The Great British Rail Sale returns with over a million rail ticket bargains available from Tuesday the 23rd of January 2024 with up to 50% off selected Advance and Off-Peak tickets!
The sale will run for one week, ending on Monday the 29th of January and comes as part of a bid by the Government to encourage passengers back to rail travel.
The sale will feature destinations across England, Wales and Scotland and cover six weeks of travel from Tuesday the 30th of January through to Friday the 15th of March offering an ideal opportunity to enjoy a getaway by rail for less!
The first Great British Rail Sale took place in 2022 and is estimated by The Great British Railway's Transition Team that passengers saved approximately £7m on the price of rail tickets.
The impressive initiative also saw around 70,000 adults who had not travelled by train since the COVID pandemic enjoy a trip on the rails.
This remarkable result has led the Government to launch its second Great British Rail Sale in order to save rail passengers money whilst encouraging people to give train travel a try.
Some of the destinations featured in the sale include:
- Portsmouth to Penzance, which would usually cost £43 now £21
- Birmingham to Bristol was £30.60 will now cost just £15.30
- Manchester to Leeds was £8.60 and is now only £4.30
- Leicester to Sheffield was £7.30 will now cost £3.60
The Government's sale initiative intends to support families and connect friends across the country by providing discount rail travel, which is hoped to help with the cost of living whilst helping build growth in tourism and encourage sustainable travel choices.
The sale also comes following a substantial intervention to the cap of 4.9% rail fares for 2024, which is much lower than July's retail price index figure of 9% which fares are usually based upon.
The Government took these measures as part of its aim to see inflation halved by the end of 2023 and should work towards keeping the cost of rail travel lower into the future.
“The return of the Great British Rail Sale is good news for passengers, following the success of the previous sale which saw passengers benefit from around £7m in savings on their travel costs.
“With discounts on more than a million tickets, there'll be plenty of opportunity to connect with friends and family and explore great destinations across the country – I hope passengers make the most of this sale and choose to travel by rail.”
Mark Harper, Transport Secretary
“Train travel is the greenest way to explore our towns and cities as well as connect with your family and friends because nothing beats being there in person for those special moments.
“Following the success of the Great British Rail Sale in 2022, we are really excited that it's coming back, and customers will be able to once again purchase over a million Advance ticket fares starting on 23rd January 2024 and enjoy what rail has to offer.”
Jacqueline Starr, Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group
The Government is also supporting rail passenger experience as part of a pilot scheme ‘Simpler Fares' with London North Eastern Railway which launched this week and aims to see a less complex and more flexible ticketing arrangement for customers
“I'm delighted the rail industry has, once again, come together to deliver another huge round of savings on tickets for passengers.
“At GBRTT, we are focussed on driving initiatives that will boost the number of rail journeys people make to reduce the cost of running the railway for taxpayers, whilst providing value for money for customers. The Great British Rail Sale is just one example of what can be achieved through a one railway, joined-up approach.”
Suzanne Donnelly, Passenger Revenue Director at GBRTT
The sale will be active from Midnight on Tuesday the 23rd of January with The Rail Delivery Group hosting a central webpage which will support customers to find the best deals. Bargain tickets can also be found via retailer websites for travel taking place between the 30th of January and the 15th of March.
Tickets in The Great British Rail Sale are limited and once sold out, no further discounted tickets will be made available.
During days impacted by industrial action, rail operators will not offer sale tickets as services may be affected by strikes announced by ASLEF recently.
Many of the comments previously made are correct.It is grossly unfair that people who , for whatever reason, cannot access the potential savings on these tickets.As it is, it is a annoying chore trying to access some of the discount tickets.This is because there are quite a few operator’s sites available for use, plus third party retailers.It takes ages , risking being timed out, changing options when some tickets are not available etc, etc.It would have helped if there was one “Great British Railway” website.It would help for exercises such as this and for the future.Heigh ho, the Government dropped this, perhaps the one tangible and achievable thing the Government could have done towards a “Great British Railways” administration.
Well said Stephen. What kind of brilliant govt strategy is it to design a scheme “as part of a bid by the Government to encourage passengers back to rail travel” which deliberately excludes a sizeable sector of the population who either have no current usable credit/debit card or have no ability to access online ticketing sites??! Doesn’t really sound seriously thought through does it.
What if I have already booked a trip during this period
Can I rebook at a better price?!
Fantastic. Why use car/bus/taxi? Expensive and not at all green
This is all well and good, but what we want is permanently good value fares, not just for one week a year! It is minor sop to the public, before hitting them with yet another fares increase, which incidentally WILL be permanent. Morists on the other hand will enjoy yet another year of no increase in fuel duty. Encouraging people to get out of their cars and use public transport? Well no, not any time soon.
Shameful deliberate ploy that excludes the disadvantaged 12% or so who cannot use online options, with no cash access being given to these fares at ticket offices (or ticket machines). Then they will say we can close the ticket offices since no one uses them! Well duh!!
Does this include season ticket holders?
Brilliant news ! Gives us a lift 😁 I’m always on the train Love travelling by train comfortable relaxing everything at hand & sociable Love meeting new people out there.
I get FREE travel on the railways and I’d still rather use my car / bus / taxi.