Cheap train tickets: this new app makes greener travel more affordable
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- Hollie Richardson
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A new travel app that helps you to find cheaper train tickets could help you become a more sustainable UK traveller.
We’re all trying to do our bit for the environment, but modern life doesn’t make it easy – especially when it comes to travel.
Trains emit less carbon emissions than flights, cars and buses, making it a greener way of travelling around the UK and abroad. That’s why activist Greta Thunberg made headlines when she spent two days travelling from Rome to London via train to address Parliament last year. And it’s the reason we recently rounded up Europe’s best rail holidays. One Stylist writer is even giving up flying for 2020.
But booking a train to go home or to get to a staycation destination here in the UK is often more expensive than booking a flight or driving. 2020 has already seen an average 2.7% increase in rail fares. And many people who railed home for Christmas will be aware of how standards on trains are continuously slipping, with so many delays and canellations, overbooked services and unsatisfactory customer service. In fact, a recent report called Northern Rail “unsatisfactory”, as it showed over half its trains were delayed or cancelled.
Basically, we’re not really encouraged to choose rail travel, right? But a new travel hack shows how to find cheaper train tickets around the UK, without having to make multiple changes at stations.
Trainline has launched a new app, which finds clever combinations of cheaper train tickets to save money. Splitsave automatically ‘splits’ a trip into multiple legs, without any need for customers to change trains unnecessarily or make changes to their route. All you need to do is show different tickets along the journey. This year alone, each customer could save £260 by using the hack.
SplitSave is available on 64% of routes across the UK including Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston with a potential saving of £80.10, and Edinburgh Waverley to London King’s Cross with a saving of up to £79.85.
If you’re under 30, the “millennial railcard” is another way of saving money on your train tickets, which saves you a third on off–peak fares over £12. Experts at Money Saving Expert also recently explained that rail companies tend to push their cheapest tickets 10-12 weeks before the travel date. They also advised to check if the price of two single tickets beat a return ticket, which it usually does.
Although there’ still a long way to go in making travel greener, this new hack might just be the difference between booking a train or a plane on your next long-distance UK journey.
Images: Getty