Travel

If there are no ticket purchasing facilities at the station (such as a booking office or a ticket machine, or they are closed/out of service), you may be able to buy your ticket on board the train.

• Anytime and Off-Peak can be bought in advance or on the day of travel.
• Advance tickets are sold in limited numbers and so subject to availability, and are made available for sale as soon as timetables have been confirmed - this is usually about twelve weeks beforehand. See our Buying advance tickets and Reserving seats page.
• Special conditions apply to buying Season Tickets in advance - these are shown on the Season Ticket page.

The names of tickets describe when you can buy or use your ticket, making it easy for you to buy the best value ticket for your journey. Click on the ticket types below for more information.

• Advance - Buy in advance, sold in limited numbers and subject to availability. These tickets are only valid on the date/train specified.
• Off-Peak - Buy any time, travel off-peak.
• Anytime - Buy any time, travel any time.
• Season - Unlimited travel between two stations for a specified period.
• Rovers and Rangers - Unlimited travel within a specified area. There may be a few time restrictions on when you can travel.

ATOC have produced a new edition of the National Rail Guide to Tickets leaflet which provides an overview of the rail tickets available across the National Rail network and is designed to help customers choose the best value ticket for their journey with confidence. It also includes a summary of train companies’ commitments to customers.

Our Journey Planner will show the cheapest point to point ticket currently available on each service displayed. If this is an Advance ticket please remember that these are sold in limited numbers and so subject to availability. If you have searched for a return journey the cheapest price for both a return and two singles (one out, one back) will be displayed.

If you wish to see all ticket types and not just the cheapest (perhaps you are unable to book in advance so would not be able to buy an Advance ticket, for example) there is an option to click on more fares .

Depending on the type of ticket held you may be able to make changes to travel plans, or obtain a refund if you do not travel. For more details please look at our Changing and Cancelling tickets page. Please note that Advance tickets are not refundable.

Add unlimited bus travel around your origin and/or destination town or city with PLUSBUS. It can be added to single or return train tickets, and, in many towns and cities, to season tickets as well. Take a look at our PLUSBUS pages to see which towns/cities are covered.

Your ticket may indicate a route or train company that you must use to complete your journey. In all other cases you are allowed to use any permitted route for the journey you are making – this is also the case where no route is shown. Permitted routes cover all the reasonable routes available for making the journey indicated, including all direct services and suitable connecting services. When you book your journey online, any ticket offered in connection with the timetable or itinerary produced by the journey planner will be accepted as a permitted route.

If your journey involves travelling through London to connect with another National Rail service, your ticket will usually include the cost of transfer on London Underground, Docklands Light Railway or Thameslink services between the relevant stations. To check if the cost of travel across London is included in your ticket, look for the ‘† symbol which will be shown in the tickets ‘Route information, e.g. [‘† ANY PERMITTED]. Full information can be found on our Travelling to, from and via London page .

When you buy a ticket to travel on the National Rail network you enter into an agreement with the train companies whose trains you will be travelling on. This agreement is detailed in the National Rail Conditions of Carriage .