Train operator, Greater Anglia, is launching special Winter ‘Hare Fares’ from just £10 return for a limited time.
The new ‘Hare Fares’ offer passengers off-peak returns across the Greater Anglia network with three zones and three simple return prices: £10, £15 and £20, with children travelling for just £2 return each.
There is no limit on the number of tickets, but they must be booked before 12th February for travel before 26 March.
Customers are advised not to travel on 1st and 3rd February, as services are due to be affected by strike action.
Example train fares from London:
Destinations for £10 per person
- Cambridge
- Chelmsford
- Southend
Destinations for £15 per person
- Harwich
- Colchester
- Clacton-on-Sea
Destinations for £20 per person
- Felixstowe
- Great Yarmouth
- Bury St Edmunds
Hare Fares are available as standard off-peak day return tickets only and can only be booked online from here or via the Greater Anglia app.
A further money-saving tip — when searching for journeys, most people put “London (any)” as the departure point in the search box. Once you find a trip you like, look for the next station the train stops at, and if you can catch the train there AND avoid travelling into London Zone 1, you can reduce your travel card cost as well.
For example, trips that start at Liverpool Street will cost the same if you catch the train at Stratford, but you could avoid paying for the TfL zone 1 fare to get to Liverpool Street to start the journey.
Martin Moran, Greater Anglia’s Commercial and Customer Services Director, said: “Our region has so much to offer and whether it’s a trip to the city or coast, shopping or sightseeing, we’re giving people more money to spend on having a great time by helping them save money on their train fare.
Hare Fares are not valid on journeys wholly within the Oyster zone. Standard refund rules apply.
Technically a ticket from Liverpool Street must be boarded there, if you board at Stratford that’d be a break of journey which isn’t permitted?
Only if you buy a ticket from Liverpool Street – but if you want to avoid Zone 1, buy a ticket from Stratford and save money.
Sadly, not every service on the GEML calls at Stratford. There are some gaps in the schedule where no train calls, and at other times it’s every other train. Ditto (potentially worse) for joining at Shenfield (end of the Elizabeth Line)
And 4/5 Feb has replacement buses starting/ending at Newbury Park (the usual place, other weekends may also have buses). If you want the Hare fare you may need to take the replacement bus, but the website may suggest a Cambridge/Ely route for Norwich instead at a higher price (put in a via COL to force the GEML routing)
Another cost saver–if travelling to Gainsborough branch (i.e. Sudbury) or certain other stations served only on the slower trains, it may be cheaper to travel beyond your stop/interchange (on the express) and then get a local train back to where you want to be.
Often true for SUY, get at ticket to COL and come back to the interchange at MKT, it’s not that much longer. (You can’t stop short as that’s a break of journey which is not permitted, even if physically possible)
There doesn’t seem to be any way to find the days/times when hare fares are still available (so you can get the fixed price return), you have to go through the normal process and then see if you get quoted a hare fare (so far, I haven’t found any £20 returns for London-Norwich and beyond, or any variants like Stratford to Norwich)
I’ve just had a look on the Greater Anglia website and there seems to be an awful lot of engineering work on those applicable weekends, especially on the GEML. No wonder they’re offering cheap tickets!