Train Ticket Help

[piggynose]

I want to take a train from Stansted airport to Hastings sometime in August, just one way, is there a cheaper ticket than 87 quid?

[murraymints]

Chris will find one for you he is expert at this

[ummmm]

National rail are coming up with £43

[mushroom25]

the "anytime" standard class fare is currently £43.90; currently unknown if cheaper fares availavle in August, because the booking horizon is only 12 weeks and currently goes only as far as July.

[SeaJayPea]

I've just looked on The Trainline for August 5th and £43 seems to be the standard fare.

[ummmm]

It will only go to July though.

[melv16]

I'd be tempted to get the coach or a taxi.

[grasscarp]

http://www.goeuro.co.uk/trains_from_stansted_to_hastings
This site gave me £38.50 when I put in now not August

[piggynose]

how bizarre is that? 26quid in August, but 5 1/2 hours, in July same journey, 34 quid, less than 3 hours. Is there a simple explanation? or am i doing something wrong?

[jno]

I get £8 advance fare on the Stansted Express to Liverpool St and there's a £5 offer on the 12.46 from Victoria in mid-July, so that's £13 plus tube fare between the stations; but you'd need to input your exact times and stations if you want to do it like that

[dzug2]

£43.90 is the current official fare and is unlikely to change in August. Was £87 for two?

If you are using the goeuro site the 5.5 hour trip seems to be by bus. (National Express)

I'm not sure why they are only charging £38.50 for the rail ticket. They may be discounting the ticket because they are new in the market

[Buenchico]

Firstly, the ONLY rail website you should be looking at is the National Rail one. Site's such as the dreaded Trainline.com can't offer tickets any cheaper and often get things wrong. (When I ran a railway station I got fed up of explaining to customers that the tickets that they'd bought from Trainline weren't valid because, for example, they'd been sold them using an offer from Company A but booked onto a train operated by Company B, with compulsory seat reservations on a train that didn't even have seat numbering):
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

However you won't be able to find tickets offered on the National Rail website for August, as they're not on sale yet.

The regular fare is £43.90 and it's unlikely that any cheaper 'Advance' fares will be offered on that route.

Typical journey times are around 3½ hours. (It's possible to do it in about 3 hours but that involves an extra change; it's all explained on the National Rail website - just hover your cursor over the 'Changes' number to see what's involved).

If economy is important, National Express can get you there by coach (5¼ hours) for around £26.

[ukbod2015]

Why not try National Express - £26 for August

[Sycamore3House]

Tickets are only put on sale usually every Friday 12 weeks in advance. If you want a cheap ticket look out for Advance tickets using http://www.nationalrail.co.uk every Friday.

[mushroom25]

jno's option currently the cheapest for travel by rail - see here
https://www.stanstedexpress.com/offers/advance-fares
and here
https://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-fares/ticket-types/advance/
but this requires you to commit to a specific timed train, and knowing how unpredictable baggage reclaim and immigration can be at stansted, could represent something of a risk.
note this is for travel via the slower "southern" route; southeastern, who operate the fast hastings services, don't sell advance tickets. this leaves you with the tube journey, which is best paid for using a contactless credit card (which gets you the same fare as an oyster user).

[mushroom25]

cheapest road option is Terravision to Victoria for £9.00,
http://www.terravision.eu/airport_transfer/bus-stansted-airport-london/?adws=EN&gclid=CNy75JLAnsUCFUYOwwodrBkAzA
then N-Ex from there to Hastings for as little as £6. however, there's only 1 service from London each day (at 18h00).

[dzug2]

For completeness there's also Easybus who are charging £3.95 one way in August at the moment for Stansted to Old Street or Baker Street

But you do land up needing a cross London transfer to continue by train or bus to Hastings

And they do have a bit of a reputation for customer unfriendliness