James is the kind of dude you wish was working in the ticket booking office, sorting you out the best fare with his encyclopedic knowledge.

Hi Geoff, there's also been a recent change getting the tube through central London to Heathrow. There is now a "Heathrow Surcharge" . You can get around this by tapping out at Hatton Cross. Anyone travelling to Heathrow whose journey begins in zone 1 or simply passes through zone 1 has a 'special' fare of £5.50 at all times. It used to be £3.50 off-peak. Therefore if you travel to the station before Heathrow which is Hatton Cross this higher fare doesn't apply (it only applies to LHR). The journey from Hatton Cross to Heathrow is free because it is used for people changing terminals (say T5 to T4). Therefore you have only paid £3.50 overall.

Geoff is an icon for balancing the coffee, Oyster Card and the Camera.

In Sydney, we had a funny situation when the Govt brought in a weekly cap, after 10 trips in a week it was free to travel. The clever people would walk 300 meters from one stop to the next in the city & tap in & out during their lunch break on Monday for a one-stop fare then their longer trips were free for the rest of the week. The nightly news actually showed people tapping in & walking off to the next station. You could save 50% while it lasted.

James is brilliant. I haven’t been to a bus rally where James wasn’t a controller. He just keeps everything running smoothly.

I remember a McDonalds advert that suggested the cheapest way to Gatwick was to book your car into a garage near Horley for a minor defect repair (new wiper blade), and then pick it up two weeks later! It must have been in the 90s when that advert ran! I think it was part of a “money saving advice” campaign where they would boast how cheap they themselves were.

LOVE IT! Landed at Manchester Airport back in 2018; went down the the kiosk near the train platforms and asked for a ticket on the Transpennine Express to Edinburgh Haymarket. The very nice lady helping me said I'll save ya a bit of money with two paper tickets; one was to Manchester, the other to Edinburgh Haymarket. She said just stay on the train and show the appropriate ticket. I think it saved about 12 pounds. Happy day!

Geoff the TV presenter we deserve. Knowledgeable, personable and obviously a genuinely nice guy with a passion for trains.

I'm amazed that Geoff and not a single person in the comments has mentioned ticket splitter. Like there are whole websites dedicated to calculating the cheapest fares by splitting tickets. Whenever I travel from Cornwall to Leeds I use split ticketing and have about 8 separate tickets and often save £40-50 in the process

Geoff - James is a fantastic addition, and your continual happy nature is just great. This was a fantastic video. Informative, but still fun because of your personality.

I met James at show bus last Sunday on the e400EV when there were some noisy kids at the back of the bus being annoying, thanks James for sorting them out.

I love content like this...... It's so genuine. So honest...... In a world of 'KZfaq wannabe famous" idiots........ This is the antidote to all that is bad in the on-line world. Thanks lads The world needs more of you x

Hi Geoff, I used to run ticket office courses for a TOC. I can tell you lots of similar journeys with fare anomalies.

Crosscountry is probably the richest source of split tickets! I once did a day return Nottingham to Cardiff central (an endurance test in its own right). This involved splits at Long Eaton, New Street, Cheltenham, and Gloucester. All on the same trains. Saved approximately £60

James is what trains is all about Many People don't get it, but his passion is what it means Thank you Geoff for bringing him to my attention

I save around £5 daily just by tapping in and out at upminster station when traveling by c2c, the reader is at the platform so on the journey back to Essex you can even get into the same train

nice to see the variety of Geoff's friends, would love to have someone in my network doing this kind of thing! very helpful!

I use the double split for work now from Three Bridges to Gatwick and then the same as in the video. Costs me 1 train, about 5 minutes, at East Croydon but saves over £70 a month (travelling 10 days per month). It's even cheaper then the new flexis.

Oh! So Jay gave back your soul! Nice!

There is so much knowledge in this comment section than anywhere else and i love it. great video

One thing to bear in mind are for journeys over 75 miles. A very long time ago British Rail stopped cheap day returns for journeys over this distance. They were replaced with saver fares which were usually more expensive. It’s always worth checking. Birmingham to Sheffield was always worth splitting at Derby.

