Discount railcards
Young adults, families, seniors, and couples can get 1/3 off all trains with a £30 railcard
British train tickets are already discounted 50% to children aged 5 to 15 (kids under 5 are free).
Anyone aged 16–25, over 60, couples, families, and the disabled can buy a £30 railcard (£20 for the handicapped) that will get you 33% off all train tickets for one year.
(Sorry, middle-aged singletons; closest you can get is a Network railcard only good in the Southeast region.)
Most are good on Standard and First Class Anytime, and on Off-Peak and Advanced fares (basically, anything after 9:30am on a weekday, plus weekends).
There are different cards specific to each of those life situations, and can be purchased at most major train stations as well as at some airport rail stations (Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Manchester):
- Two Together Railcard (Twotogether-railcard.co.uk) - For two people over aged 16 traveling together (so really just £15 per person—making it a better deal for than the next one if you are young and have a friend).
- 16-25 Railcard (16-25railcard.co.uk) - For that age range (or a mature student over 25 with proof of student status)
- Family & Friends Railcard (Familyandfriends-railcard.co.uk) - Good for up to four adults and four children (the adults get 1/3 off, the kids 60% off). You can have two adults named on the card, one of whom must be traveling when you use it (along with at least one child).
- Senior Railcard (Senior-railcard.co.uk)
- Disabled Persons Railcard (Disabledpersons-railcard.co.uk) - This one is discounted at £20, and covers the handicapped traveler plus one other adult traveling with him or her.
- Network Railcard (Network-railcard.co.uk) Anyone can get this one, but it only covers Southeast England (which is still a lot). Peruse the map to see if it might be handy for you.
Note you will have to bring your passport and a passport-sized photo when you go to buy a British railcard.
If you happen to have a U.K. mailing address, you can order one online.
- Nationalrail.co.uk - Covers all of the lines once operated by the (since-privitized) old British Rail, as well as info on all British rail stations, including maps and services. This includes most major British railways, but notably does not cover many urban area light rail systems (such as London, Glasgow, Manchester, Blackpool, Sheffield, and Midland Metro), nor does it cover the Eurostar, Heathrow Express, nor a handful of heritage or privately owned railways. Still, it's the closest thing to one-stop shopping for finding train connections across the mainland U.K. (though not Northern Ireland).
- BritRail passes - Book railpasses good for travel all over Great Britain—or just in parts of all of England or Scotland.Partner
- Eurostar.com - The super-fast train through the Channel Tunnel connecting London with Paris (2.5 hrs.), Brussels (2 hrs.) and—though those hubs—the rest of Europe. » more
- Europetrainsguide.com - General train info from a private site devoted to European rail travel.
- Seat61.com - General train info from a private site devoted to rail travel, including detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to get from London to just about any other country in Europe via rail.
- Traintaxi.co.uk - Search stations to find out whether they have taxi ranks/stands, and the phone numbers for pre-booking a cab. (Not being updated after April 2016, but still handy.)
- Sleeper.scot - overnight train
- Heritagerailways.com - An association of historic, heritage, and narrow guage railways—many operating steam trains on historic scenic routes. The site is pretty bare-bones, but if you click on a railway and then look for the link in the box below the map (not teh name on the map itself), you can get to the website for that heritage rail line, train museum, or tourist train
- Train map - A rail network map courtesy of Nationalrail.co.uk.
