Fare's fair
I usually use www.thetrainline.com to buy my train tickets, despite the fact that they charge a pound for postage and 50p for paying by plastic - it's still more convenient than popping into a station and, for main line travel, you get a reserved seat. But beware - these systems don't always give you the cheapest options.
I needed a single ticket for my wife to travel back to Prudhoe from her parents near Sheffield later this month, but the best price I could find was £42, which seemed a bit steep. So I tried breaking the journey into two legs - a Sheffield to Newcastle leg, and the Newcastle to Prudhoe leg. This gave me a Sheffield to Newcastle best price of £12, plus Newcastle to Prudhoe for £4.10 - a massive £25.90 cheaper.
A year or two ago, I came across a computing student on the web who was trying to produce a tool that would always find the cheapest ticket combination, but he had to give up - there were just too many of them!
I also discovered recently that Northern Rail offer half price adult evening returns on the Hadrian's Wall line after 6.30pm for any stations between Hexham and Newcastle. Sadly, Northern don't seem to be able to mention this ticket on their website! (If they had, I would have given a link to it).
And deciding to come to work by bus this morning (as I'm going to a 'do' this afternoon that threatens to include alcohol), I hailed my local bus and asked for an Arriva Day Ticket (price £6), but the driver kindly sold me a cheaper 'Arriva Green Day Mover' - 50p less and limited to anywhere in Northumberland only, which suited me fine. The Arriva Day Ticket gives unlimited bus travel on their services in an area bounded by Berwick, Carlisle, and Scarborough, so is very good value if you fancy a day out (if it ever stops raining).
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