It's also the same with Heathrow via the Elizabeth Line - Paddington to Heathrow T4 is a flat £11.50, however if you go Paddington to Hayes & Harlington it's £3.40 off-peak, and tap back in at Hayes & Harlington to Heathrow T4 and that's £6.40 making it only £9.80 instead of the £11.50 saving you £1.70

It would be interesting to do a cost vs time analysis. If you are in a rush, sometimes it is worth spending the $$$ for the direct connection if it means making the flight.

I love that high angle in the corner of the train Geoff your creativity never ceases honestly!

That's a pretty decent saving and over a year, it all adds up. Great little workaround James and Geoff!

Thanks Geoff for pointing out the ridiculous fare structure. I know this is one of many from my trips from London to Exmouth. Splitting the journey without having to change trains, has saved me a lot of money in the past.

Thanks James (and Geoff), really brilliant explanation. And so helpful cos Gatwick's a journey I do loads. Great video 👌

My wife first eye rolls when I tell her I'm watching this, but she will be the first in line to use this technique!! Great work guys!

Omg we need James in more videos! He’s awesome! 👏🏽

Brilliant video, thank you Geoff and James!

Used to use the 'TrainPal' app when I was still in the UK, absolutely amazing app that works all this stuff out for you and gives you the cheapest ticket possible, just have to put in your start point and destination

I now live in the Merseyside area (ex Surrey/SW London). If I look up fares to London from Liverpool it's just Avanti eyewatering fares, but if I do Liverpool-Crewe (using Avanti or LNWR) then Crewe-London I can get the LNWR only fare from Crewe, which can come including a Z1-6 Travelcard for only a couple of pounds more. It's far cheaper than the direct fare, I can leave from Liverpool earlier, even the peak fare to Crewe is reasonable. The journey time isn't bad from Crewe to Euston as the services are now direct and not via Northampton, as was the case in the past.

Excellent video highlighting the absurdities of the railway fares in this country! For me, the cheapest way of getting to Gatwick is getting someone to drive me to the long stay car park (it’s only a couple of miles away!)

I use to work with James, nicest and most decent guy you could ever meet! Great vid!

excellent show thank you

Hi Frank Pick

I can't remember how much I saved as it was about 15 years ago but I remember it being quite a large amount but I travelled from Birmingham International down to Southampton Central and the ticket guy at the station sold us Birmingham- Banbury- Oxford- Southampton. Being able to stay on the same train as it stopped at those stations anyway. Also a few years before that there was mega train available from Southampton to Birmingham New Street and quite often got a fare of £1 each way. I miss those days of Mega Train.

I travelled from Reading to Gatwick often. I never paid a fare and I always got a seat. It was the one with the best view too.

what an editing, and what a content.. marvelous as usual. thanks geoff. ❤️ from a rail fan in 🇮🇳

split tickets is cheaper using national rail as well. Clapham junction to Gatwick discounted is £10.40 single, but split at east croydon is £6.98

Back in 2000 I worked in Birmingham for a couple of years, tried the M6 for a week, didn't fancy that so Stoke to New Street it was 6.56 am . Tripped over the fact that a Stoke to Stafford and Stafford to New Street ticket was a pound cheaper each way, same train. Must have been BR trying to get more Stafford commuters on the train. A class 47 and coaches was ok to get a seat, but if a Voyager was on, Manchester to Bournemouth it was rammed to New Street then probably pretty empty after that.

Some years ago, I was off to the US. So (from clapham Juntion) I got a cab to pick the family up, off to Heathrow. Proper cab, black cab. In we got, hurrah, I just check I have everything - all the passports, check the tickets. ARGGHHHH! It goes from Gatport Airwick! The cab driver didn't miss a beat. As it happened, the flight was 3 hour delayed we go stuck overnight in a blizzard in Atlanta; just one of those trips where everything went slightly wrong. But at least I read the bloody boarding card.

Nice vid Frank!

