But before we get carried away with just how clever we have become, it's worth bearing in mind that many of us are still paying almost 50% more than we need to - because we're falling foul of the rip off train booking websites.
The complexities of the UK train system make it tricky to know exactly who will be operating your rail service. There are scores of services around the country and even the same journey is often run by more than one train company. It's hardly surprising, therefore, that so many people don't try to tack down their train company website.
The rip off
There's no doubt that they are easy to use, but research by Southern Railway has discovered that they often charge far more than going direct to the rail company, and in some instances charge 50% more.
They searched for a journey from Brighton to London Victoria, and found that while their lowest fare was £4.50, Trainline and Raileasy would charge £5. To add insult to injury the other companies also add a booking fee, a fee if you use a credit card and another fee if you want the tickets posted to you first class. It means overall a £4.50 ticket from Southern would set you back £9.50 at The Trainline or £8.95 from Raileasy.
The solution
And you don't need to be booking tickets with the operator running your service in order to pay less. Most operators will allow you to book on other company's lines, and it will still constitute a saving. The railway operator found that in every single case it was cheaper to buy direct from Southern, even when travelling outside their operating area.
Alistair Buckle, head of marketing at Southern Railway said: "With headline adverts like 'Save up to 80% on train tickets', customers could be mistaken into thinking they are getting a good deal by using a commercial ticket site. In fact, these percentages only compare the commercial sites' prices to the cost of buying a ticket at a station on the day of travel, when even greater savings could be made by buying advance tickets direct from the train operators' websites. The truth is that all commercial ticket sites include a mark-up on the face value of the tickets sold, and then create extra revenue with added booking and credit card fees, further increasing the cost to the consumer."
The simple message, therefore is that if you have a few minutes more to shop around for your ticket, you could save significant sums. It's worth doing a search for who runs the service and looking up the prices on its website. It's also worth bookmarking a few other operators who don't charge booking fees, postage fees or credit card fees, so you know you can make a saving when you travel.
With no booking fees TrainTickets.co is the place to go for the best deals on Train Tickets
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