Great Western Coffee Shop

England’s train companies have joined together to offer up to 1 million journeys at up to half-price on selected Advance and off-peak train tickets

You will be able to buy tickets in the Great British Rail Sale from 10am next Tuesday (19th April) until the end of Monday 2nd May 2022 for travel between Monday 25th April until Friday 27th May 2022.

When the sale starts, to find tickets, go to National Rail’s online tool here (https://greatbritishrailsale.nationalrail.co.uk/) to find out which routes are available. Once you find a route, click ‘buy’ to head over to a ticket retailer and check the availability for your journey. Great British Rail Sale tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis but there’s no limit on how many tickets you can buy for trips.

In addition, if you have a Railcard, you will be able to save an additional 1/3 off a Great British Rail Sale ticket.

The special offer tickets are available from:

Southeastern
London North Eastern Railway
Avanti West Coast
Greater Anglia
South Western Railway
Great Western Railway
Northern
C2C
Chiltern
London Northwestern Railway Railway
Cross Country
East Midlands Railway
West Midlands Railway
Southern
Thameslink
Great Northern
TransPennine Express
Grand Central
Hull Trains

The offer does not include travel on London Overground, TfL Rail, Merseyrail, Lumo, Gatwick Express, Heathrow Express or Stansted Express.

On some operators, you may be able to pay for a First-Class upgrade. You’ll need to check the trail company for details.

If the train you purchased a ticket for is cancelled or is delayed and you still decide to travel, special arrangements will be made to accommodate you on another train (although a seat cannot be guaranteed). If you choose not to travel a refund will be offered on completely unused tickets and you will not be charged an administration fee.

Note that Great British Rail Sale tickets are (otherwise) non-refundable and cannot be transferred.

up to half-price on selected Advance and off-peak train tickets

.....to find out which routes are available. Once you find a route, click ‘buy’ to head over to a ticket retailer and check the availability for your journey.

On sale from TOMORROW at 10am.....

Rather predictably, CrossCountry's Advances cost more than the normal return fare.

The cringe factor of transport minister Grant Shapps shrugging his North Face puffer jacket on and off in front of a green screen is enough to put anyone off their spring getaway. But here we are, with the “Great British Rail Sale”, which promises more than one million discounted train tickets from 25 April to 27 May.

The catch? Most fare types aren’t included in the sale – such as Anytime, Off-peak (with a few exceptions), Seasons and Flexi-Seasons. The vast majority of discounts are on Advanced fares, meaning that you need to commit to a journey in advance. The discounts aren’t available on all routes, and connecting journeys on different train operators don’t qualify either.

One million tickets might sound like a lot, but it’s not when you consider how many rail journeys are usually made within a 33-day period – more than 160 million. Moreover, the sale and Shapps’s attempt at on-camera humour can’t assuage my suspicion that consumers are just being tossed a few crumbs to keep us semi-sweet.

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the "Great British Rail Sale" is that, finally, something has arrived that has been subject to very long delays: an admission from the Government that rail fares in this country are way too high. Beyond that, though, I’m struggling.

For just one month, some passengers on some routes will get a glimpse of what it’s like to travel on the railways at prices permanently available to people in pretty much every other country in the world. And then, in May, the window on what rail travel should be like will be slammed shut again.

I can’t help but think it makes Grant Shapps this Government’s equivalent of Jim Bowen, the host of the old TV programme Bullseye. "Come and have a look at what you could have won," Jim used to say to his losing guests. “Come and have a look at what things were like before rail privatisation,” the Transport Secretary seems to be saying to people in their thirties and younger.

He obviously didn't use the pre-privatised railways. Of course, he may be too young. Nuff said. They were terrible

I am old enough to have used the nationalised railway for 25 years; a mix of leisure, education and work journeys (but not commuting). Stations and trains often looked tired; punctuality wasn't brilliant, but never, ever, was I left stranded. Most journeys were enjoyable and rail was a positive choice for me. Some parts of BR were better than others; the good parts seemed to do very well at creating improvements with modest funding.