Train travel can cost a small fortune, but thanks to a little known website you can hop on board for just £1.
Megatrain, like the more widely known Megabus, is part of the Stagecoach Group and allows you to travel on trains operated by the likes of Virgin and South West Trains for a fraction of the price.
Lines run from Birmingham to Glasgow or Edinburgh, London to Sheffield (via Nottingham or Derby) and London to Bristol, Exeter, Weymouth, Southampton or Portsmouth.
Be prepared for a trawl though, because the Megatrain website is not easy to navigate.
There are no 'cheapest fare' search options, nor is there a map to let you know where the train routes are. What's more, if you try to search any other routes it’ll redirect you to the Megabus site, which can be a bit disorientating.
Heading north
We tried finding a trip from Birmingham to Preston on Wednesday, 11th November 2015. We managed to find a golden £1 ticket, but the major snag is that there’s only one journey available at 6:16am.
The cheapest journey through National Rail was seven and a half times more expensive. Then again, trains run every hour so there’s way more flexibility if you happen to sleep in or get caught in traffic.
[SPOTLIGHT]Be warned, there is a 50p booking charge with Megatrain to take into account.
If you are prepared to travel at rotten times, and trawl through the website, there are some serious savings to be had.
Cheaper train travel
In the likely event that your preferred route isn’t covered by Megatrain, there are plenty of other ways to cut down the cost of your rail fare.
You could have a go at split ticketing, which is where you cut your journey down into two or three separate tickets rather than one whole fare. This is fairly straightforward as there is such a huge number of train operators in the UK, so naturally there is a bit of overlap on certain parts of certain routes.
Let's take an example. Travelling from Kettering to London St Pancras on Monday 26th October on an off-peak ticket will cost you £45.50 for a single ticket. But you can get that ticket for £34.90 by getting a ticket from Ketting to Bedford and then from Bedford to London, a saving of more than 23%.
Split ticketing allows you to break down the cost of the journey by taking advantage of the fact that more than one train company uses the line. The only condition is that the train must stop in the place where your tickets join. See if you can save at SplitMyFare. And remember, split ticketing doesn't mean you actually have to get off at the stations mentioned on your ticket!
You can knock off even more of that fare with a rail discount card. Money off is available to older people, younger people, travelling pairs and families and even those in HM Forces. Find out more at How to cut the cost of rail and coach travel.
Get 5% interest on your current account