Tips to save money on UK Tube and Train tickets

Last Updated on 24 August 2025 by Dan Wilderness

Hi everyone! We all love to travel around the UK, and often the train tends to be the best way to do it – as such I thought I’d write a guide to on my top tips on saving money on UK Tube and Train Tickets!

I’m willing to bet that either directly or via cunning student bank account tie in most of us have wistful memories of that 18-25 railcard when buying rail tickets – not least because it meant we were happily still ticking that 18-25 age box on forms…..

This post was inspired as I’m writing it heading back down to my old Uni for a sponsored event. Happily the fact I’m attending as a guest means that someone else is paying for my ticket, which is a good thing because “shock and horror” summed up the look on my face when I saw the train ticket price.

So hence time for a train and tube tickets guide. I want to share with you some well known but also a few lesser known tips about the way that railcards and rail travel can save you money.

Our tips to save money on UK train and tube tickets

Save money on train tickets by getting a Railcard

Unless you only travel for work in peak hours exclusively, most people will make their money back on a railcard within just a couple of journeys and can make it well worth it – especially if you’re younger and can get the really beneficial railcards.

What railcard is best for you a more complex question, and one we’ve devoted a whole article to which you can find at the link.

Save money on train tickets by being alerted to advance tickets

If you know you’re going to be going somewhere in the future and want to be sure of nabbing an advance ticket, the Trainline has a free alert service you can sign up for to let you know when tickets are going on sale, and also a predictor service of when Advance tickets may run out based on historical data (you can still book your tickets elsewhere)

Save money on train tickets by splitting a train ticket

Due to the slightly ridiculous way rail pricing works, when travelling long distances it can be worth using TrainSplit to see if you can save.

This checks your journey and sees if you can find savings by (for example) instead of travelling from London to Exeter stopping at Reading you instead get a journey from London to Reading and Reading to Exeter.

You stay on the same train, just have more tickets and more money! (Trainsplit actually take a small commission from your saving – so it’s most beneficial to use it for research but book through usual train operators, or accept the extra cost for what is a useful service).

Save money on both train and tube tickets by getting another railcard for or from a friend

If you have an Annual Gold Card you can also get another (selected) Railcard for a friend for £10 – they’ll definitely owe you a drink!

Save money on train tickets with a linked Smartcard

If you can do this varies around the UK, but a number of train operators now have a linked smartcard scheme for their networks which can be worth it for regular travel.

These can be helpful because by default, they work out what train journey you have taken as you tap in and tap out and charge you the lowest fare that would apply to your travel.

You can also often load season tickets (more on those below) onto your smartcard as well.

Save money on train and tube tickets by investigating season tickets

There’s a few things that can make season tickets or an annual Oyster card make sense, particularly for commuters who are heading back to being on peak time trains.

If you’re going in three or more days a week, it may make sense to look first at a carnet (which gives you a number of tickets bought in advance to be used any day of your choice) or a flexible season ticket – or a full season ticket if you’re closer to the five days a week end.

The Trainline have a season ticket calculator here to help compare what the exact saving can be on any route.

This will often save you some money, and effectively give you free travel on non-communing days where you may be travelling to places along the same route.

The reason most people don’t do this is that they worry about money being lost if their role or situation changes, but may season tickets actually allow for pauses (for long holidays) or pro-rata refunds if cancelled early.

Finally, a number of companies also offer an interest-free season ticket loan as part of their benefits package to cover the purchase making it quite manageable.

Tips relating to London Travel

Save money on tube tickets by linking a Railcard to your Oyster Card

A lot of people don’t know that you can link a railcard to your Oyster Card – and if you do this you’ll get 1/3 off any TfL off-peak fares which can add up fast. Getting this is trickier than it should be – you’ll need to go to a major interchange in London (like King’s Cross/Victoria) and ask at the ticket desk for them to link the two.

In this case you do have to have a physical Oyster Card – for unknown reasons presumably connected to ancient IT systems, you cannot link a Railcard to a a contactless credit card despite this being the way most people pay for their London travel these days.

Unfortunately, you also need to renew it each time your railcard expires – it doesn’t update automatically.

Save money on train tickets Annual Gold Card with a Season Ticket

Did you know that if you buy an Annual Oyster Travelcard or Annual Season Ticket on rail in the South you’ll also receive an “Annual Gold Card” which works as the equivalent to a Network Railcard, getting you 1/3 of most fares in the south of England?

Even better that Gold Card will apply the same saving to up to three other adults travelling with them.

To apply this, look for annual Gold card when booking rail travel under the Railcard section – this isn’t particularly well known but can save you quite a lot, especially as a group.

Save money on your day out in the UK with a rail ticket

Finally – whilst not a train saving per se, did you know if you’ve got visitors/fancy a day out you can get 2 for 1 access to attractions all over the UK any time you buy a rail ticket – you just need to print out a voucher from the Days Out Guide website in advance and hand it over with your train tickets to get the discount.

It doesn’t have to be any length so it can even pay to get a cheap ticket you’re not planning and the discount will potentially outweigh it!

And a guide to London’s most unusual museums at the Happy Time Blog!

Got any others?

We always love hearing about tips for saving money, so if you’ve got your own tips for saving money on UK Train and Tube tickets let us know your best in the comments below!

It’s also less moneysaving, but also see our guide on if first class train travel is worth it in the UK.

And that’s it!

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