Train tickets

The recommended website for buying train tickets is www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/
It's really well designed and easy to use and copes well with railcards. In conjunction with the machines at Barking station that can print out the tickets you've bought, it makes for an excellent and quick ticket buying set up.

However, I tried to buy a return from Barking to/from Romford. The cheapest it offered me was £4. Then it let me go all the way through to typing in my credit card number and then said the minimum purchase was £5. Annoying, but I'm glad in a way because when I bough the ticket directly from a machine at Barking Station, the fare was £2.65

The Trainline

Train ticket guru Barry Doe does not recommend the trainline for buying tickets on line. One reason he gives is the £1 minimum fee charged (which Raileasy also charges, and which he also doesn't recommend). He points out that if you start from http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ (a good journey planning / ticket price site, he says) you will click through to a train operating company's (TOC's) ticket buying site. Many, but not all TOCs don't charge a fee even though the ticket "engine" is the same one.

50p admin charge for fast ticket printing

The trainline has introduced a 50p charge for printing out (at a fast ticket machine) tickets ordered on line. There's no self printing of tickets (or at least it's very limited) and of course the fast ticket reference can't be used directly (like on airlines), so the charge seems to be a disincentive to use the system. Railcard holders can get a zone 1-6 one day travelcard foe £4.80 (2007 prices) - the 50p charge is equivalent to a mark up of over 10%.

Paying before you travel on Silerlink Metro

The posters on B & GO trains warn you that you must pay in advance if possible when travelling on Silverlink Metro if you can. If you don't or can't you won't be able to buy certain reduced fares.

But the posters suggest that you have to buy your ticket in advance at Barking or Gospel Oak. These are possibilities, but there's also the internet for Oyster products and individual train tickets.