A huge rail fare sale starts today, meaning you could bag a train journey to somewhere nice for a knock-down price if you pin your ears back.
The idea is to get people out and using the rail network again after what has been a difficult few years for the industry, so cut-price fares will be available from next Monday until May 27.
Just as the price of absolutely everything is increasing, it’s about time we heard about something going the other way, so this is welcome news.
It was announced in a pretty out-there advert featuring the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wearing a variety of interesting outfits at some of the more popular destinations on the UK’s rail network.
They’re calling it the ‘Great British Rail Sale’, and all of the major train operators in England are involved, as well as the most popular cross-border companies in England and Wales.
However, despite the name, Welsh and Scottish train companies – except the border ones – aren’t involved in the scheme.
Still, there’s a lot of potential journeys to choose from, and you could bag a serious discount.
There’s more than 1,000,000 discounted tickets on offer, and the people in charge say that 800,000 of those are set to be half-price.
Furthermore, if you’re lucky enough to still be eligible for a railcard, you can combine the discount with that railcard to get even more lopped off the price.
That means that a journey from Manchester to Newcastle could be as little as £10, whilst getting from London to Edinburgh might only set you back £22 instead of £44.
Sleeper services aren’t included in the sale, however.
Shapps said: "We've had two years of living life virtually. It is time to get real and visit our beautiful country."
Train journeys have been dramatically lessened because of Covid-19 and have yet to really bounce back.
So, officials will be hoping that this offer will encourage people to hit the tracks once again.
However, Covid related absence have been an issue, so they’ll be hoping that they can keep the network going at full speed should more people take up the offer.
Jacqueline Starr, the chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “Customers will enjoy over one million discounted tickets, so they can explore some of the fantastic locations that are accessible by rail."
The tickets go on sale today at 10am and will be for journeys between April 25 and May 27.
You can buy them at this website here.
