This is the big trick everyone should know. Instead of buying tickets for the whole journey, buying tickets for its constituent parts separately can bizarrely slash the price – even though you’re travelling on exactly the same train.

It’s perfectly allowed within the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, and has been confirmed by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). The only rule is that the train must call at the stations you’ve bought tickets for.

How much can you save… London to Penzance return cut from £257 to £50.

As an example, for London to Penzance return the cheapest ticket was an anytime day return at £257. This train stops in Plymouth and by instead buying four singles…

• Outbound: London to Plymouth
• Outbound: Plymouth to Penzance
• Return: Penzance to Plymouth
• Return: Plymouth to London

the total cost for those tickets is just £50, a saving of £207 and just to clear it up …

It’s the same train at the same time, the difference is you’ve four tickets covering the journey not one.

How to find split ticket bargains:

It normally takes five-ten minutes to check, but it’s worth doing, especially for long journeys.

• Step 1: Find the cheapest price for the standard journey.

  First get the price for the standard journey; without this you won’t know if you can save.

• Step 2: Find out where the train stops.

  Use the Transport Direct journey planner; just click on the train icon after you receive your route to see where it stops. The info is also available via the timetables section of the National Rail website.

  Alternatively, if your journey involves changing trains, click on the train time at Step 2 of the TheTrainline booking process. It will reveal when and where the train stops; try splitting your ticket there.

• Step 3: Check the options.

  Now pick a main station about half way across the journey and get a price for separate tickets to and from there for each leg. If that doesn’t work try another leg. If the train stops at many places then there’s a huge combination of available tickets. Obviously it’s a balance of time versus money. You could split a journey’s tickets into six or eight… it all depends on the amount of time you have.

One thing to watch for

In the very rare event that your split ticket stop coincides with a place you may change train, your first train were late and you’d booked a specific ticket, you may find your ticket isn’t valid for the last half of the journey.

E.g. If you travel from Aford to Cshire via Btown and split your tickets at Btown, plus need to change trains there, if the Ashire to Btown train is late, your ticket may not be valid for the later Btown to Cshire train.

source: Money Saving Expert Forum

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