20 September 2008

In a first for the rail industry, thetrainline.com has launched Best Fare Finder, a unique booking tool that shines a spotlight on cheap rail tickets for travellers who can be more flexible with journey times and dates.

Quick and easy to use, Best Fare Finder (www.farefinder.thetrainline.com) utilises recent customer searches to inform customers when they need to travel to get the cheapest tickets. It will then display the ticket options available at days and times around the customer's preferred journey. This allows customers to achieve average savings of 39% when compared to buying at the station on the day of travel.

Ben Pearson, commercial director at thetrainline.com, explains: "At a time when our customers are feeling the pinch, we have developed a unique way to quickly highlight the cheapest fares for customers that have some flexibility on their exact date or time of travel. Many train operating companies advertise cheap rail fares, but it can often take multiple and time intensive searches to actually find the tickets. Best Fare Finder will now find the cheapest options for them.'

Updated in real-time, the Best Fare Finder tool is based on the thetrainline.com's most popular 100 routes and informs customers exactly when they need to travel to get cheap fares such as: London to Bristol - £10, Edinburgh to London - £15.70, Birmingham to London £10.50, Manchester to London - £13, London to Oxford £4, York to London £11.25 and Liverpool to London £13.

thetrainline.com, which sells tickets from all train companies on all national routes, has launched Best Fare Finder as the latest in a number of exciting tools and website enhancements. Making it even simpler for customers to find the cheapest tickets, the new look website's easy to use interface allows customers to reserve seats and their direction, select quiet carriages and table access, or even make seat reservations near to power points or toilets.

The website also provides hints and tips to make train travel cheaper for customers. This includes a clear indication that buying two single tickets can sometimes be cheaper than a return. Additionally, there is Ticket Alert, a recently launched service that enables customers to receive email notifications when advance tickets become available for routes they have pre-selected.

Thetrainline.com has no ticket delivery charges and bookers only have to pay a single, one-off £1 booking fee for their transaction.

Pearson continues: "Sometimes travellers are happy to be a little more flexible with journey times if it means they save a few pounds. Our latest site enhancements will help them to get the right ticket at the best possible price. You can already save, on average, 39% by booking via thetrainline.com, rather than buying at the station on the day of travel. But now with Best Fare Finder and our new look website, it's even easier to get your hands on the train operating companies' cheapest fares.

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For more information, please contact:

Victoria Dickson, vdickson@lexispr.com or 0207 908 6464
Dajinder Rana, drana@lexispr.com or 0207 908 6536

Notes to the editors:

About TheTrainline
TheTrainline is the leading UK rail ticket retailer and rail ticket information provider, offering fast and easy access to timetables, fares, reservations and tickets through its Internet site and contact centre operations in the UK train travel sector. In addition to its own website, www.thetrainline.com, it operates retail websites for 15 Train Operating Companies who sell rail tickets online, as well as providing a rail business travel service direct to a number of blue chip corporations and travel agents.