Southern trains can leave from Gatwick Express platforms 13&14. They do make you use the barriers on platform 12 to gain access to it. If your travelling GEX you use the barriers on 13&14.

From Kettering where I live, a peak 1 day travelcard is £123.50, but by splitting the journey at Luton Airport Parkway it is £33.90 Day return Kettering - Luton Airport Parkway and then £40.20 For a day travelcard from Luton Airport Parkway, saving £49.40. The same thing happens for just a standard return too, except that a return to/from Kettering will be to London Terminals {St Pancras) but the return from Luton Airport Parkway will be to London Thameslink (St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars) so you can actually travel further for less.

I did Christchurch, Dorset to Telford, Shropshire via New Street, a few years ago using a split ticketing site and ended up with about five different tickets.

Great to see James on the channel.

Nice one that guy really knows his numbers 👍

Ha! This just came up the night before I've to go to Gatwick. Thanks Geoff (and James)!

I used to travel regularly in the morning peak from Euston to Milton Keynes. At one particular time window it was cheaper to buy a ticket to Northampton, which is further, on the same train but get off at MK. The barriers at MK would open and it was perfectly allowed. The reason was the same physical train was an off-peak when booked to Nton but peak to MK.

If I ever have to go to Gatwick, I will remember that Geoff’s videos always have my back lol

James seems like a top bloke. Great video, the £20 odd fare for Gatwick Express I’m cynically going to say exists to rip off tourists.

Some have mentioned difference between 2 x cheap day returns rather than saver return. The other issues this can offer is not just cheaper but also possibly using peak time trains

I honestly thought you would get a Pret Coffee since there one round the corner at East Croydon. I have found that Worcestershire Parkway has a good use for split ticketing if you want to get from Birmingham to Swindon/Cheltenham/Gloucester or even Bristol, Great Video

You can avoid the Heathrow always-charge-peak when you go to Zone 1 by doing a tap out and tap in at Ealing Broadway. You can save more than in this video!

Thank you for information tip Gatwick, I never knew it

Great video. I'm going to Gatwick next month and I think I'll do this route, otherwise I have to pay nearly £40 to get from Victoria to Gatwick on the Gatwick express

Love James’ badges!!

My local station is Whitechapel and if I change at Farringdon instead of Blackfriars going to Gatwick the system charges an avoiding zone 1 fare as you don't go through any barriers

My current favourite fare lunacy is Bath to Bicester via Didcot and Oxford for £22.80 off peak return but Bath to Dicot off peak return for £23.90. It’s cheaper to get to London via Bicester than Reading!

The East Croydon trick savings are bigger if you're going from a Zone 1 station via Victoria to Gatwick. The savings are also bigger if you're going from a Zone 2 station via Clapham Junction to Gatwick.

James is ace. More please.

I really enjoyed this video. James was also excellent.

Hey geoff if you ever want to ride a pacer again then the East kent railway in sheperdswell has 2 or 3 pacers and I think at least one of them is a 142 with the original bus style seats.

Love the IOW Beer and Buses badge James is wearing

Interesting split journey 👍

Thanks James 😊

Fantastic video love your content!

Double or triple splits are quite common on CrossCountry trains, particularly those South-North Voyagers via BHM. You can save quite a bit!

Good video Geoff and James. Could you split journey from zone 1 to heathrow by getting off at hatton cross leaving and tapping in again to get to Heathrow?

happy 9th anniversary of your Tube Challenge world record, Geoff!!!!

If you're travelling from Birmingham to Oxford you can save a huge amount by splitting your ticket, usually at Banbury if I remember correctly.

brilliant thanks..just subscribed.

