Hi BellyBally, the easiest way from either Leeds or York would be to use East Coast trains into Kings Cross but it doesn't surprise me that it is coming up at £400 for 3 adult return tickets for travel less than a week away. The cheapest ones will have long gone - you need to book months ahead to get them. If any of you are legible for any of the various railcards then it might be worth buying one because it would cut the cost for that person by a third. For example, anybody who is over 60 will recoup the cost immediately on any ticket that is going to cost more than £90.

A cheaper way if you can reasonably easily get there, would be to travel from Sheffield with either Virgin or Cross Country into Euston or with East Midlands into St Pancreas International where 3 return tickets for your dates are coming up at just under £240 depending on the time of day you want to travel.

However, whichever station you arrive at, all 3 are in north London - the most straightforward way of getting to the O2 arena from all of them is probably to use the Tube. Get the Northern line to London Bridge and then change onto the Jubilee line to North Greenwich which is the nearest underground station for the arena.

Also, whichever train company you use, you will usually get the cheapest deals by booking direct on their individual websites rather than using something like the Trainline. Alternatively, if you do have a rail station with. Travel Centre or booking office in it reasonably close by to home it might be worth going in and speaking to the booking clerks. I find that they are usually on the ball about the best deals and also whether the cheapest way of doing it might be to buy split tickets eg Leeds to Peterborough and then Peterborough to Kings Cross.

Breaking up British Rail was supposed to make it cheaper to travel by rail because the different companies would have to compete - frankly as a regular rail user, I thing that the main outcome has just been to make things ever more confusing for the passenger!

SM

PS You'll probably find it useful to have a look at the national rail map - it will help you work out which stations are with in easy reach of home and that are on the mainlines into London.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/css/OfficialNationalRailmaplarge.pdf

Forgot to say that it can also be cheaper sometimes to buy two singles rather than a return so if Bradford is within easy distance of home, Grand Central into Kings Cross are quoting Fares of just over £80 based on buying 2 singles! To complicate matters they also do a few services from Bradford via Leeds so you could buy a ticket from Bradford but just get on at Leeds!

SM

I know that it won't be as quick as taking a train but have you considered going by coach. National Express have a regular service to London from Leeds and the fare is much cheaper than the train. The journey takes about 4 1/2 hrs each way and will probably cost about 25pounds per person.

I think the advice from Judith is well worth thinking about , seeing as you have to make a quick booking and prices are high , the coach fares would be around £55 return pp for the dates you require the journey times are 4 hours at best http://www.nationalexpress.com , I think the rail fares are going to be higher .
From Victoria Coach Station it's a quick tube journey to the O2 around 30 mins , walk down to the tube station ( Victoria ) then circle line to Westminster , change to Jubilee line to Greenwich .
If you were booking ahead , it would be possible to get much cheaper train fares , so the coach this time may be the best option even if it takes a bit longer in time .

Forget about booking returns.
Look at booking single journeys - Leeds to London Kings X for the Saturday then Kings X to Leeds on Sunday. Youngest has booked Kings X to Wakefield for tomorrow as a single for £35.00.- depending where you live in Leeds booking to/from Wakefield might also be worth looking at
You might have to play around with departure times to get the best value.

fwh

£80.00 per person return when I have just checked.

http://www.buytickets.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/combinedmatrix.aspx?Command=TimeTable

fwh

Thank you so much for replies!! I really did not expect as many.

I was asking on behalf of my son an his 2 friends!!! I (stupidly) told them "it will be cheaper and less hassle to get the train, than drive". "Ok mum- will you sort that!!!" was his reply!!!!. I dont think either of us thought it would be so much- I remember saying- "yeah im sure iv seen tickets advertised for £15 from york to london, i dont think it would be much more from leeds!!! Wrong!!!

Oh god how niave (and prob a bit ignorant) of me, thinking he coud just hop on a train to london from leeds, (cheaply) and get a train directly into the station nearest the o2 arena. ! I kid you not it is a few pounds cheaper to get a flight to london than rail!!!

Anyway after all this, and realising just how expensive it is (he would not travel by coach- not the best of travellers)- they have decided it would be cheaper to drive not (prob more stressful though!), but thank you so much for taking time out to reply!!!

I will stick to just booking flights/holidays in future- that im not half bad at!!

Thanks again xxx

Hi Bellybally, actually, booking train tickets is not that different to booking flights these days - the same rules apply really.

1) To get the best deals you need to book as soon as the tickets are released and probably long before you , realise that you want to go.

2) Those really cheap deals are only available if you do book as soon as they are released and will be for the least popular/most inconvenient times.

3) You will have to commit yourself to travelling on a specific train and woe betide you if for some reason you need to change - it will cost you an arm and a leg.

4) All the operators have their own booking systems and you have to book direct to get the cheapest deals.

5) Their conditions of travel are all different and feel as if they re designed to catch the traveller out and make more money out of them from surcharges wherever possible if you end up with the wrong ticket for the train they are on.

SM

If you want something different,have a look at Megabus.com. It takes a couple of hours longer but works out a lot cheaper. For the O2 arena you'd need Greenwich North from London Bridge or Waterloo on the Jubilee Line. Get a one day rail card, about £8 from the ticket office. It's an excellent train service out to Greenwich itself and a day out on it's own, then a 30 minute walk along the Thames Walk to the O2. Call in and have a pint for me at the pub - I think it's the Cutty Sark, in fact I'm sure it is.

Just had a mooch on Megabus site and it is good value Parky

I haven't been on their site for quite a while, now, but it is an option worth bearing in mind if the pennies are tight and you're not bothered about being on a double decker bus, albeit a comfy one. You can also pick and choose your departure times with plenty options.

We used thetrainline.com when we booked our journey from Liverpool airport to Blackpool at the end of November last year when we came back to UK for our first visit for almost 10yrs and found it easy to use for price comparisons. We booked an open return which gave us the best price option.

But, definitely for this journey it looks like National Express will provide the lowest price with £12 on journey down to Victoria and £15 on the way back, without having to travel at silly o'clock times too!