Simon Calder reveals how to get train tickets for £3 in the Great British Rail Sale
Share:
A temporary train ticket sale of heavily discounted rail fares is under way. The government is hoping the Great British Rail Sale will stimulate demand for rail travel. Rail minister Huw Merriman told The Independent: “Over a million tickets on the railway will be available up to half price.
![[Commuters stand in front of an information sign detailing strike action at Manchester Piccadilly train station (PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/11/16/08/5c18a607823d2bff6f766655a2e28379Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzAwMjA3ODky-2.74012728.jpg)
“We want to try and entice more people on the railways to go and take a city break, go and visit their friends and family and go and explore the wonderful countryside and really get them onto the railways. Because we’re keen to grow the railways.”.
![[Tickets please: Great Western Railway hub, London Paddington]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/11/01/05/newFile.jpg)
Post-pandemic changes to commuting patterns has resulted in a dramatic reduction in revenue – around 20 per cent on pre-Covid levels. As a result, taxpayers are subsidising train travel by an additional £2 billion annually. Mr Merriman said: “People’s working patterns have changed, and in many regards that won’t come back and that’s why it’s really important that we look at the railway as a seven-day offer and particularly growing our leisure market.”.
The government says that the last such promotion attracted 70,000 travellers who had not used trains since the pandemic. But efforts to entice new passengers to the railway are hampered by the extreme disarray of the industry. The first national strikes since the 1980s have been disrupting travel since June 2021. The next round of walk-outs by train drivers belonging to the Aslef union begins on the first day on which travel is allowed under the Rail Sale terms.
