Alan

Four of us are spending two weeks next month in England and Scotland. Most of the trip is by car but we will take a train from Edinburgh to York, spend two nights there, and then take a train to London. The cost is roughly $200 per person for the two legs. Does this sound like a reasonable cost? This is the only part of the trip that we asked a travel agent to handle and it just seemed high. I have no reason to doubt the cost but wanted some input. Thanks

Julian

Check out www.thetrainline.com and www.gner.co.uk for comparisons. It also very much depends on what day of the week and what time you are travelling and how far in advance you book it.

Tony

$200 sounds like at least double what you should be paying. If the gner website mentioned by Julian does'nt throw up something much cheaper, you should re-check prices as soon as you arrive in the U.K. Obviously there are bigger discounts for advanced booking; these seem to vary for next day, 3 days, 7 days and so on.

Nigel Doran

I agree. I spend a lot of time trying to get the cheapest train fares for my travel to the North from London. The problem is, single (one way) fares are never economical as they rarely add up to half the return price. To make it as cheap as possible, book ahead, and do not travel on Friday or on a public holiday. Do not just turn up and go, especially at rush hour, as you will be stung! <BR>I am afraid that because you are going to use two single tickets, £130 for the two legs sounds about right. <BR>Why not give them a call? I think the Trainline website has a number you can dial from abroad. <BR>You could go by coach, but that will take more time. www.gobycoach.com will help.

Nigel Doran

Well I never. There do seem to be some cheap single tickets around, so get going! Bargain single York - London is £23. That was for the end of August. <BR> <BR>If you wanted to, you could pretend you were returning from London to York by punching in an imaginary return date (not Friday and weekends will be fuller) and get a cheap return if you do not manage to get a cheap single. Also, there are 'Daypex' tickets that might serve the same purpose.

frank

Go back to your travel agent & tell him he got you the worst possible deal.To be fair, the system is over-complex & keeps changing - you can pay a different fare from A to B than from B to A.Some discounts depend on which day of it is (eg Friday - bad day), also there are group discounts - used to be called "family tickets" though you didn't have to be related. <BR>If you can't get a sensible price from there (you probably can somehow) then book when you come - you can't be charged more!