The Rail Sale is a promotion that offers up to 50% off over a million selected Advance or Off-Peak tickets across the National Rail network. The first Great British Rail Sale took place in Spring of 2022, the second sale took place in January 2024, and now the third sale will take place in January 2025 with a travel period 17 January -31 March 2025.
The purpose of the campaign is to help stimulate demand for leisure rail travel.
DETAILS OF SALE AND FULFILMENT
The Rail Sale tickets will go on sale from Tuesday 14 January to 23:59 Monday 20 January 2025, or until all the sale tickets have been sold. Tickets can be purchased for travel between Friday 17 January and Monday 31 March 2025. Tickets must be purchased at least 3-7 days in advance of the date of travel to help manage demand and will not be sold on the day of travel. This varies per operator, so please ask internally which booking horizon applies. The sale will offer up to 50% off Advance tickets. Where a participating train company doesn’t offer Advance tickets, Off-Peak tickets may be offered as an alternative.
The following train operating companies will be offering discounted tickets as part of the Rail Sale:
Avanti West Coast, C2C, Chiltern, Cross Country, East Midlands Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway, Great Northern, Grand Central, Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia, London North Eastern Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Northern, South Western Railway, ScotRail, Southeastern, Southern, TransPennine Express, Transport for Wales, and West Midlands Railway.
EXCLUSIONS AND TICKET TYPES
Customers can find and buy tickets directly from their train operating company or preferred ticket retailer. Tickets will be available via the fulfilment types of each train operating company and
retailer. Ticket availability will be limited and sold on a first come, first served basis.
Not all journeys and services will have discounted ticket available and for some TOCs this offer is only available on certain routes, which should be explained to customers if asked. It may be that the discount is available on services that are traditionally quieter, to help encourage travel at times where there is more capacity.