Eric

My wife and I have been to London once before, and got a britrail pass that I think we paid too much for. We are going back now, and are not experts, but also realize that travel in the UK is not that difficult. <BR><BR>We are wondering how difficult it is to purchase individual tickets for the day trips we want to take. What is the process for buying tickets. When do you have to buy them by. How long are they good for? Can you depart at any time and return at anytime? What if you stop at a stop in between your original stop and London to see more sights, do you have to specify that when you buy tickets?<BR><BR>Also, I have heard on this board that buying a travel card in London instead of a Visitor travel card is more economical. My question is: how easy is it to get pictures taken? Should we bring pics? Which stations have picture booths?<BR><BR>Thanks a million. Sorry for the length.

Natasha

Hi, When my husband and I went a while ago we did not buy a Britrail pass. We had a city pass or something for all the public transportation in London, that we bought before we left (Canada) and then we just bought bus and train tickets there. We didn't find it that hard to do.

Sheila

This is wholly no-responsive but I just want to know...<BR><BR>Why do all you chaps call it Britrail? It's not even really British Rail anymore, and we residents would never call it that

Darlene

I'm an American living here, and I take frequent trips on the train. I usually buy my ticket the day of travel, which is the most expensive way to do it, but it can be done (London to manchester about $65.00 r/t). The advantage of booking ahead, is that you can reserve a seat. I would log on to www.virgin.com, and chose "trains". This will give you fare information for most of the trains and timetables. You can buy cheaper tickets, but there are restrictions, and advance purchase requirements. It will also connect you into another web site, I think its www.thetrain.co.uk (I think), it will allow you to purchase tickets online, and see timetables of other train carriers. I would plot out your assumed route, then compare it to the Britrail pass.<BR>Sheila, as most Americans tour companies, and travel guides still call it the Britrail pass, most American travellers do as well.<BR>Thanks

Ben Haines

Dear Mr Daniels,<BR><BR>As Darlene says, you can buy them on the day of travel. For many day trips up to a hundred miles from London the best buy is a cheap day return, valid only that day, and only on trains that leave London after 0930 on weekdays, but any time at weekends. In principle you cannot break your journey, but in practice I do, often, and ticket inspectors just smile. If, like me, you are aged 60 or over you can buy a senior railcard, if under 60 a Network railcard. Each costs twenty pounds and gives you a third off these cheap day returns. For detail on both of these please see http://www.atoc.org/railcards/railcard_main.htm <BR><BR>For longer day trips, such as Bath, Chester, Stratford or York the most expensive is the full return fare, bought any time, valid a long time. It lets you break your journey, but I doubt you want to do that on such 2 or 3 hour trips. What I do is phone in London 07845 48 49 50, and tell the helpful people at the other end my plans, and ask what cheap tickets are on offer by advance purchase, with what limits on early morning departures. I take notes, and go to any big railway station in London to book my trips. The best office for this is on the street below Cannon Street station, Monday to Friday, nine to five. Roughly, cheapest is SuperApex, then Apex, then SuperSaver, and cheapest is Saver - but there are more offers still, with even odder names. Mostly, you cannot break your journey, and mostly they are valid for a certain 3 days, a certain day, or even a certain pair of trains. You can buy the whole set at one go: they date them for your choice of days. If you miss a train named on an Apex ticket in principle you pay the whole single second class fare, but in practice an explanation and apology to the conductor usually wins a kind reply. I expect that an American accent helps, too.<BR><BR>Please call it British Rail all you like. Some of us see the decline of the system since Mrs Thatcher ended it and wish we had it back.<BR><BR>Picture booths are common, and not only at stations. I think I can promise you booths at any main line station. But of course buying is quicker if you bring photos with you.<BR><BR>Please write if I can help further. Welcome back.<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR>

Ben Haines

Dear Mr Daniels,<BR><BR>As Darlene says, you can buy them on the day of travel. For many day trips up to a hundred miles from London the best buy is a cheap day return, valid only that day, and only on trains that leave London after 0930 on weekdays, but any time at weekends. In principle you cannot break your journey, but in practice I do, often, and ticket inspectors just smile. If, like me, you are aged 60 or over you can buy a senior railcard, if under 60 a Network railcard. Each costs twenty pounds and gives you a third off these cheap day returns. For detail on both of these please see http://www.atoc.org/railcards/railcard_main.htm <BR><BR>For longer day trips, such as Bath, Chester, Stratford or York the most expensive is the full return fare, bought any time, valid a long time. It lets you break your journey, but I doubt you want to do that on such 2 or 3 hour trips. What I do is phone in London 07845 48 49 50, and tell the helpful people at the other end my plans, and ask what cheap tickets are on offer by advance purchase, with what limits on early morning departures. I take notes, and go to any big railway station in London to book my trips. The best office for this is on the street below Cannon Street station, Monday to Friday, nine to five. Roughly, cheapest is SuperApex, then Apex, then SuperSaver, and cheapest is Saver - but there are more offers still, with even odder names. Mostly, you cannot break your journey, and mostly they are valid for a certain 3 days, a certain day, or even a certain pair of trains. You can buy the whole set at one go: they date them for your choice of days. If you miss a train named on an Apex ticket in principle you pay the whole single second class fare, but in practice an explanation and apology to the conductor usually wins a kind reply. I expect that an American accent helps, too.<BR><BR>Please call it British Rail all you like. Some of us see the decline of the system since Mrs Thatcher ended it and wish we had it back.<BR><BR>Picture booths are common, and not only at stations. I think I can promise you booths at any main line station. But of course buying is quicker if you bring photos with you.<BR><BR>Please write if I can help further. Welcome back.<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR>

Dave

Ben:- don't like to appear pedantic but here goes! It was under John Major that British Rail was privatised and yes what a sorry job they made of it.<BR><BR>Eric:- I hope they make it easier for tourists to buy rail tickets than they do us locals... it's next to impossible to be quoted and charged the cheapest price (there are a plethora of "saver" deals available) or even to get reliable information on possible routes,times and carriers. The general feeling is, however, that the further ahead you book the better the deal... DO NOT CATCH A TRAIN ON A WHIM! Book whatever you can via internet before leaving the states... even with the admin charges i'm sure you'll get a better deal than the long suffering British. <BR><BR>Altogether now.... re-NATIONALISE NOW!!!!

