Megatrain.com for cheap UK rail fares

The pricing on the UK rail system has been a mess for years now, with different prices offered at different times on the same routes, the same trains even. British trains are also notoriously expensive – it still seems a travesty to me that when I’m costing a flight from London to Edinburgh or Glasgow that it’s invariably cheaper to fly than to go by rail. But at least we can now search for the cheapest deals online. Generally that’s mean thetrainline.com, but the established leader now has serious competition from megatrain.com for cheap UK rail fares.

The megatrain website is blessedly simple – you can go and sort out your route and travelling times elsewhere (thetrainline.com in fact) then head back here and get the tickets more cheaply. Megatrain is also Megabus, which found fame for selling intercity UK coach tickets for just £1 a pop. Sample comparisons threw up a London-Salisbury fare for £16.50, with thetrainline coming in at £34.50, and London-Chesterfiel at £22 against £39. Further, megatrain appears to include the booking fee in the price, while with thetrainline.com you pay extra. You can’t invariably use megatrain.com for cheap UK rail fares of course. Prices vary greatly, and by the day, so always ensure you try both sites to get a side by side comparison.

I also notice that there’s an input field for voucher codes on the megatrain site, which would bring the price down even further. I’ll be trying to find some of those for you in the next couple of weeks.  As well as megatrain.com for cheap UK rail fares, check out our other tips for loads of ways to save money on your purchases.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 7:03 am and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.