General Articles
Fares
Some current (1st Jan 2012) fares from Saltash station are listed below. As it is an unmanned station you are entitled to by your ticket, including weekly season tickets, from the Guard (or train manager as they call them now) on the train at no extra cost.
Advance tickets and longer period season tickets have to be purchased online or at a ticket office.
All of the various online ticket services access the same underlying database of fares and availability - the FGW website has the advantage at the moment of not charging a premium for use of a credit card.
If you use an online service you can either have the tickets sent by post or collect them from a machine at Plymouth or Liskeard (or other) stations.
The online systems do not seem to recognise the Devon and Cornwall railcard at the moment - some people have simply selected a different railcard type and successfully pointed out the the guard that the discount is the same and the website is at fault - but strictly speaking this would not be valid.
Sample fares (off peak tickets generally get a one third discount with a railcard)
Saltash - Plymouth - Adult fares (Child fares are half the adult fare)
- Anytime Day Return £2.70
- Off Peak Day Return £2.60
- Weekly Season Ticket £8.40
- Monthly Season Ticket £32.30
- Annual Season Ticket £336.00
Walk-on fares. NB, especially for longer journeys advance tickets will be MUCH cheaper
| Destination | Anytime Single | Open Anytime Ret. | Open Off Peak Ret. | Anytime Day Ret. | Off Peak Day Ret | Min No of changes and best time |
| Penzance | £15.10 | £21.30 | £16.90 | £18.50 | £9.50 | 0 1:47 |
| St.Ives | £15.10 | £21.30 | £16.90 | £17.90 | £9.50 | 1 1:55 |
| Redruth | £15.10 | £19.60 | £15.40 | £16.80 | £9.50 | 0 1:20 |
| Falmouth | £13.90 | £19.00 | £14.90 | £16.20 | £9.50 | 1 1:40 |
| Truro | £12.90 | £16.80 | £13.10 | £15.10 | £9.00 | 0 1:08 |
| Newquay | £10.80 | £7.80 | 0 | |||
| St.Austell | 0 | |||||
| Looe |
1 |
|||||
| Liskeard | 0 | |||||
| Plymouth | 0 | |||||
| Totnes | 0 | |||||
| Newton Abbot | 0 | |||||
| Torquay | 1 | |||||
| Exeter | 0 | |||||
| Barnstaple | 1 | |||||
| Honiton | 1 | |||||
| Tiverton Parkway NB This is the last station in Devon that you can use a D&C railcard to |
0 | |||||
| Taunton | 0 | |||||
| Weston-super-Mare | 0 | |||||
| Bristol | 0 | |||||
| Bath | 1 | |||||
| Westbury | 0 | |||||
| Sailsbury | 1 | |||||
| Southampton | 1 | |||||
| Portsmouth | 1 | |||||
| Brighton | 1 | |||||
| Newbury | 0 | |||||
| Reading | 0 | |||||
| London Paddington | 0 | |||||
| Cardiff | 0 | |||||
| Birmingham | 1 | |||||
| Manchester | 1 | |||||
| Leeds | 1 | |||||
| Newcastle | 1 | |||||
| Edinburgh | 1 | |||||
| Glasgow | 1 | |||||
| Inverness | 2 | |||||
| Brussels | 2 | |||||
| Paris | 2 |
By Train to Europe
European Tickets
It is very easy now to buy European tickets online. To get the best fares including an English leg sometimes involves keeping two websites open to ensure that you hold one cheap fare (for example in Germany) while you find and buy a connecting ticket (for example to London). An increasing number of sites now allow you to purchase through tickets across countries, although these may not always show the cheapest options.
The starting point is The Man in Seat Sixty One website – www.seat61.com – which provides excellent advice and links.
Most national train sites have an English language option, for French TGV and SNCF/Corail tickets there is now a separate English site showing prices in pounds and delivery by post to a UK address.
European train travel can be great fun, in the last couple of years I have travelled from Saltash to various European destinations including La Souterraine (in the middle of France £68, 11 hours), Frankfort-an-Oder (on the German Polish border, £140, 20hrs including a sleeper from Brussels to Berlin), and Mariestad (in the middle of Sweden, £144.50, 27 hours including a sleeper from Cologne and half a day exploring Copenhagen). Full details of these journeys in due course...
If you've made a international train journey send us the details (route, fares, times and any comments) and we'll publish them here. We will also build up a section of useful weblinks for timetables, bookings and advice.
Railcards and other discounts
Railcards are available for various special groups – almost everyone except single people between 25 and 60 travelling alone (although we can all get the Devon & Cornwall card) – and give you an extra third off most fares including advance purchase.
Some railcards don't work with early morning trains, others cover a restricted area. For travel anywhere from Tiverton Parkway to Penzance, including all the branch lines, the Devon & Cornwall railcard is available to anyone living in the region (irrespective of age) and costs £10 for a year. If you travel from Saltash to Truro or Exeter more than three times in a year this will save you money (it brings the day return to Truro down to £5.34).
You have to go to a tciket office (Liskeard or Plymouth) to purchase a railcard - take along a passport sized photo (unless you are renewing and have a train photcard already) and proof of qualification.
Group Save
If you are travelling in a group of four or more adults then check out GroupSave – four adult tickets for the price of two with any children in the party travelling for £1 each. You can specify this when buying your ticket, including on the train. You must all complete your journey together.
Special Offers
Watch the FGW website for occasional special discount offers – for exampel during January to March 09 they ran 'Club55' which gave big discounts to anyone aged over 55. There are often £5 vouchers available. We try and keep an eye on these and notify SRUG members – join our email list to get notifications of all matters affecting train travel from Saltash
Plus Bus
Don't forget PlusBus tickets which for a small extra allow you unlimited bus travel in an area once you reach your destination – Newton Abbott PlusBus is exceptional value covering all of the Torbay area.
Walking and Cycling to the station
Almost all of Saltash is within 20 minutes walk or 10 minutes cycle ride from the station - it may be hilly in parts but using the backways it is a pleasant trip and gets you some of your daily exercise as well.
Download our leaflet 
Walking and Cycling to/from the Station (626.73 kB) or see the map below.
Rangers and Rovers
Rover Tickets are available for post 9am travel on any 3 days in 7, or 8 days in 15, and allow you free travel in a specified area. These can be a real bargain – for example if you need to travel to Bristol twice in a week the South West Rover costs £70 for any 3 days in 7 so you can get two days off peak return to Bristol for £30 and another day of free travel anywhere from Penzance to Cardiff, Swindon or Portsmouth.
In fact with the standard off-peak fare to Southampton at £85 it is cheaper to buy a Rover ticket for a single journey !
Ranger Tickets cover a smaller area for a single day. The Cornwall Ranger extends in to Plymouth, but the Devon Ranger only comes as far as St.Budeaux so you need to add a £1.70 cheap day return to St.Budeaux to use it from Saltash. Both cost £10 and you can get some railcard discounts. Cheap day return fares within Cornwall are mostly less than £10 but if you need to make two journeys in a day these are a bargain.
You can buy Rangers and Rovers at a ticket office (Plymouth or Liskeard) or over the phone – they can not be purchased on the train.