Train booking platform Loco2 recently launched Pricehack, a new money-saving feature that lets users split journeys into smaller legs. If a commuter is travelling from London to Durham, for example, it may prove cheaper to buy one ticket from London to York and other from York to Durham.
Among the companies now offering this service is Loco2, an online train booking platform founded in 2012 by a brother and sister team who wanted to encourage passengers to choose trains over planes.
The company – which was acquired by the French rail network, Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer français (SNCF), in 2017 – says its split ticketing technology, Pricehack, could help reduce the cost of one-way tickets by as much as 50%.
Loco2 says its service provides options for international travel and also works with advance fares, something their competitors are not able to offer. Two months after its initial launch Pricehack is also now available for return journeys.
“Loco2 is also the only multinational train booking platform that includes split tickets into international travel, if a journey starts or finishes in Great Britain. Loco2 guarantees that if a ticket can be Pricehacked, it’ll always be a £1 cheaper than on other traditional train booking platforms or rail operators websites.”
Did a test of the loco2 site, to see if it was better than the others. Not obviously.
Loco2 doesn’t support many of the “regional” railcards or any of the “single operator” railcardse.g. “Club 50” (Scotrail/Greater Anglia)
I have seen claims elsewhere that loco2 makes a better job of lining up seat reservations if staying on the same train for split tickets booked through them.
I had hopes for more aggressive split ticket searching from loco2, but then none of the split ticketing websites I have tried (raileasy, traintickets) spot all the possibilities.
Typically not spotted: where there is a cheaper option by travelling just beyond an interchange point for a branch line and then getting a ticket back to access the branch line (as a local anytime ticket). See below for usual test case (a journey I sometimes make), all perfectly legal (not stopping short on an advanced ticket ).
Test case for “beyond and back” split ticketing: Liverpool St (LST)-Sudbury (SUY) using Colchester (COL) as interchange/split point (beyond the real interchange at Marks Tey (MKT)). Similar opportunities for many branch line stations on LST-Norwich (NRW) route, as well as stations not served by fast trains.
Why splitting at COL is cheaper: GA don’t seem to sell £10 Advance tickets on the stopping services on LST-NRW route, which also knocks our the real interchange station of MKT for the branch line to SUY, but also works for stations on the main line only served by stopping trains. Savings around 20%-30%. Going to COL and coming back (or vice versa) doesn’t even add much of a time penalty, as the express service LST-COL (or vice versa) is quicker than the stopping service, and the connection at COL isn’t too long–long enough to be generally safe for Advanced tickets
I have also noticed on this route that if there are engineering works at the London end, that the train booking sites (including GA, but also the splitters) won’t offer the (usually cheaper) train which requires a change to replacement bus (usually to Newbury Park underground, which if you are going elsewhere in London isn’t that much longer overall).
What is usually offered instead when engineering works are happening is the more expensive, potentially multi-operator route via Ely/Cambridge. Sticking in the search options a “via COL” or “via ” or “GA only” will do the trick to open get the lower cost route displayed. This makes an even bigger difference if you have a “GA Club 50 Web” railcard (for single person travelling) as it keeps the journey within the “GA only” conditions of that railcard
Moderator’s note: Spelling out of station name abbreviations when first used added by moderator. Would contributors please do this themselves. Malcolm
SNCF, the new owners of Loco2, have announced that the name Loco2 will disappear on Wednesday 6th November.