First Great Western Trains

[Celica190]

We are in London in June and plan to travel to Newport, Gwent to visit my best mate, who is due to have her baby any minute now.

I have been pricing train fares but am really confused with First Great Western's ticketing. Their website suggests that the sooner you book, the cheaper the tickets. Journeys can only be booked up to 12 weeks in advance but if I put in a date 12 weeks ahead, I can only get really expensive fares. If I put in a date 3 weeks ahead, I can get 2 tickets for about £40!

Anybody familiar with how this works? Would I be better waiting to purchase my tickets until the price comes down, or is it only likely to go up? :confused2

[Gill H]

Ah, Worst Great Western. Gotta love 'em.

It depends how many tickets they have left for a particular train. I usually use www.thetrainline.com to check prices. You have to sign up (give them a name and email address) to log in and get prices.

Probably worth checking every couple of days and then grabbing the best price you can. It's sometimes cheaper to get two single tickets than a return - click on the 'single tickets' option to see prices.

[Celica190]

Thanks Gill.

I was getting so frustrated, I was even looking at travelling by National Express :erm:

[disney owl]

i find pricing train tickets on the internet SO confusing , much harder than flights.

have you tried the old fashioned way & phoning them, booked tickets last year & they were very helpful

[apollo163]

you could also try pricing paddington to kemble return then kemble to gwent return alot of time it will work out cheaper even though its the same train

[TracyW]

i find pricing train tickets on the internet SO confusing , much harder than flights.

have you tried the old fashioned way & phoning them, booked tickets last year & they were very helpful

I always end up doing this, or going to our local station, they seem much more helpful!