The rail sale has finished
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The annual Great British Rail Sale is back, with more than 3 million fares available for passengers for up to half price.
So, here’s how you can bag a UK train ticket for less during this year’s rail sale.
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What is the Great British Rail Sale?
The UK government are running another Great British Rail Sale this year, after their 200 year anniversary sale in 2025 and other successful sales in 2024 and 2022. Quite simply, it’s a big train ticket sale where you can save up to 50% off your fare!
How much can I save?
You can get up to 50% off train tickets in the Rail Sale.
And the great news is that this sale will run on selected advance and off-peak fares.
What train networks are running this train ticket sale?
As this is actually a government initiative, rather than a specific train operator sale, it means that loads of UK train operators are getting involved.
In fact, it’s probably easier to say what networks we know are not taking part and these include Hull Trains, Lumo and Merseyrail.
When is the sale running?
The sale begins on Tuesday 6 January and will last until Monday 12 January 2025. This is a shorter window than previous sales, so you’ll need to be quick!
The sale is for discounted fares for travel between Tuesday 13 January and Wednesday 25 March 2026.
Where can I travel to?
There are going to be so many options available but here’s some example fares that you can expect:
Journey | Sale price | Full price |
|---|---|---|
Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells | £4.00 | £8.10 |
Exeter to London Waterloo | £10.00 | £41.70 |
Sheffield – London Terminals | £25.50 | £51.00 |
Nottingham – London Terminals | £23.00 | £46.00 |
St Pancras – Whitstable | £7.50 | £15.10 |
Newcastle – Middlesborough | £2.00 | £5.20 |
Can I get some inspiration?
Not got any trips planned? Well, we’ve written up 7 destinations you could visit thanks to these savings!
How do I book my Rail Sale train ticket?
It’s easy, you just need to head to whatever platform you usually use to book your train ticket and look out for the discounted fares! This could be trainline, Train Pal, Virgin Trains Ticketing or your chosen train operator.
As long as your route is included, it should show up on all websites!
Here’s an example of the Charing Cross – Tunbridge Wells fare on trainline.
If you don’t see any sale fares, check that you’re looking in the correct travel window – 13th Jan to 25th March – and that it’s not for a network that we know isn’t running this sale. This includes Hull trains, Lumo and Merseyrail.
If you still can’t see the sale fares, it may be that they have sold out as there are limited tickets available!
Need a place to stay?
Check out our guides!
Can you use your railcard as well?
We’ve just tested it out and sadly, no extra money came off when we searched for the above journey with a 26-30 Railcard! However, it was still a saving of £6.95 versus paying for an advance single with a railcard.
Is there anything else I should know?
The offers are available on selected routes, check your booking platform of choice to see if your desired journey is included!
There is also a limited number, and so we wouldn’t recommend hanging around as this is a brilliant offer that we anticipate will have a lot of demand.
Save up to 50% now in the UK Rail Sale
Don’t hang about as it’s time for this year’s annual Rail Sale where you can save up to half price on selected advance and off peak train tickets.
