Difference between Southwest and National Rail Service UK

Hello all!

We will be in London next month and staying for 3 days prior to our cruise. I understand there are 2 direct rail service between London Waterloo to Southampton Central, Southwest and National Rail Services. Is there a difference between the two options? Is one better than the other or pretty much the same? Many thanks in advance for your help and advice!

Alex

There is only one train company on that route, Southwest.

National Rail is am "umbrella" company that provides timetable and fare information for all the train companies I'm the UK. It doesn't actually run any trains.

Oh I see. Thanks for the information! I will book tickets directly on the Southwest Rail website. Again, many thanks for your information!

There is only one train operator between London Waterloo and Southampton Central and that is South West Trains. Tickets on their service can be booked on their own website, any other mainland UK train operating company, National Rail Enquiries and a variety of other booking companies.

You alternative is to travel from London Victoria with Southern but that will take longer.

My personal preference is to book direct with the train operator itself or one of the other Train Operating Companies as they don't normally charge booking fees and may have special offers (e.g. South West Trains were offering return tickets anywhere on there network for £15 return last month and this month they are offering 25% off of off-peak travel on Friday, Saturday and Sunday until the 28th).

Before you book with SouthWest trains, check www.megatrain.com . It does cheap tickets on exactly the same trains. Pick you departure point (London) and arrival (Southampton) and it will show any trains that you can book on, but you must get the actual timed train you book. Tickets can be £1 each, but typically £5 each. Normal price is around £35. You can't book megatrain tickets until about 44 days before you travel.

Simon

Thanks to everyone for your help and advice! I greatly appreciate it.

http://www.megatrain.com will get you some incredible prices, but make sure you red the itinerary carefully.

The site is operated, I believe by Stagecoach which is principally a bus/coach company who also operate parallel sites such as http://www.megabusplus.com and they do hop you from one site to another.

As a result, if you try to book a train from Southampton to Manchester, which has a direct train service taking just under 4.5hours, through megatrain, you will generally get offered a coach service, which will take over six hours.

Good value - certainly. But make sure you know what you are purchasing.

Interestingly, if one books Bournemouth to Manchester, they schedule you by train to Southampton Airport and then change you to the coach at the airport and the price goes up by £14, BUT the train fare from Bournemouth is only £12.90.

Personally, I tend to use http://www.trainline.com for my train reservations, but the secret is to book between six and two weeks before travel.

Do NOT use http://www.trainline.com as they charge a booking fee for the same tickets the train companies sell.

Do NOT use http://www.trainline.com as they charge a booking fee for the same tickets the train companies sell.

Your contribution would have more value if you included your location in your profile, then folks could judge how much local knowledge you really have and on what basis you make your comment.

If you are UK based, then consider the following piece of ACCURATE information.

I have a need to get from Poole to Peterborough this Thursday to pick up a new car from Motorpoint.

Trainline.com gave me a list of prices for different schedules and got me a ticket for just £25.00 via London (Poole dep 07.41 to Waterloo arr 09.53 with South West Trains then King's Cross dep 11.05 to Peterborough arr 11.51 with East Coast)

OK, I have to pay my tube fare across London, but the 'on the day' single fare is £78.70 - £101.00 and the normal advanced purchase is £40.50. What is more, I was able to do the whole thing from my home PC.

Are you seriously trying to tell me that I could have:

a) been able to search for the best deal

b) choose the best day to travel

and

b) got a better deal than £25.00 because there is commission in the £25 fare (which incidentally makes use of TWO train companies)?

by going down to Poole station?

I think not!!

I think you should give a much more comprehensive explanation of the basis for such a summary dismissal of any company and your personal experience which leads you to give the advice NOT to use the company.

Remember, not everyone who uses this forum is able to walk down to his/her local railway station one week before he/she travels and check for special deals.

As I write this, at 17.00 local time on Monday that deal is still available, and so anyone who wants to check the basis of my comment can, for the time being, do so for themselves.

I have no connection with Trainline.com.

Partial apology for the above.

I have just visited the South West trains site and they have also offered me the £25.00 deal. So they have offered the same deal, but clearly no commission on the Trainline deal.

Only partial apology as, with Trainline, I did NOT need to know the name of the operating company and the price was the same

just for information you can book any journey through East Coast website for any train company and no extra fees

I've frequently booked a journey on East Coast to Kings Cross and onward journey with another Southern company which includes tube fare across London

Also booked on that website for cross country trains

If you are a frequent train traveller then joining East Coast rewards scheme builds up points for any journey over[i think] £15 and counts towards future free travel

I have earned several free journeys to London with this scheme

Partial apology for the above.

 

I have just visited the South West trains site and they have also offered me the £25.00 deal. So they have offered the same deal, but clearly no commission on the Trainline deal.

 

Only partial apology as, with Trainline, I did NOT need to know the name of the operating company and the price was the same

I would never use the Trainline. Any train operating company would have been able to give you that price and East Coast would have given you a small discount as it uses one of there services.

National Rail Enquiries would have given you a choice of operating companies and booking agents like Trainline to book with.

PS Your ticket should have included a transfer by London Underground between Waterloo and Kings Cross, should be a † in the route information part of the ticket to indicate it is valid for an Underground transfer.