Rip off train fares: 56 tickets to get from Newcastle to Oxford

A football fan was surprised to receive 56 separate tickets when he booked a split ticket between Newcastle and Oxford for an FA Cup match on Saturday.

Tweeting under the name Jonny, he posted a picture of the tickets laid on his bed and jokingly thanked his friend for “the worst advice AV ever received. Get a split ticket to Oxford he said. FIFTY SIX TICKETS - ARE YOU HAVING ME ON?”.

He said he saved £56.

The TrainSplit website claims to save users money by helping travellers buy a series of cheaper tickets for a route.

Giving the example of an off-peak fare between Birmingham and Leeds, the site says it can save passengers more than £20, with peak-time savings even higher.

A ticket from york to Exeter was said to be just under £150 - around half the full price.

The revelations come as it was announced that an overhaul of Britain’s rail fares is to be trialled to make it easier to buy the cheapest tickets.

Some fares for long, connecting journeys will be removed from the system as cheaper alternatives exist, in a bid to negate the need for split ticketing to save money.

Single leg pricing will be introduced for some journeys to make it simpler for passengers to know if they would be better off buying two single tickets or a return.

There are also measures to make ticket vending machines more user-friendly.

The trials are due to start in May on selected routes, including CrossCountry, Virgin Trains’ east and west coast services and East Midlands.

In October, the Commons’ Transport Select Committee published a damning report which stated that “unfairness, complexity and a lack of transparency” in rail ticketing have been apparent for at least a decade.

Train companies claim they have been prevented from being more flexible in offering tickets that passengers want because of government rules covering rail fares.