Title: BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | 10 legit ways to get cheaper rail fares
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Content: By rail, a ticket to travel is just that, valid on any operators' services on the line of route (this only applies to walk-on tickets like savers and not to advance purchase fares, which are much cheaper and are for a specific seat on a specific train). The same rules and reasons apply to all these journeys, taken during the week - details correct at time of publication. 2. PLYMOUTH-READING
You need to take a day trip from Plymouth to Reading using the first train of the day at 0548. Through fares are more expensive
The booking office rightly says the cheapest return is £188 open return - remember they must only tell you the cheapest through fare to the place you ask for in one transaction, NOT by re-booking. Ask for a standard day return to Exeter (£14.60), then another from Exeter to Taunton (£9.70). You have to buy the full fare open return to Reading as the train does not stop anywhere again (£113). But these three tickets cost £137.30, saving £50.70. The way to find this out? Look at intermediate stops and see if fares to that station, and from that station to your destination, cost less than the throughout fare - the trick here is to use standard day returns (only valid for shorter journeys of 50 miles maximum) and only pay the open return for the longer leg.