West Brom Away Trains

I know its a way off but just booked trains for our group of 7. Came in at £44 each. This figure will only rise from here on in. I think price rise comes into effect 1st Jan.

Cheapest route we found was Totton-Reading. Reading - Banbury, Banbury - Smethwick Galton Bridge. This is a 13 minute walk to The Vine pub with the indoor Tandoori BBQ.

Took me about 2 hours to figure all that out so thought i would pass it on to anyone who is interested.

I know its a way off but just booked trains for our group of 7. Came in at £44 each. This figure will only rise from here on in. I think price rise comes into effect 1st Jan.

 

Cheapest route we found was Totton-Reading. Reading - Banbury, Banbury - Smethwick Galton Bridge. This is a 13 minute walk to The Vine pub with the indoor Tandoori BBQ.

 

Took me about 2 hours to figure all that out so thought i would pass it on to anyone who is interested.

Alternatively, if you have a network card, and break your ticket purchases to; Southampton - Reading, Reading - Banbury, Banbury - Brum, comes to just over £31 return.

Well i dont know how you managed that, it was coming out at £8o something when i tried it. Im gonna have another look.

Well i just tried it again. 7 people on a groupsave direct Southampton to Birmingham New Street £84. That was the trainline site. I do not have a network card though so dont know if that makes a difference.

Well i dont know how you managed that, it was coming out at £8o something when i tried it. Im gonna have another look.

If you can get to London on a cheap deal you can pick up tickets at £12 return to Birmingham, £15 on the better Virgin trains.

Southampton to Birmingham does always seem unnecessarily expensive on the train.

just booked it for £30 each with a railcard for 4 of us

just booked it for £30 each with a railcard for 4 of us

Im sorry to come across a bit thick here. But i have just looked into the railcard thing and the Friends and family card says you must travel with a child over 5. Is there another card i should get or do people just ignore the child rule. I prob do about 6 games a season on the trains usually 4-7 of us depending on the day. We always just use the groupsave thing. Does anybody more intelligent than me know a better way to use the trains. Im genuinally impressed that people are getting to Birmingham and back for £30 because i couldnt seem to get anywhere near it.

Im sorry to come across a bit thick here. But i have just looked into the railcard thing and the Friends and family card says you must travel with a child over 5. Is there another card i should get or do people just ignore the child rule. I prob do about 6 games a season on the trains usually 4-7 of us depending on the day. We always just use the groupsave thing. Does anybody more intelligent than me know a better way to use the trains. Im genuinally impressed that people are getting to Birmingham and back for £30 because i couldnt seem to get anywhere near it.

To get to Birmingham last season we split the journey up to get it to come out under £30 each.

Southampton to Basingstoke - 4 for 2

Basingstoke to Banbury - standard tickets, or use a railcard if you have them.

Banbury to Birmingham Moor Street - 4 for 2

Im sorry to come across a bit thick here. But i have just looked into the railcard thing and the Friends and family card says you must travel with a child over 5. Is there another card i should get or do people just ignore the child rule.

It's the Network Railcard you're after.

These trains really are a mystery to me. Just checked price for waterloo and railcard for Saturday on groupsave and its the exact same price as if i had 2 network railcards. I do find it annoying that train tickets are complicated. I dont see why its sometimes cheaper to buy 2 singles instead of a return and things like that. QPR saturday we are paying £28 if the network card doesnt save you a lot its maybe not worth me getting one as most of the games we do on the train are London games.

http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/forum/138038/cheapest-way-to-west-brom-on-the-train/#10

Also being discussed on the UI. One of the best away days IMO.

These trains really are a mystery to me. Just checked price for waterloo and railcard for Saturday on groupsave and its the exact same price as if i had 2 network railcards. I do find it annoying that train tickets are complicated. I dont see why its sometimes cheaper to buy 2 singles instead of a return and things like that. QPR saturday we are paying £28 if the network card doesnt save you a lot its maybe not worth me getting one as most of the games we do on the train are London games.

If you look on the Network Railcard website or the relevant page of Network Rail, you'll find a map of the area covered by the Network Railcard. It doesn't extend as far as Birmingham. From memory it goes as far as somewhere like Milton Keynes. If you get a Birmingham train that stops at MK (e.g. some of those from Euston), you can split your journey: Buy the first part from Southampton, or wherever you start from, to MK. This will be covered by the NR Card and you'll get a third off. The second part of the journe,y MK to Birmingham, will be standard price. You stay on the same train. No changes necessary.

These trains really are a mystery to me. Just checked price for waterloo and railcard for Saturday on groupsave and its the exact same price as if i had 2 network railcards.

GroupSave used to get you 50% off if there were 4 of you travelling, but it seems as if they've reduced that to 34% for groups of 3-9 people.

A Network Railcard also entitles you to a 34% discount in the "Network South East" region (as far north as Banbury, I believe), hence why some will buy "split" tickets to Birmingham for the West Brom game. You can get the discount up to Banbury but no further. The benefit of a Network Railcard over GroupSave is that you can get the discount if there's only 1 or 2 of you travelling, and the Railcard is also valid with all operators in the region. GroupSave tickets can't be used on CrossCountry trains, which screws you for West Brom as the only way of getting from Reading to Banbury is on Cross Country.

Example:

Southampton Central to Shepherd's Bush on Saturday is £39.50 for a standard off-peak day return. With a Network Railcard (1-4 people) or GroupSave (3-9 people), that gets reduced to £26.05. So just to get to London, you're saving £13.45. If you make three trips to London in a year, you've made the cost of the railcard back.

Im sorry to come across a bit thick here. But i have just looked into the railcard thing and the Friends and family card says you must travel with a child over 5. Is there another card i should get or do people just ignore the child rule. I prob do about 6 games a season on the trains usually 4-7 of us depending on the day. We always just use the groupsave thing. Does anybody more intelligent than me know a better way to use the trains. Im genuinally impressed that people are getting to Birmingham and back for £30 because i couldnt seem to get anywhere near it.

used a network railcard which gives up to 4 of you 1/3 off,i booked soton to Basingstoke on crosscountry then Basingstoke to Banbury on same train,by booking as 2 journeys it came in as £80 for 4 of us instead of £117,then Banbury to b/ham moor st was another £38as a groupsaver4

just be aware that travel via Banbury might not be an option due to the landslide between Banbury and Leamington Spa that could block the line for weeks. It has disrupted my daily commute from Leamington to Reading.

just be aware that travel via Banbury might not be an option due to the landslide between Banbury and Leamington Spa that could block the line for weeks. It has disrupted my daily commute from Leamington to Reading.

How much longer does the replacement bus service add to the journey? I'm trying to work out whether its worth going into London then getting the virgin train from Euston

Worth looking at the various deals from London Marylebone to Brum, think they might even do some sort of 4 for 2.

How much longer does the replacement bus service add to the journey? I'm trying to work out whether its worth going into London then getting the virgin train from Euston

Read yesterday people saying it was adding 1.30 hours to the journey. Not good at all if it dont get fixed.

Latest estimate is abut an hour for the replacement bus service

Balls, Poole to London then onto new street is about an hour longer, so doesnt look like there's much in it.

Let's hope they get it sorted in time.

Balls, Poole to London then onto new street is about an hour longer, so doesnt look like there's much in it.

 

Let's hope they get it sorted in time.

End of the month they have said. I use that line everyday (further north).

Got my tickets. Row HH. Will be freezing as it's the highest ground in England and I must be sat on the roof.

Got my tickets for the game just now. My mate has a disabled rail card and we're going via Crawley but still cant believe I only paid £37 in total for 2 return tickets to The Hawthorns including tube ticket and everything.

Got my tickets for the game just now. My mate has a disabled rail card and we're going via Crawley but still cant believe I only paid £37 in total for 2 return tickets to The Hawthorns including tube ticket and everything.

That's a bargain all the way via Crawley and across London. I was happy to pay £15 return from Euston to New St. Could have got tickets for £12 on that noddy train than runs from Marylebone to Moor St.

Had an e-mail from cross country trains. Banbury line is definately screwed for next week. Looks like the bus service is our only option.

I am getting the replacement bus every day. It should only take 45 minutes max.