Book further ahead, rather than at the last minute, if you can

If you're making a long-distance "Inter-City" journey - such as London to Manchester or Bristol to Newcastle - then it can really pay to book in advance.

If you can book as far ahead as 12 weeks then you may be able to get tickets there and back for as little as £30 in total for the Bristol - Newcastle journey (£15 Standard Class Advance Single in each direction) - a saving of £86.70 (74%!) on the cheapest fare available on the day (an Off-Peak Standard Class Return).

You'll need to know exactly which day and train you want to travel on though, as Advance tickets are restricted to a specific train and date. You can change when you want to travel (for a fee), but they're not refundable. There is of course limited availability on each train, and they tend to sell out fast too.

Even with these restrictions they offer great value - £30 for a return journey of over 600 miles is pretty good really.

Buy a railcard

Railcards typically give you 34% off most fares (First Class fares are not always included) and the Family & Friends Railcard gives 60% off child fares (already half price) as well as 34% off adult fares.

A railcard costs £26 or less for a year, and you can find full details of the different railcards available at the Railcard website.

Buy carnets if you frequently make the same journey, but don't travel every day

Carnets are excellent value - but often not that well-known about.

They're available on many routes and give (for example) 10 journeys for the price of 9, or six for the price of five.

Find out more information on our page about carnet tickets.

Buy a season ticket if you make the same journey more than two or three times a week

Season tickets offer great value. If you travel more than two or three times a week then it usually pays to get a seven day season ticket.

Annual season tickets cost the equivalent of 40 weeks travel on weekly season tickets - giving you a further three months travel entirely free.

You can buy season tickets from your train operator.

If you're travelling to London, buy a Travelcard

Travelcards are a really cost-effective way of getting round London by train, underground, bus, DLR and Tramlink.

If you're travelling to London for the day, you can add a Travelcard to your rail ticket (on many journeys you'll get the option of buying a combined rail ticket and Travelcard which is even better value).

Visit our Travelcard page to find out more about Travelcard coverage, pricing and discounts for children.

Add a Plusbus ticket to your rail ticket to get unlimited bus and tram travel

Plusbus is one of the hidden gems of the National Rail network.

Over 260 towns and cities in Britain are covered by Plusbus - enabling you to buy a train ticket to that town then add on a Plusbus ticket, allowing unlimited bus travel on almost every bus service (and tram services in Sheffield, Nottingham and the West Midlands).

It's a great way to get to your final destination and save on taxi fares, as well as reducing pollution.

Plusbus fares start from just £1.50 for unlimited travel all day - find out more about Plusbus on our Plusbus page.

Use MyTrainTicket to see the cheapest combinations of tickets at a glance

MyTrainTicket displays the cheapest combinations of fares at a glance - no more searching around for the cheapest singles in each direction.

It also shows which operator each fare is with, so you can choose who to travel with where there's a choice of operator, as there often is with longer-distance journeys.

Buy "Groupsave" tickets if three or more of you are travelling together

Groupsave is available on many routes and provides great savings for three or four people travelling together.

Groupsave will be available through MyTrainTicket from the start of 2010.

Take advantage of special offers

There are plenty of special offers available throughout the National Rail network, including:

• Kids Go Free on many routes in Scotland through Scotrail, as well as many other operators throughout the UK

• Family Travelcards from many stations in East Anglia to London - where children pay a flat fare of typically just £2 for travel from the station to London, and all day around London (so long as they are accompanied by an adult). Absolutely great value for family days out in London!

• Weekender tickets on National Express East Coast - offering discounted travel for journeys that start on either a Friday or Saturday and return within four days.

Be flexible in the times of day you want to travel

Being flexible about when you can travel can often result in really great savings - and often for travelling just a short time later.

You'll find that Off-Peak tickets are much cheaper than fully flexible Anytime tickets, and they're usually valid on trains after around 09.00 (though this will vary significantly by route - fortunately MyTrainTicket does all the hard work for you, finding out which tickets are valid at which times).

Super Off-Peak tickets offer even better value, though they're not usually available till a little later in the day.

The rules and restrictions for Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak tickets are complex, but we'll be adding much more here to help you find the right tickets for your journey very soon.