Could some kind Brit please let us know the very cheapest return fare from London to York? Don't care what time, day, or month. I've searched nationalrail.co.uk six ways from Sunday and the only thing I'm certain of is that I'm not doing it correctly. Really, we're just looking for a ballpark estimate. Thanks!

I've had a look at thetrainline.com and entered in next Monday as an example. The cheapest fares will be a day return and leaving after the morning rush hour with no return during the evening rush hour. Try it yourself.
If you entered in Monday 9th of Feb, leaving London at 11am and returning at 8pm then the Super Advance fare would be £50. This is the cheapest I could find, and there are a limited number of these tickets available for each service. I've used APEX tickets in the past which must be bought 7 days in advance, but this was not shown on thetrainline.
A standard saver return was £66.50.
I hope this helps?

I don't know why you can't find the cheap fares on the national rail site. The cheapest fares currently on offer are £19 return. Perhaps if you go www.gner.co.uk, the website of the train company operating this route, you will have better luck. There will be a limited number of tickets at this price, and you will have to buy in advance to get it.

Thanks! And Ron, I don't know either. Both of us have tried and both of us are reference librarians so you'd think at least one of us could figure it out. But no matter what we try, I know darn well we're not seeing all available fares. We'll these other suggestions.

I tried the same search a month ago on gner.co.uk and couldn't find anything under £66 return. I got frustrated and decided to go to Windsor instead.

I can think of two possible reasons why you are not getting the cheap fares. One is that you are asking for open return. The other is that you are picking days or times for which cheap fares are not on offer.

If you use www.qjump.co.uk (and I think that is the system gner uses), pick your departure and return times, enter and you will get to a page showing available journeys. Near the bottom is a hot link <Click here to see more fares available for travel on this day>. Click on that and you will get 16 fares listed from the standard class off peak 1 return at £19 to first open return at £285. Simply click <journeys> beside the fares you are interested in to see which, if any, journeys are available that day. Hope this helps.