megatrain.com

I booked tickets with MegaTrain to travel to London and back from Sheffield back in March. I have never travelled to London as much as I do now however I always seem to go with friends or family and never went on my own. I had wanted a day in London on my own for a while however the train fare would normally cost me around £20 return to book in advance and I wanted to go earlier than the dates for which the cheapest fares for the likes of National ...
...in April at some time and had been looking on other websites for train fares however none of the others were cheap enough. I had been looking at MegaTrain for a while and waiting for the fares for a certain day to become available, however knew that if I used MegaTrain, because of the awkward times I would only get half a day in London, but this didn’t particularly put me off. I figured it was still a day away from home and kept looking, the day ... more

I booked tickets with MegaTrain to travel to London and back from Sheffield back in March. I have never travelled to London as much as I do now however I always seem to go with friends or family and never went on my own. I had wanted a day in London on my own for a while however the train fare would normally cost me around £20 return to book in advance and I wanted to go earlier than the dates for which the cheapest fares for the likes of National Express East Coast were available. I had wanted a trip in April at some time and had been looking on other websites for train fares however none of the others were cheap enough. I had been looking at MegaTrain for a while and waiting for the fares for a certain day to become available, however knew that if I used MegaTrain, because of the awkward times I would only get half a day in London, but this didn’t particularly put me off. I figured it was still a day away from home and kept looking, the day the fares were released I booked the train fares and was very impressed…

THE IDEA
MegaTrain is basically a Stagecoach owned value train travel company, which shares a website with the more well known MegaBus service. They allow very cheap travel from limited places to limited destinations on a limited number of services operated by SouthWest Trains and East Midlands Trains (both owned by Stagecoach), although there are no actual MegaTrain trains-MegaTrain passengers simply travel in a certain carriage of these other mainline trains. The services tend to be those that few people use and those that are unpopular with travellers, and it seems the general aim is to make as much profit as possible from these services even if it means offering stupidly cheap tickets, as tickets are available from as little as £1 each way plus 50p booking fee.

PRICE-5/5
I booked my journey the day that the tickets became available for the date of travel I wanted. For the journey I booked, although the times of the journeys were not particularly convenient it cost me a grand total of £1 each way, plus a booking fee of 50p. Return journey from Sheffield to London for £2.50…let me put that into perspective for you. For the exact same journey, booking through the National Rail website, the cost of the same journey, booked on the same day, as two singles would have cost £123! That’s just under a 98% discount. All in all then, pretty cheap. I thought it might make a change to have a half day in London rather than my normal Saturday trip to Doncaster, which for standard adult fare would cost £4.70 from Sheffield. I was extremely impressed to say the least. On return to Sheffield I had to get back to my dad’s house in Swinton. My dad had given me a lift to Sheffield station in the morning as there were no trains that early from Swinton, this cost me £1.55, and I believe it was around a 15 mile journey. My train fare each way to/from London, a distance of a couple of hundred miles was cheaper than the journey back to Swinton.

THE WEBSITE/BOOKING-3/5
The website is very basic and simple but adequate. It may not be the most amazing of websites but it works, is simple and easy to use and allows you to do what you need to do with ease. Booking is also very easy and takes only a couple of minutes. Once again I was very impressed with the booking process. There are a few little problems here though unfortunately, the website also shows information for MegaBus services and you need to be careful to book a train journey if that is what you want as bus services are also often available, there is a little symbol at the side of the times when you search for fares, that denotes whether the service is a train or a bus. My only other complaint is that I travelled on the East Midlands Trains network, and the website says a lot about MegaTrain on the SouthWest Trains network but very little about the East Midlands Trains Network.

THE TICKETLESS SYSTEM-4/5
When using MegaTrain you do not receive a ticket, rather just a reference number sent to you by e-mail that you then print off and show the train staff. It does feel odd to say the least travelling without a ticket, and of course, a piece of paper takes up more room than a ticket so that is a slight problem, but nothing major. The system still works well and all of the staff understand the system so there’s no questions asked-just show them your e-mail that you’ve printed off and you’re away. Alternatively you can pay an extra charge of 50p and have the details sent to your phone by text. Personally I chose not to do this as I knew that I would probably accidentally delete the text before travelling. Basically, the system may seem a little odd, as it is different to the normal tickets system but it does work and there are no major problems with it.

THE TRAINS-5/5
I was on an East Midlands Trains (formerly Midland Main Line) Meridian train each way. I had travelled no these before, they are very nice trains, very comfortable, modern and with plenty of facilities such as café bar. The trains are clean and comfortable and a pleasure to travel on. They are well suited to the long distance journeys they are used on and spending a couple of hours on one of these was not a problem whatsoever. There was plenty of room in the airline seats and the table seats, to be fair I am only average height (around 5 foot, 10 inch), so I don’t need too much room, but someone a good few inches taller than me could have comfortably sat in the airline seats, however it may be a struggle for someone taller than me if sat at a table seat and there is someone across from them.

THE JOURNEY-5/5
Both the outward and return journey were fantastic with only one complaint-there was little acknowledgement of the services being MegaTrain and I had to ask whereabouts I needed to sit for MegaTrain on both journeys, as you have to sit in an unreserved coach. Whereas, apparently, on SouthWest Trains there is MegaTrain advertising on the appropriate coach this is not the case with East Midlands Trains services. Never the less, I asked where I needed to sit and the staff told me which coach I needed to be in with no trouble. When travelling I always need a forward facing seat on these journeys as sitting backwards gives me migraines. There were plenty of seats free on both journeys and I managed to get forward facing seats both ways. On the outbound journey there were only around 10 people in my carriage the whole journey, so I moved to a table seat after a while to give myself a little more room, although the airline style seats I had been sitting in before did offer plenty enough room anyway. On the journey back the train was much busier, particularly between Leicester and Derby and between Chesterfield and Sheffield; however where I boarded at London St Pancras there were plenty of seats. The trains both ways both departed on time, and arrived on time, so this too was also wonderful.

THE STAFF-5/5
All of the staff on board the trains that I used, and at the stations were East Midlands Trains staff, however all were very friendly and very helpful. They were polite, cheerful and happy to help, no complaints here.

OVERALL OPINION-4/5
All in all MegaTrain were great. I really enjoyed the journeys, so easy, straight forward, relaxing, and of course cheap. I can’t really give them 5 stars as their website does need a little more information for passengers travelling on East Midlands Trains, and there could do with being more information at the stations or on the trains for where MegaTrain passengers should board or sit, to save having to find a member of staff to ask, but other than this I was extremely impressed. I would happily use MegaTrain again, and would highly recommend them to anyone. Well worth a go.

For the MegaTrain website, for more info, or to book journeys, go to www.megatrain.com

Hope you found this review helpful, and if you have any questions feel free to leave me a comment or message and ask me and I’ll get back to you when I can.
 

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