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: Buying a season ticket automatically gives you a "Gold Card" - which entitles you to a third off almost all off-peak UK fares. You can also upgrade to first class for £5 return on most of your journeys if you want to give yourself a treat. Even if you are travelling in the south-east, where you could get a third off with a £20 Network Railcard, this trick is better if you make lots of journeys that cost less than £10. The Network Railcard only gives you a discount down to £10, but as a gold card user you can get 34% off any ticket, at any price. So if you travel from Kingston-upon-Thames to London Waterloo on a cheap day return at £5.70, you will pay £3.76 thanks to your Isle of Wight season ticket. Even if you only make that trip three days a week, you will save more than £300 in a year. Angry of Kingston writes ...
How one passenger beat the system
I am a reasonable person. I pay our ridiculous taxes. I try not to mock when the government says inflation is 3% and we get gas and electricity rises of 15%. I attempt to keep my blood pressure under control when our prime minister is sunning himself in Florida as the Iraq he helped to create spirals out of control.