Travel management company TravelPerk has introduced split ticketing for UK rail travel, enabling travellers to take advantage of a peculiarity in the way fares are priced to purchase cheaper fares.
The feature is available on selected routes and enables travellers to book two single tickets to and from an intermediate station between their departure and arrival point which can often be cheaper than buying one ticket for the whole journey.
In an example cited by the company, an anytime fare between London and Manchester costs £184.70, but by booking two anytime singles to and from Nuneaton, the journey cost can be reduced to £125.70, saving £59.
TravelPerk says the capability, developed inhouse, was prompted by the rising popularity of rail travel as a more sustainable mode of transport. The share of train bookings versus flights on its platform has increased from 17 per cent in 2019 to 33 per cent in 2023.
The company was recently ranked the eighth largest TMC in Europe in BTN Europe's annual Leading TMCs report published in June.
Split ticketing functionality is also understood to have been introduced by Evolvi earlier this year. The booking platform for UK rail travel is used by many UK-based travel management companies to serve their clients' domestic rail travel needs.