Overview
- Publicly owned train operators rolled out the Great British Summer Savings rail offers on Friday, with child fares as low as £1 on some routes and other deeply discounted family tickets available through the school holidays.
- Key advertised deals include Southeastern under-16 off-peak fares for £1, c2c and Govia Thameslink Railway ‘Kids for £2’ returns, selected £2 fares on Greater Anglia, and discounted family tickets from LNER and Northern.
- Adult promotions are also live, such as c2c’s £15 off-peak returns to Southend running to August 31 and West Midlands Trains’ Birmingham–London fares from about £22.
- The package includes free bus travel for children during August and a government pledge to cap single bus fares at £2 in England outside London from January, with a Summer Savings website listing participating offers.
- Officials present the measures as short-term cost-of-living relief that also supports domestic tourism, sits alongside a freeze on regulated rail fares to March, and precedes planned moves to bring services into public ownership under Great British Railways next year.