Anyone Can Have a Network Card

A Network card costs £28 and lasts for 12 months. It gives the holder one third off the price of off-peak travel. It cannot be used before 10:00 on weekdays but can be used any time at weekends. There is a £13 minimum fare for adults on weekdays - no minimum fare at weekends.

The Network card can be used to most destinations south and east of Milton Keynes including London and the south coast. It can also be used north to Northampton and on some trains in the Cotswolds. Leaflets with maps of the area covered are available from stations. 

The holder can also buy discounted tickets for family or friends so long as the group travels together. Up to 3 adults and up to 4 children can travel with the holder. Child fares are reduced by 60% subject to a minimum fare of £1.

A list of day trip fares from Milton Keynes to popular destinations can be found on the rail routes and fares page. 

Anyone aged over 60 or under 26 might want to consider a Young Persons or Senior Citizens railcard instead. These cover the whole country and have fewer time restrictions; however they do not offer the group travel facility. There is also a family railcard for mixed groups of adults and children (the group does not have to be a real family). More about other types of railcard here.

A Network card need not only be used only for longer journeys. At weekends short local journeys can be worthwhile. For example, Wolverton to Bletchley by bus takes 1 hour on service 5 and costs £3.70 for a day return. By train the journey time is only 9 minutes and the railcard day return fare is £2.70

Railcards also give discounts on some journeys involving ferries. More details on combined rail & boat trips here.

See London Page for details of savings on London fares.

Train Operators and Cheaper Fares

In the days of British Rail there was, of course, only one rail operator serving Milton Keynes. Today there are 3 companies running trains that regularly call at Milton Keynes. 

• Virgin provides fast inter-city services to London and major stations in the midlands and the north. 
• LondonMidland provides slower but frequent trains serving most stations between Northampton and London including Watford and Hemel Hempstead. 
• Southern  runs direct trains from Milton Keynes to East Croydon with good connections at Clapham Junction for Gatwick airport and the south coast.

Tickets are still sold that can be used on any train. However, some of the train operators offer cheaper tickets for use on just their trains or for use on particular routes. They can afford to do this because any fares paid for these tickets do not have to be shared with other operators.

Diagram of rail routes

Southern

Going South With Southern

Southern runs an hourly direct train from Milton Keynes to East Croydon via Kensington Olympia. This train calls at Clapham Junction where it is possible to connect with many trains to Gatwick and the south coast. Using this route not only avoids having to cross London by Underground, it also works out cheaper. 

For example, the Network card day return fare from Milton Keynes to Bournemouth via London Euston is £48.05, but travel via Kensington Olympia & change at Clapham Junction and the fare is only £37.35 - a 23% saving. 

Unfortunately the Kensington Olympia route across London is quite slow and this may cancel out any time saved by not having to use the Underground. Also, with only one train an hour, there are fewer trains to choose from. 

See route diagram for details of how to connect with the Southern service.

Southern DaySave

Southern sells an unlimited travel day ticket, valid across its entire network, for only £12. It cannot be used on other operators' trains so care must be taken in selecting appropriate services. However, it is quite possible to visit destinations such as Portsmouth, Southampton, Arundel, Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings from Milton Keynes for just a tenner. There are several versions of the ticket but the £12 ticket is an off-peak version and cannot be used before 10:00. Also it cannot be used for boarding trains at Clapham Junction, London Victoria, London Bridge & East Croydon between 16:45 and 19:15. However, there is no evening time restriction when boarding trains at other stations and no time restrictions at all at the weekend.

These tickets cannot be purchased at stations. They have to be purchased from Southern in advance. Visit the Southern website to see a diagram of their network and further details of DaySave tickets and how to purchase them.

LondonMidland

LondonMidland trains are generally not as fast or comfortable as Virgin but they do have some competitive fares and unlike Virgin it is not necessary to book weeks in advance to take advantage of their best offers.

An off-peak return from Milton Keynes to Birmingham normally costs £27.10. However, a LondonMidland-only off-peak return costs £18.50 This ticket can only be used on LondonMidland trains and it is sometimes necessary to change at Northampton. 

LondonMidland also offer an off-peak return to Liverpool for only £32. It is usually necessary to change at Stafford or Crewe. On Saturdays a day trip to Liverpool is even cheaper at only £21.00 - ask for a Super Off-Peak Return.

LondonMidland also offer reduced price tickets to London.

GroupSave

LondonMidland, and some other train companies, now offer savings for groups of 3 or 4 adults travelling together. The whole group travel for twice the adult fare. 

GroupSave is available on the London to Birmingham line. It is also available on some neighbouring train companies including trains operating from Bedford and Aylesbury. It can even be used on some of the cheap LondonMidland fares described above. For example, a LondonMidland day return from Milton Keynes to Birmingham costs £18.50 so a group of 4 could travel for 2 x £18.50 = £37.00 - which works out at only £9.25 each! 

Up to 4 children may accompany the adults for an extra £1 each.

GroupSave cannot be used on Virgin Trains. 

LondonMidland
LondonMidland replaces Silverlink.

Virgin West-Coast

Advance Bookings With Virgin

When the rail network is running smoothly it is quite feasible to make day trips to a number of destinations in northern England. Manchester and Liverpool are approximately 2 hours from Milton Keynes. These are longer distances and so the fares are more expensive. These fares can be minimised by booking ahead - unfortunately specific train times must be booked so these tickets are less flexible. The further in advance the ticket is booked the greater the saving.

Virgin now offer a large range of cheap advance purchase tickets and as with budget airlines the cheapest tickets may sell out quickly or may not be offered at all at certain times. In theory it is possible to book Milton Keynes to Manchester for £20 return, Milton Keynes to Liverpool for £20 return and Milton Keynes to Blackpool for £25 return.

The best way to research cheap advance purchase fares is to use one of the online booking sites. The National Rail Enquiry site gives times for any requested journey and can then show a range of fares applicable to the journey. Alternatively the National Express Rail site sells a comprehensive range of tickets for most journeys. When using the National Express site pay attention to the options that come up on the left hand side of the screen - in particular the button to find the cheapest fare. Both these sites can be used to check fares without actually buying. 

East Midlands Railrover

Railrover tickets allow unlimited travel over selected parts of the railway network. Since the privatisation of the railway these tickets have not been widely advertised but they still exist and can still be purchased if you know what to ask for. 

Apart from the expensive all-line railrover the only other rover ticket available in Milton Keynes is for the East Midlands. This allows travel north and east of Milton Keynes via Bedford or Coventry as far as Sheffield and Grimsby. See map for full details of the area covered.

The ticket costs £92.50 for 7 consecutive days or £71 for any 3 days over a 7 day period and can be used on any train in the area covered after 09:00 (Monday to Fridays). Whether or not this is a good deal depends on how much you intend to travel.  

PLUSBUS

Many rail users are aware that the London Travelcard offers rail travel to London and unlimited bus and tube travel all on one convenient ticket. It is not advertised but in many towns similar schemes allow unlimited bus travel to be added to the cost of a rail ticket. 

A local scheme that may be of interest is Northampton (£2.50) - season ticket versions of PLUSBUS are also available for Northampton.

Simply ask for  'Northampton PLUSBUS' when buying your rail ticket.

Visit the PLUSBUS website to check if the town you plan to visit offers PLUSBUS

News about PLUSBUS in Milton Keynes here.