its usualy cheaper to buy a through ticket go to http://www.rail.co.uk and use the rout planner to price up your options

We used 2 tickets for a trip from Southampton to Birmingham Internatonal, as we could go Southampton - Banbury using our network Railcard, and the rest of the way on ordinary rate. We were sold these tickets at Southampton station, so it must be OK (and we took the trip a few months ago with no trouble!)

I think it's OK so long as the train actually STOPS at those stations.......

Try the http://www.trainline.co.uk

It has rail planners for all the networks

its usualy cheaper to buy a through ticket go to http://www.rail.co.uk and use the rout planner to price up your options

In my experience from my local station for destinations up to a 100 miles away it's usually cheaper to go for the split ticket rather than the through ticket option. This is especially so for day trips. For example if I want to go down to Edinburgh, getting a day return from my local station to Dundee and then another day return from Dundee to Edinburgh saves me up to 30%! If I'm going to Glasgow, buying a ticket to Perth then another one to Glasgow saves me up to £15! There is no ticket office at my local station so unless I buy the tickets in advance I have to buy them on the train and whilst the guards don't always point out this money saving option to you, if you ask for 2 separate sets of tickets they will sell them to you - even on a through train!

Finding the best 'split ticket' price can be time consuming on the Net as you have to keep keying in the different combinations whereas I find that the staff at my nearest local ticket office have them at their fingertips! So if I have the time and know where I'm wanting to go in advance, I pop into the next station up the line which has a ticket office and discuss my journey with the staff who more often than not come up with a much cheaper deal than I could find. The best one saved me nearly 50% on a longer journey by actually getting THREE sets of tickets. The rail companies don't like you doing this but they can't actually stop you as long as you have a valid ticket for that service for each stage of your journey.

SM

This is actually due to only going one way for the majority of the train involved

I would be going

Birmingham International - Cardiff and the on the way back from cardiff to Rugby.

In that case the best way probably does work out as a single from Birmingham International to Rugby and a return Rugby to Cardiff and back but it's quite possible that you will still find that a day return from B'ham Int to Rugby is cheaper than a single! Daft I know but especially if you'll be boarding after 9.30am, day returns are often cheaper than singles even if you have no intention of using the return half! Check when you buy your tickets.

SM