It's been a problem for me too. There have been times I have wanted to book a flight at a far away airport about 9 months before I go but not even been able to find out what times the trains are running until 12 weeks before. Then I've worried that there wouldn't be a train to get me there on time.
Timetables change in May and December. Always check travel times if you go on a week-end as engineering can be posted on the Wednesday prior to the week-end. Please don't blame the train companies, it's down to Network Rail! 🙂
p.s. in my experience it's rare for there to be huge time changes as it would cause too many complications with train paths.
Hi Serewen we have seen an ad in our local paper about £11 train journey to London (do you know anything about them?) I wonder if they are restricted to certain days/hours? I notice they also have £7 to Edinburgh. All sounds good eh :p
Hi Jeannie, usually the train operator in your area will have the details on the £11 tickets. Sometimes they are only particular to a certain area. We have an issue with London Midland running specials that you can only buy from them. The general public don't understand we aren't all the same company. Most train companies will do advance tickets that can start reasonably cheaply but they are date and time specific. Quite often we can book someone outwards but the return date isn't open. The customer then has to decide if they can afford to leave the cheap outward ticket incase they can't get one to come back! Or buy the cheap one and hope to get one later to return. We groan as well as the customer.
Don't always use a company like Trainline. Try the specific train operators website for your area. Ours doesn't have a booking fee and they are slightly cheaper than we can sell at the booking office.
Ah thanks for replying Serewen, I will check out the Northern Echo on Thursday see what it is all about. 🙂