How a little known rail ticket can save substantial amounts

In recent weeks I’ve discovered a rail ticket that can save a pretty penny though you won’t find out much info about it.

Unlike a lot of clickbait headlines on certain websites stating something is “secret” when it’s actually revealed in a twenty second Google search, this actually is pretty hidden and websites on it inaccurate.

So what is it? Well, it’s the “accompanied child” ticket that allows a child to travel with an adult for £1 or £2 even if the adult has an existing ticket.

And more than that, it extends beyond the Network Railcard zone.

Online

If searching for this ticket online you’ll find this page on the National Rail website.

It states you can use it on Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink alongside Southeastern and Greater Anglia on restricted routes.

Greater Anglia have their own page which again isn’t exactly clear and appears to give inaccurate information stating it’s only valid on routes shared with other operators. Yet it can be used for journeys and destinations only served by GA.

I only discovered it talking to someone who booked a Manningtree to Norwich ticket. A route that is solely served by Greater Anglia and not the routes mentioned online.

You can’t buy online or at ticket machines so it’s off to a ticket office where they can be used to book for longer distance journeys than what is listed.

When buying a ticket for my daughter over the recent half-term holiday the staff member told me it could be used on routes to Ipswich and Norwich (and beyond?).

For some journeys a £1 or £2 return for children 5-16 certainly saves a decent chunk of cash. I had a prior ticket and this saved a fair bit compared to buying a standard child ticket.

Ticket offices

As stated the ticket cannot be bought online or at ticket machines. For those near Southeastern stations this perhaps isn’t the best news.

While the days over summer when unstaffed stations and ticket offices reached around triple figures, there’s still a good couple of dozen closed most days.

This little known ticket does again show the importance of well trained staff at stations – and them being accessible in a ticket office.

Thankfully plans to reduce staffing and move them out of ticket offices was scrapped. On the occasion I used it it was a tight connection and I managed to buy the tickets.

Now imagine if plans had gone through and even if staff were on site, they could be “roving” anywhere when I arrived rather than in a known place. You know, the actual ticket office.

Result would have been a missed connection and an hour-long wait for the next train.