For a detailed list of tips please see my blog post:
http://derbyphotoscouk.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-get-ch...

The train ticketing system in the UK is extremely complicated to understand. Here in this tutorial I will demonstrate how easy it can be to track down the cheapest prices for your journey from Derby to London in First Class. You can use this method for any train journey of course and you dont have to travel First Class.

You may be asking yourself why not just do the whole thing on the Trainline website, well the simple reason is they charge a £1 booking fee, plus an extra £3.50 for credit card payments and also a charge to have the tickets posted to you. So for this reason I think its best to use their site as a tool and then go and book the tickets in person. This avoids all those extra charges and you get the tickets in your hand rather than them getting held up by the recent postal strikes

Video Details:
0:20 Visit thetrainline.com
0:33 Type Derby and pick it from the list
0:39 Type London and pick London St Pancras (STP) from the list.
0:49 Pick the outbound date, try and travel weekdays for best first class service.
0:54 Pick mid day as a the time to start with, this can be adjusted.
1:04 At this point select the amount of Adults going, then at 1:20 the prices shown will reflect this.
1:05 now click the Get times & tickets button
1:13 Now to get the prices click the Show prices button
1:21 First Class Advance tickets (the type of ticket we want) is shown here below standard class prices.
Now look for the cheapest prices versus time of journey.
1:51 Make a note of the dates and times and goto Derby Railway station and get your tickets with no extra charges to pay!

The small timelapse video journey along London Road/Midland Road to the Railway station was filmed on 8th November 2009 at 14.57. Its a bit out of focus at times due to the hopeless autofocus on the Toshiba Camileo Pro HD camcorder.


Music Credits :
Fountains of Life by Champius
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/220400
Licensed under Creative Commons

The Photograph of East Midland Trains at start is by Stephen Craven and licensed under Creative Commons.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/6597

Another reason for making this tutorial was so I could learn how to get to grips with Camtasia studio to capture my actions on screen. I will be making tutorials soon on how to make any sound into an iPhone ringtone and some Sony Vegas 9 stuff too.

If you found my tutorial on how to get the cheapest first class train tickets of use then please rate and comment. Do you have any handy tips?

Follow my latest work on my blog:
http://www.derbyphotoscouk.blogspot.com/

Thanks
Andy (less info)