Title: An insider's guide to cheap rail tickets | Travel | The Guardian
Headings: An insider's guide to cheap tickets
Travel
An insider's guide to cheap tickets
Patrick Barkham
@patrick_barkham
Six journeys, six tricks
Tactics

Content: An insider's guide to cheap rail tickets | Travel | The Guardian
Travel
An insider's guide to cheap tickets
The hefty new year fare rises have put train travel out of reach of more people than ever before. But as Patrick Barkham discovers, there are still a few cunning ways to make even the longest trips affordable
Patrick Barkham
@patrick_barkham
Thu 4 Jan 2007 04.07 EST
First published on Thu 4 Jan 2007
04.07 EST
The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Tuesday January 9 2007
In the article below we reported that buying a season ticket for the three-minute journey from Ryde St Johns Road to Ryde Esplanade on the Isle of Wight automatically gives you a Gold Card, which entitles you to a third off most off-peak UK fares. It does, but only in most of southern England, covering the same area as the Network Railcard discount card. An accompanying panel headlined Six journeys, six tricks, stated that all direct trains to Newcastle stop at Peterborough. This information was confirmed three times by operators at National Rail Enquiries. Unfortunately, they were wrong; most, but not all, Newcastle-bound trains stop at Peterborough. You feel bitter and twisted as you squeeze into your train seat and swing down the stained beige table. That woman in the next row: she looks suspiciously smug.