The Great British Rail Sale has returned for a second year, offering up to 50 per cent off more than one million rail tickets.
The promotion applies to selected advance and off-peak rail journeys across England and Wales, as well as cross-border trips into Scotland, for tickets purchased by 29 January and for travel between 30 January and 15 March.
Note that discounted tickets will not be offered for travel on forthcoming strike dates announced by the ASLEF union – for full information on these dates see this page on the nationalrail.co.uk website.
The Department for Transport said that “Only a limited number of tickets are available, and no further sale tickets will go on offer once sold out”.
The DfT also gave several examples of discounts on typical advance purchase tickets, including Birmingham to Bristol for £15.30 (usually £30.60), Manchester to Leeds for £4.30 (usually £8.60), and Leicester to Sheffield for £3.60 (usually £7.30).
Survey data from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) and scaled using YouGov data shows that last year’s sale saw passengers save around £7 million on rail tickets and encouraged around 70,000 adults who had not travelled by train since the Covid-19 pandemic to take a trip.
The Great British Rail Sale follows the recently announced pilot by government-owned rail operating company LNER to simplify fares through the reduction in the number of ticket types and the launch of a new 70-minute Flex ticket.
Commenting on the news Suzanne Donnelly, passenger revenue director at the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT), said:
“I’m delighted the rail industry has, once again, come together to deliver another huge round of savings on tickets for passengers.
“At GBRTT, we are focused on driving initiatives that will boost the number of rail journeys people make to reduce the cost of running the railway for taxpayers, whilst providing value for money for customers.
“The Great British Rail Sale is just one example of what can be achieved through a one railway, joined-up approach.”
