Plan ahead. The cheapest rail fares are Advance tickets, available up to three months ahead of time. You can save as much as 80 percent off some fares by buying these. Last minute Off-Peak tickets are also available, but the savings are not as dramatic.
Consult National Rail Enquiries online. Enter your departure point, destination, date and time in the Journey Planner search boxes and a selection of scheduled trains will appear. You can adjust the choice for earlier or later trains.
Compare prices. The online tool allows you to see a choice of fares, Advance, Anytime and Off-Peak, before you book your journey.
Register and buy your tickets. The online tool will take you to a site, usually the train company running the journey you've selected, where you can buy your tickets. You will have to register your details. As an international customer, you must pay with a credit card, not a debit card.
Print out your purchase confirmation papers. You will be sent a confirmation email with a booking number. You need to have this with you to pick up your tickets.
Pick up your train tickets after you arrive in the UK at the automatic machines available in most mainline stations. Insert the credit card you used to buy the tickets in the machine and enter the booking number from your confirmation on the machine's keyboard. You can collect all your tickets, for all your journeys, from the same machine.
Check your tickets. The ticket machines dispense a flurry of similar looking cards. For each journey, you will probably get a receipt, a seat reservation and the actual ticket. They all look the same, so read them to make sure you present the ticket when required.
