Monday, 2 July 2012

Split train tickets and save money

http://splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com/

I saw this useful utitility - Tickety Split - reviewed in A to B magazine. I'm not sure whether fares oracle Barry Doe has reviewed it yet, but I'm sure he will.

A split ticket means instead of buying a ticket from (say) Dorchester to Plymouth, you buy a ticket from Dorchester to Exeter and another from Exeter to Plymouth. You don't have to change trains at the spliiting station (Exeter in this example) - the split is valid if the train stops there.)

Currently Tickety Split only works with walk up single fares, so anyone who really wants to save money on fares can only really use it to uncover where to try out splitting their journey, and then use the information to save on advance fares. Independent rail ticket site redspottedhanky.com says (according to A to B) that "its licence forbids it from selling split tickets, although changes in the pipeline may allow it to offer advice of this kind."

Extending the range of ticket typess that Tickety Split can explore is a work in progress, and given the incredibly complex train fare system in this country, it may be some time before it can handle a really useful range of ticket types, but having internet based information about where these splitting points are must surely start a reform of this paricular "quirk" in the system.

No comments: