“This is a big con just as usual,” writes Clifford Beeton on X (Twitter). “I put in Stoke on Trent to Glasgow return it came back at £142! Where are all the £25 tickets advertised?”
Mr Beeton was responding to a Northern Rail post proclaiming: “The Great British Rail Sale is back! Get 50 per cent off selected Advance tickets with one million tickets available across the North.”
The 2026 Rail Sale began on 6 December and cheap tickets will be on sale until Monday 12 January, for journeys between 13 January and 25 March.
The aim is to stimulate extra demand, not to reward existing travellers. The government says 1 million tickets were bought in last year’s Rail Sale, saving passengers an average of £8 per journey. Anecdotally, though, many buyers – including me – will have made the journey anyway and are simply saving money at the taxpayer’s expense.
Prices are about 6 per cent higher than last year. But there are some outstanding bargains. The best I have found in hours of research is just £7 from either Liverpool Lime Street or Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston: there are tickets at that price on a wide range of dates but with a catch. These journeys are not on Avanti West Coast expresses, but on stopping trains as far as Crewe and then London Northwestern Railway, taking over an hour longer. Avanti is available, but four times more expensive.
You can trade speed for savings on other routes. From Portsmouth to London is only £4 on Southern’s longer journey to Victoria via Gatwick airport, rather than the fast South Western Railway service to Waterloo (£10).
Intercity deals abound. For example on 13 January, between Newcastle and London King's Cross, there are heaps of tickets available at £25.10 on LNER (as well as some on Lumo at just £19.90). Compared with prices on the previous day, these are half-price or better.
Yet I have failed to find cheap deals on CrossCountry between Manchester and either Reading or Bristol.
These are the key questions and answers.
Can I get to work more cheaply?
Probably not. Most tickets do not qualify, including anytime, the vast majority of off-peaks (except in a few cases), seasons and flexi-seasons.
Almost all of the fares in the sale are for advance tickets, where you commit to a specific train and time. The saving is typically 50 per cent.
While normally advance fares increase in line with demand, the Rail Sale involves a set number of tickets at a fixed price; once they’re gone, they’re gone. Where a participating train company does not offer advance tickets, off-peak fares may be offered as an alternative.
Some examples of prices?
These deals have all been checked by The Independent on the first day of the Rail Sale for travel on a range of dates in the second half of January. Availability and prices will depend on how much demand train operators expect; there will be fewer during half-term, for example.
GWR
Linking south Wales and the West of England with London Paddington.
- Cardiff to London Paddington tickets for £29 one-way in standard class, £46 in first
- Bristol to/from London is £22 (standard) or £42 (first)
- Plymouth to/from London is £37 (standard) or £55 (first)
Avanti West Coast
To London Euston from Scotland, northwest England and the West Midlands, northwest England and Scotland
- Glasgow Central £36
- Manchester Piccadilly £28.50
- Liverpool £21.50
- Birmingham £14
LNER
On the East Coast Main Line, which connects London King’s Cross with Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland, LNER has these offers to and from London:
- Leeds £19.70 (standard), £47 (first)
- Newcastle £25.10 (standard), £55.25 (first)
- Edinburgh £27.85 (standard), £60.25 (first)
Journeys not involving London
- Inverness-Edinburgh £11.65
- Newcastle-York £4.80
- Holyhead-Cardiff £36.70
- Liverpool-Hull £10.40
- Sheffield-Leicester £4.70
- Dover-Tonbridge £5
- Norwich-Colchester £4
How do I book?
You could go to a station, but in practice, almost everyone will book online. You can go through individual train operators’ websites. Booking direct with the operator, which makes things easier if there is a problem with the journey and may qualify for a loyalty bonus. But I advise using an independent rail retailer that does not charge a fee – they will offer “split tickets” to provide extra savings if appropriate.
For Mr Beeton’s Stoke-to-Glasgow trip, for example, I have found plenty of split tickets at £32.20 return on Uber using East Midlands Railway to Crewe and Avanti West Coast from there to Glasgow Central – a saving of 57 per cent.
Do railcard and child discounts apply?
No railcard discounts, but children aged five to 15 travel half-price. Again, an independent rail retailer will search for the best combination if you are a railcard holder.
Can I go first class?
Posh seats are available on some operators for a premium between 50 and 150 per cent (the latter particularly on LNER on the East Coast Main Line, which provides generous food and drink).
How quickly should I buy?
As soon as you can. That 1 million tickets offered by Northern may sound like a large number, but compared with the usual numbers of rail journeys made in a 10-week spell (around 350 million), it is tiny.
Many trains are selling out of cheap tickets already.
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