Lori

Been to London (and other areas of UK) many times - just got back in fact. We always buy tickets for day trips when in London, it's much cheaper and very very easy. You can get a "cheap day return" ticket to most anyplace and tourists usually only go within an hour or two of London anyway. This year we were up to St. Neot's (no one goes there, it was a great market town, along a river, nice place to kick back), also went to Canterbury. Just got cheap day return at the station and boarded the train. When we went to York we did order tickets in advance over the phone - got Daypex fares and reserved seats, it was a 2 hr train ride on a higher speed train. The tickets were waiting for us at pickup at Kings Cross. I'd never mess around with what you call Britrail (as everyone says it is not that anymore), it's way too expensive unless you plan on being on and off trains every minute of your trip.<BR><BR>Go to the various websites (trainline.com is one) and look at schedules and prices -- it's really a no brainer to decide what you want to do and get tickets prior to boarding.

kitty

My family (2 adults, 2 kids) went to Great Britain last summer for two weeks and used the BritRail pass. We really enjoyed the ease of use, no standing in lines for tickets, the ability to ride whenever and wherever we wanted, etc. We had done cheap day return tickets on previous trips and did find it okay. My husband was very glad last summer that he did not have to stand in line and ask for tickets. He really, really liked the ease of the BritRail passes.<BR><BR>Before we left on our trip I had our itinerary worked out so I went to the train timetable websites and costed out each trip and then compared that with the costs of the passes. The passes were actually cheaper for us and allowed us more flexibility which is why we used them. We were all over Great Britain traveling to Bath, Cardiff, Salisbury, London, York, Warwick, and Edinburgh. The pass is also good on the Gatwick Express. <BR><BR>I think your decision depends on how long you're going and how often you intend to use the pass. Research costs and itineraries on your own and make an informed decision based on your schedule.<BR><BR>Have a great time!<BR>

ron

Sheila, the reason people call it BritRail is because that is the name of the marketing company that develops and sells the various passes available to overseas visitors. It was called that when the train company was British Rail. It is still called that now that it offers its service to the 26 companies that comprise the National Rail Network. See www.britrail.com.

Sheila

Well thank you, all of you. It's one of those inconsequential things that irritates the hell out of me.<BR><BR>Hope you got your question answered too, Eric

greg

Regarding pictures for the travel card, what you need is a passport SIZE picture but not have to be passport regulation COMPLIANT. So we just looked into our scrap picture pile, find pictures showing our faces well and just cut into correct SIZE. Forget about clear background, clearance above head to the edge of the picture, etc. none of these specifications are required for the travel card.<BR><BR>One additional comment on purchasing on the day of trip; if you can use a vending machine, it will cut down your wait time. Our destination for our day trip appeared to be outside what these machines sold, so I had to wait in a ticket line for 30 minutes at Paddington station to get our ticket. The future trip ticket line had no waiting line.

Lori

Goodness, I cannot imagine where anyone had to stand an extremely long time to purchase tickets for day trips. All the stations have multiple ticket counters, the most we've ever been in line is about 5-6 minutes. I imagine it can get crowded on holiday weekends and in the height of the tourist season (summer) but still ... all the large stations have so many ticket windows that it all goes fast.

Judy

Hi Eric, we bought the 4 day "Britrail" out of London pass in March, very easy all in all. Yet, the whole time we used the pass, only on our trip to Cambridge, did the conductor(or tkt agent on the train) filled out or checked our "Pass"! We could have gone all over England, and no one would have been wiser. I am not complaining, just letting you know that the most of the personnel on the trains that we took, were not as how should we say "high sticklers". <BR>FYI, Judy ;-)

kitty

Everytime we took a train trip our BritRail passes were checked. We were even asked for passports a couple of time to verify names which was fine with us.

David White

Eric,<BR><BR>If you know when and where you want to travel, you CAN buy lower cost, advance purchase rail tickets on-line through:<BR><BR> http://www.thetrainline.com<BR><BR>They will either mail the tickets to an address in the UK (like your hotel, perhaps) or hold the tickets for pickup at London's Euston rail station. <BR><BR>The London Transport Visitor Travel Card is just one of several options for visitors who want to use the London Tube, bus and suburban rail system. In fact, buying daily, weekend, or weekly tickets in London, or even buying individual tickets, may be your best deal. For details on the all the fares and passes--and there ARE too many details and options in my opinion--go to:<BR><BR> http://www.londontransport.co.uk/ftt_home.shtml<BR><BR>Hope this helps<BR><BR>David White<BR>http://www.KidsToLondon.com

janis

Eric: BritRail passes are very expensive - whenever there are two or more traveling together renting a car is much cheaper. Even considering the high petrol costs. Unless you are taking a LOT of long distance journeys, skip Britrail and just by day-of-journey tickets. Very early in the morning or after 9:30/10:00 AM the lines at the ticket windows are shorter. But the ticket machines are easy to use.<BR><BR>Lori: You may have been lucky about ticket lines - but at places like Waterloo and Victoria the queue can sometimes stretch to 30 to 45 minutes or more.