All I want for Christmas is a cheap train ticket

If you leave it late to book so maybe miss the limited, available advance fares, it’s definitely still worth checking for splits. You can get some big savings off walk on fares by split ticketing. And remember you won’t be offered split savings on train operator sites or The Trainline.

Joe – You say “It was discovered that they were £45 cheaper on average than buying tickets at the station”. I think you need to add “on the day of travel”. It remains possible to buy advance travel tickets at any railway station – it does not have to be done on-line and sometimes, if you buy from the train operating company that sets the price for the journey, there can be even better deals.

I would also recommend people to register with their own local train operating company to receive advance notice by e-mail of special deals, particularly for family or group trips and some last minute opportunities.

My local operator, Abellio Greater Anglia, makes no charge for buying tickets from their website with a credit card [which some agents do] and provides a very efficient service, including for some journeys the ability to print off your own tickets. I was able to get advance tickets for our pre-Christmas visit to London in mid-December from Norwich to London and back three days later for £18.50 each in total – and that’s first class; it was so cheap I decided we should spoil ourselves. It does mean specific trains and seats but that’s acceptable and the seat reservation can be useful if there is any service disruption and a previous train is cancelled.