manchester to london train tickets?

Does anybody happen to know how much a return (round trip) ticket to London costs if you were to buy it in the train station in Manchester? (or alternatively, 2 one-ways bought at Manchester and then at London, if that's cheaper?)

I'm trying to coordinate visiting a friend from the US who is coming to London, the same week I'm at a conference in Manchester.  So, I can get work to pay for return ticket from here (Scotland) to Manchester, but I'll need to float the Manchester to London leg.  I normally get my tickets at thetrainline.com, but I'm seeing that the cheapest ticket is £57.10, which is a bit more than I wanted to pay... (they have cheaper ones listed, but none are available on the dates I need)  I figured it would be closer to the price I normally pay to for another 2.5 hr train trip, which is around £25.

Thanks!

Anne

Don't buy a ticket on the day you travel at the station - it will cost you an arm and a leg!

Keep looking online.  You might have more luck looking at www.virgintrains.co.uk.  The train fare is pretty expensive, but it is a fairly long way and the new trains are worth the fare - very comfortable!

Otherwise, try www.megabus.com for very cheap buses - but beware the long ride.

try qjump.co.uk. If you are booking well in advance it is probably cheaper to buy two singles than a return which at its cheapest is 57.10 its about 12.50gbp each way off peak.

I've also found that sometimes two singles can be cheaper than one return...

look at the different rail tickets on virgins website too.  I bought a family rail card, good for 1 year. saved a ton on the ticket price.

You might want to check out flight prices? I don't know what they are like now, but when I was there I flew London to Manchester for cheaper than the train would have cost.

I've heard you can get a return between London and Manchester for as low as £25 but you have to book way in advance and off-peak time.
DW just booked from Wycombe to Manchester via Euston and it was £62 for this weekend (but it's for business so they are paying).

The only problem with flying is that they often go to airports like Luton so you have to drag yourself to a bus to the rail station into London which takes a lot of time and expense.  Or did you get a cheap flight to Heathrow?  I can't imagine any flight to Heathrow would be cheaper than the railways.

My favourite train site is www.qjump.co.uk. It's great. You can do a price comparison, compare return to one-way, etc. Very user friendly, and I've had some really fantastic deals this way.

Our tickets return with short notice from Manchester - London for 6 of us ( 2 adults and 4 kids)  cost 128 pounds including the family rail card.  Without a rail card the total return for 6 of us was something like 250 pounds. 

I found it easier to phone the rail company and ask for any discounts than try to figure it out on the web.

off subject, but how come people up here in the Northeast are always telling us to take the train instead of driving when we want to go somewhere that's far away?  When we were thinking about driving to London, people were like, "you can get a train to London for 25 pounds"  Sorry, but a train to London from Darlington is like 100 pounds.  Am I missing some great deal website or something?

off subject, but how come people up here in the Northeast are always telling us to take the train instead of driving when we want to go somewhere that's far away?  When we were thinking about driving to London, people were like, "you can get a train to London for 25 pounds"  Sorry, but a train to London from Darlington is like 100 pounds.  Am I missing some great deal website or something?

Maybe someone here has some special insight and can explain how train ticket pricing works!

I've found that if I want to book a train from me (SW Wales) to my bf (the tippy-tip of Cornwall), I need to do it nearly exactly 3 weeks before I go. If I do it earlier than that, the rates are more than double. If I wait until the last minute, also double. I don't know why, but now that I've figured it all out, that's what I do. For me, the cost of a train ticket to Cornwall is about 1/3 of what I used to pay in petrol to drive the same distance.

we also don't have to pay for petrol either because my wifes company pays for it.  So we save there.