HOW SPENDING $40 SAVED ME $200 ON FIRST CLASS TRAIN TRAVEL

When recently booking a return train journey between London and Edinburgh, I found myself actually stopping to consider the Railcard option I’d usually dismissed as irrelevant to me as a non-UK resident on previous occasions.  I simply never gave them much thought, as I’m just a tourist who might visit the UK once or twice a year and ride the train only a handful of times while there.  Actually looking in to Railcards for this latest booking ended up being a very fortunate decision, though – and one that saved me a lot of money!

You might be planning your trip to the United Kingdom, and have all your destinations figured out.  Like many visitors to the UK, you’re aiming to fly in to London, spend a few days there, then hop on the train to other parts of Britain.  Maybe you’ll head up north to Edinburgh or York, or west to Wales or Plymouth.  Perhaps you’ll have several train rides in your itinerary, as you use the UK’s excellent rail network to cover as much ground during your vacation as efficiently and as affordably as possible.

Particularly if you’re aiming to take a couple train journeys, and likely even if you only have a single return train trip planned, one of the first things you should do is look in to whether it’s worth buying a UK Railcard before booking your train tickets.

WHAT IS A UK RAILCARD?

Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales, since Northern Ireland is on a completely different island) has a host of train operators crisscrossing the land, with specific operators usually handling specific routes.  If you’re traveling from London to Edinburgh, you’ll likely find yourself traveling with LNER out of Kings Cross (unless you’re on the Caledonian Sleeper, or the new low-cost Lumo service).  Making your way between London and Manchester?  You’re likely riding Avanti West Coast out of Euston.  Off to Bath from London?  You’ll be riding Great Western Railway out of Piccadilly.  There are just under a few dozen Train Operating Companies in Great Britain, with some able to take you all the way from London to Penzance in the far west or London to the Highlands in Scotland, and others like Heathrow Express focused on taking you the 14 miles from Heathrow Airport to the center of London.

All these different Train Operating Companies are part of National Rail, which allows them to share ticketing systems.  This means you can book yourself a journey from Aberdeen, Scotland down to London all through ScotRail, for instance, even though most of your journey won’t actually take place on ScotRail trains.  You can plan train journeys involving multiple operators through National Rail (though buy your tickets through an actual operator), view timetables, etc – a streamlined experience despite the myriad of operators you might encounter.

Part of the streamlined experience National Rail offers to customers looking to travel on any of their covered operators is the Railcard – a card that costs £30 for a year of discounted fares on journeys with National Rail operators.  All Railcards cost £30 per year (except for the Disabled Persons Railcard, which costs £20); some Railcards have a 3 year option for additional savings (£70 for the 3 years, compared to the £90 it’d cost to pay for them 1 year at a time).

 When you book your train trip through any of the National Rail operators, you can apply your Railcard to the booking and save on your fare.

WHO CAN BUY A RAILCARD?

In a nutshell – most anyone!  We’re used to thinking special discounts are only available to students or seniors, and while there are indeed Railcards that cater to those particular groups, there are so many different Railcard categories on offer there’s a reasonably good chance you qualify for one.  Whether enrolled in school or not, anyone 16-25 or 26-30 years old can get a Railcard.  Do you usually travel with your partner, spouse, or best friend?  You can buy a Two Together Railcard to use when you’re traveling as a pair.  Traveling with your family, or a group of friends?  The Family & Friends railcard offers savings for children and groups of adults up to a certain number.  Anyone at all can get a Network Railcard for savings when traveling around London and the southeast, and there are also a number of other regional Railcards for discounts when traveling within their specific regions.

Because Railcards are available in digital format via the Railcard app, you also don’t need to be a UK resident with a UK address to purchase one.  While the Veterans Railcard is only for those who’ve served in the UK Armed Forces, other Railcards are available to anyone and everyone who meets the requirements of the specific Railcard, regardless of where you’re from, so long as they can buy the digital version and not need to get it shipped to a UK postal address. If you’re technology-impaired, you can even buy Railcards at ticketing offices in the UK.

IS THE RAILCARD WORTH IT?

