.nationalexpresseastcoast.co.uk is generally the better website to use but also worth having a look at www.railsaver.co.uk