A commuter has revealed how he saved £360 on a single journey to and from work after purchasing nine separate tickets.
Kieran Maguire, 60, was shocked when he learned that his return journey from Haywards Heath to Liverpool Lime Street would force him to fork out £441.20. The lecturer has to travel twice a week to teach accounting and finance at the University of Liverpool.
He managed to figure out that if he split his three-hour and 48 minutes train journey into multiple tickets, instead of buying one, he could save a small fortune. After buying nine tickets (five to Liverpool and four for home) he spent just £81.70.
Read more: All the upcoming strikes that could affect you - including rail, Royal Mail and more
Kieran also revealed he's been using this split ticketing hack for over three years. "I have been doing this trip for a few years now - over three years," he said. "I am an old man and I have got a senior railcard and it saves me around £350 a journey as opposed to a standard return ticket.
"There are some very good split ticketing websites that you can now use and that is fine for someone like me who knows their way around the train system. I am a regular commuter but if you are a tourist or don't usually travel the price will come as a shock."
The tickets he purchases for his journey to Liverpool are:
- Haywards Heath to Gatwick Airport: £5.20
- Gatwick Aiport to London Blackfriars: £12.90
- London Blackfriars via the tube to London Euston to Crewe: £14.65
- Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street: £12.45
And on the way home:
- Liverpool Lime Street to Crewe: £12.45
- Crewe to London Euston: £8.55
- London Euston to Croydon: £6.45
- Croydon to Gatwick Airport: £3.85
- Gatwick Airport to Haywards Heath: £5.20
Kieran noted that he is "frustrated" by the situation and recent strikes have added to his travelling stress. He said: "Today I had to get to London to catch a train at 6.38am as I couldn't catch the train 40 minutes later as it was very expensive to then join the train at Crewe.
"It is supposed to be a network and the nature of a network is that they are joined up but this is the opposite of a network as this causes you to take a disjointed way to work. The strikes have added additional stress to travel.
"I think there has got to be greater emphasis on the greater need of passengers. From a business point of view it creates that level of uncertainty and people will drive which is not good for you and good for the environment.
"Commuters want a fair price and a reliable system."
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