In 2017 I had to go from London city airport to Gatwick. I did DLR and overground to Clapham junction and then picked up a southern service from there by buying a return

its crazy that things like this exist, basically punshing customers who dont wanna look for splits, from what i gather this happens all over our the UK

Thanks Pete and Stewie.

that's so strange, that when I just arrived to live in London (exactly one year ago, more or less when the video was made) and found out that this is an extremely expensive city in terms of transportation fares, I played with a fare calculator and found out more or less the same thing: changing in East Croydon reduces the fare. But my way is even more tricky: I traveled from Wapping station by tapping out on West Croydon and tapping in on East Croydon (and 15 mins walking between them) - and the whole trip costs 2 + 3.7 off-peak (used to be even cheaper last year, probably below 5 pounds) Thanks for the video, will be waiting for new interesting money-saving lifehacks.

and even a quick passing shot of my work as you travelled 😊

East Croydon is intriguing, it must have the best London service of any station anywhere. I've just counted 26 trains to London stations in the next hour!

Saw your great performance of Frank Pick on Jay Foreman's latest upload.

James knows his stuff..! 🙂👍

A while ago I did Cheltenham Spa - York on a cross country HST, I had 4 separate tickets for the one journey to save money 😅

southerns metro routes technically are 5 coaches but it’s told in a misleading way. the only ones are london bridge - east croydon and london bridge - beckenham junction, not all of them. first class is declassified when the train is full

Awesome video!

In deciding whether to split, you need to ask yourself: does the through fare seem expensive? If Cross Country Trains are involved, it probably will. For large parts of their routes there will be other operators to depress the local fares, but for example Bristol to Birmingham there's little choice. Chelteham is usually a good point to split. Recently going from Exeter to Durham it was substantially cheaper to go via London. Much further, quicker (yes!) and cheaper.

I saw james as a conductor of one of the hertiage bus day tours on route 37

Andrew Wade It's worth adding that if you link your railcard to your Oyster card you'll get a further third off these bargain fares. It can be done at any overground or underground station in London or a travel centre as far as I'm aware. It's not possible to link your railcard to your contactless card.

I've found that by splitting I could get advance fares that didn't exist for my full journey. E.g. Wakefield to Loughborough - something like £46 return. Split at Sheffield and Advance single SHF - Loughborough is £7 or £8 and a cheap day return Wakefield to Sheffield is around £10 (sorry I don't memorise exact fares). Or Glasgow - Wakefield. Buy Edinburgh - Leeds separately and it gives you advance fare options but for the full route it does not.

for me going from southeast London to Gatwick, the trick is not to go from London Bridge but to somehow get to East Croydon and avoid zone 1 - usually I use it as an excuse to get a tram!

This video succinctly demonstrates the madness and chaos that is the British rail charging system. It's completely incomprehensible and needs a major overhaul. Likewise Manchester Picc to the Airport has about 6-7 fares for a single, a journey of around 5 miles. From 3.30 for a Northern ticket to over 5er for a TPE one with TFW coming in somewhere in the middle. It's an insane position we have got ourselves into. Funny videos are a great side effect don't get me wrong. Compare with the Netherlands however, one price and you don't need to split or be a clever dick on the internet. It needs sorting by government and soon!

Welldone guys

⚡ *He needs his own channel!* Knows his stuff 🤙🏼🤙🏼

Unbelievably complicated. I can't imagine people in many other countries putting up with such a complex system.

I can see a new series coming here!

Try contactless from an outer zone via London Bridge to Gatwick. Cheaper than your journey I think because no need to zap in and out at London Bridge. I started at Chislehurst.

The most interesting fare discrepancy on this route, is the Redhill Hump, (and its sorry status where there has been a campaign including the woefully in effective MP Crispin Blunt), where fares from Gatwick or Coulsdon South can both be cheaper than from Redhill/Salfords/Earlswood. But you'd need to speak to a fares expert, I gave up of the unreliable and slow service a few years ago. They priced me back into the car.

oooooo nice finally now I can see what’s cheeper and can u also talk about Zio fares some time as sometimes It charges u 1.20 or more when it’s normally 80p

What a nice chap.

Geoff the only guy to get excited going to Gatwick and not going on holiday lol

3:01 Dorking and Horsham trains are always declassified. I’ve never seen a first class service on those routes before - this comes from someone who travels frequently on the route from Ashtead/Epsom