Title: BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | 10 legit ways to get cheaper rail fares
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Content: So use your Falkirk ticket to Manchester, where you can break your journey (never to go on to Falkirk later). So you pay £17 less to travel 420 miles to Falkirk than the 185 miles to Manchester. You know it makes sense. Fares fair
A spokeswoman for the Association of Train Operating Companies agrees that combination fares are legitimate, but points out that on long distance trips, open single or return fares - used in the examples above - account for 2% of journeys. Is his ticket cheaper than yours? "Ninety-eight percent of passengers travel on the wide range of discounted fares available, and which do not involve making complicated enquiries about the purchase of combination fares. Nationally, more than 80% of rail journeys are made using discounted tickets including cheap day returns, savers, and advance purchase tickets." With millions of possible fare combinations, it is not practical for ticket retailers to give out every single combination of single and return tickets, she says. " Also, this might severely limit the number of trains that the passenger could use, depending on the time of day they wish to travel." A spokeswoman for Passenger Focus, an independent consumer watchdog, says that the above examples show just how complex the fare structure has become.