ScotRail customers are set to benefit from up to 60 per cent off thousands of tickets when the train operator launches its Massive Ticket Drop tomorrow (Thursday 6 April).
An extra 100,000 Advance Single tickets will be released. These tickets can help customers save up to 60 per cent on train travel, and are available all year round on selected routes. Each week, ScotRail releases around 50,000 Advance tickets for travel over the following eight weeks. With the Massive ScotRail Ticket Drop, there will be thousands more chances to save.
They can be found on intercity routes such as Glasgow and Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Inverness, as well as coastal destinations like Oban, Ayr, and North Berwick. Advance fares are also available on some rural routes into and out of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Inverness. Advance fares are not available for travel between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
ScotRail recommends that passengers book tickets as early as possible and be flexible on when they can travel. People may buy Advance Single tickets on the ScotRail website, ScotRail app, or at station ticket offices.
From Thursday, ScotRail services will be open for reservations up to and including Friday 2 June 2023. Some of the most popular journeys where Advance fares are available are:
- Glasgow to Aberdeen, Inverness, Oban, Mallaig, Ayr
- Edinburgh to Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, North Berwick
- Aberdeen to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Dundee, Perth
- Inverness to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Perth, Wick, Kyle of Lochalsh
- Dundee to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness
- Perth to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness
- Stirling to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness
Advance Single tickets are currently available to book eight weeks ahead and can be purchased up until 6pm the day before travel. ScotRail's top tips for finding Advance fares are:
- Search on a Thursday – Advance fares are released every Thursday. The current booking window is open for bookings eight weeks in advance.
- Check for services early in the morning and late at night as these are generally quieter and often more likely to have Advance tickets available on them.
- Search for tickets from your nearest city station, not your local station. For example, search for Glasgow Queen Street to Aberdeen, rather than Cambuslang to Aberdeen.
- You can save even more on an Advance ticket if you hold a railcard or are a Club 50 member.
Alex Hynes, Managing Director of Scotland's Railway, said: “We're delighted to be able to pass on huge savings to our customers as part of the Massive ScotRail Ticket Drop.
“Scotland's Railway offers some spectacular scenery, and we'd love as many customers as possible to get out there and enjoy it.
“Whether it's soaking up some culture on a Scottish city break, heading off on a Highland adventure, or taking a trip to the coast, these super-saving tickets are a great value way to get out and see Scotland over the coming months.
“We're expecting this offer to be popular, so our advice to customers is to follow our top tips for booking Advance fares and look for quieter trains in the morning or late evening, and search for city stations rather than local stations.”
Further.ScotRail’s website and information about the launch of these tickets, now appear to say that you can buy them online or at ScotRail ticket offices.This put an impediment in the way of anyone wanting to buy one if not resident in Scotland.For example, if I want to travel from Lancaster to Inverness , untilising one of these tickets for part of journey in Scotland (say Glasgow to Inverness).It looks like I would have to try to purchase the extra discounted ticket for Glasgow to Inverness portion from ScotRail only and ticket from Lancaster to Glasgow from another operators.I am pretty sure I could buy both portions from ScotRail but I would be stuffed if I wanted to buy all from ticket offices in Lancaster, another rail operator or a third party ticket retailer.
Again, allowing ScotRail to do this is making a mockery of a “National” rail service.
All other ticket retailers should have been allowed to sell these ticket, afterall ScotRail would get the revenue anyway .
There seem to be unanswered questions about this ticket.It is not clear from ScotRail website if you can buy from ticket offices in England and Wales or on other rail operators website or from third party website.Their website says you can buy online ( from ScotRail only?).To be totally cynical, are they (ScotRail) saying you can only buy them in Scotland or from ScotRail.I am not saying this is the case but it is not clear.Maybe these questions will be answered soon.
Pardon me from thinking that we had a National rail system.Why are not similar Discounted Advance Singles being made available in the rest of the UK ( Scotland hasn’t got independence yet)?