Railcards can and will provide considerable savings when applied to multiple rail journeys within that year of Railcard validity.  Depending on your specific traveling circumstances, though, there’s a reasonably good chance a Railcard will save you money on even a single return journey so long as that journey is eligible for the savings the Railcard offers.

Some Railcards are only valid for savings during certain times of day, or days of the week – designed to make it easier for people to travel during off-peak, non-rush hour periods for instance, or to take weekend trips, or go to school.  When looking at whether a Railcard is an option for you, it’s key to not only look at which Railcards you’re eligible for but also take time/day restrictions in to consideration to ensure you can save on the train trips you’re planning to take. Shop with your Railcard in mind, also – choosing a 10AM departure with your Two Together Railcard can save you lots of money compared to choosing the 9AM departure that isn’t eligible for savings with your Railcard.  You’ll want to look at the different Railcards on offer, see which ones you’re eligible for, familiarize yourself with their terms, restrictions, and rules (when you’re able to save with them, most importantly).

Checking to see whether a Railcard is a worthwhile investment for you is easy.  When booking your train journey with a National Rail operator (or even with a 3rd party ticketing company, like The Trainline), go through the usual motions of searching for trains and fares – choose your route and dates (including general time of day), and don’t select the Railcard option.  Take note of the prices you then see for the various classes of service on offer.  Then, simply conduct the very same search again, while selecting the Railcard option (you often don’t have to input your actual Railcard number while searching, as it’s only asked for during booking checkout).  If the Railcard fare is more than £30 cheaper than the non-Railcard fare, buying a Railcard will save you money.  Even if it’s less than a £30 savings, if you have additional train trips planned or think you may return for more trips within a year of buying your Railcard, it’s worth it.

To illustrate the kinds of savings you can get with a Railcard, I ran some searches for a return trip London Kings Cross – Edinburgh Waverly for mid-February, 2022 with LNER.  For a single traveler without a Railcard, my cheapest return option was £105 for an Advance Single ticket (non-refundable, in Stanrdard class).  If I wanted to treat myself to 1st Class, the cheapest option was £187; if I needed a Flexible fare, I could travel in Standard class for £158.40.

If I was a young traveler with the 26-30 Year Old Railcard, though, I could take that same return trip from London to Edinburgh for considerably less – £69.25 my cheapest Advance Single (Standard) option, £123.40 the cheapest Advance Single 1st Class option, and £104.50 the cheapest Flexible fare option. Depending on whether I wanted to travel Standard, 1st Class, or Standard Flexible, the Railcard could save me £35.75, £63.60, or £53.90 respectively – the £30 Railcard already paying for itself, and then some, on a single round trip between London and Edinburgh.

Savings are even more pronounced when looking at the value of a Two Together Railcard for Advance Single 1st Class tickets on the same journey (which is what we eventually booked for our Summer 2022 trip).

Without the Railcard, you can see the cheapest Advance Single 1st Class option was £414.00 (total, for 2 passengers).  By applying a Two Together Railcard, and ensuring departure times after 9:30AM (when Two Together Railcard savings kick in), we could save £140.80 (or £110.80, when you account for the cost of the Railcard itself – still more than worth it for a single booking).  By lowering the total cost of our 2 round trip, 1st Class tickets from £414.00 to £273.20, it put our final price close to what we would have paid for 2 non-discounted Standard class tickets – a Railcard could be what you need to treat yourself to lounge access, free food and drink, more legroom, more seat recline, power outlets at every seat, and an overall more comfortable journey in 1st Class!

THE FINAL TIPS…

• Check to see which Railcards you’re eligible for and, if not in the UK, whether you can get them digitally on the Railcard app.

• Compare the pricing of your planned trips without Railcards vs. with Railcards, including with different Railcards depending on your eligibility and circumstances.  Any savings over £30 means the card pays for itself.

• Be open to adjusting your timing to take advantage of Railcard savings, if able. Certain Railcards only offer savings on specific days, beginning and ending at certain times.

• Pleasure trains, such as the Jacobite or Royal Scotsman, aren’t part of the Railcard network.

• Find out more about Railcards here, including which ones you might be eligible for, their requirements and restrictions, and the Operators they can be used to book with.