An Essential Guide to British Trains

In UK, travelling by train may become tricky if you are coming from a country where the railroads and trains are owned by a single company, or in my case by the state itself. There are plenty of train firms in the UK and although the ticket sales are unified under the National Rail scheme, you have to be careful which train to take, for avoiding fines.

To begin with, in UK, you can buy any train ticket around the UK from any ticket machine or the website of any train company. For instance you can buy an East Midlands ticket from a Southern Railway website and collect your ticket from a Thameslink ticket machine, the system is unified and there are rarely any problems there.

If you buy your ticket online, you have to bring the code with you together with the credit card you have purchased the ticket. Without the card, you can't collect any tickets, no matter how much you insist.

There are three categories of tickets, specifying the hours you can use them. From most expensive to cheapest: anytime tickets, off-peak tickets and advance tickets with reservations for a specific train. Also, for some big cities like London, there are all day travel cards including travel in the tube as well. Beware of your hours. Off-peak hours may differ in the small cities and in the big ones, if you're not sure, ask, it is always better than paying the fine and the railway personnel are always more helpful than expected.

Also, there are young person or family cards that can be obtained for concessions. They are usually annual and they are not worth paying for a touristic visit. However, for group concessions, you don't need any card. If your group consists of three or more people, buy group tickets. I'm not sure if you have to travel as a group all the time though, better ask that as well.

Two, or even three, train firms may travel to your destination and you might think as you have purchased a ticket, you can travel with any of them. Beware of the small print in the middle of the ticket. If it says "any permitted" you are good to go. But if it specifies the rail company, like "thameslink only" than you have to catch that a train from that company, or face to pay the fine if you're caught by the conductor. Though I suppose you can always tell the conductor you are a puny foreigner and beg for mercy. If you're in a tourist loving, diversity hugging area of the UK, they might let you go. But don't expect such sympathy in big cities.

Know your class. In a train, it might be hard to distinguish first class from the second. Make sure you are in right part of the train. Also, there are priority seats, for priority card holders. If you are in a busy train, seat somewhere else. If the train is full, someone with a card might come and ask you to give away your seat.

I hope this helps as a guide. Have a good journey and most important of all: Mind the Gap!