How This Man Travelled For Free On UK Trains For A Year

An astute railway traveller in the UK saved more than Euro 1,000 (approximately Rs 1.06 lakh) by obtaining complete refunds on all of his train tickets for a year, according to a report.

Ed Wise, 29, used a creative strategy to accurately forecast train delays on the Avanti West Coast and get a refund for every ticket he purchased in 2023. Mr Wise discovered the unique method to travel for free by closely examining train timetables and anticipating delays, reported The Express.

Mr Wise, who co-writes the personal financial newsletter Bunce, claimed to have "rode for free" and paid "those parasitic Avanti vampires zero".

Avanti West Coast provides passengers with a full refund for delays of an hour or longer, 25 per cent off for delays of 15 minutes, and 50 per cent off for delays of 30 minutes.

It was a vacation to Italy, where train travel was far less expensive, that changed everything for Mr Wise. His frustration over "how woefully inefficient and expensive UK trains were" led him to use this unique strategy of extracting money from the authorities.

He dealt with inefficiencies even after cost-cutting strategies such as ticket-splitting, railcards, and switching to different stations.

He then used three primary factors in his so-called "Train Delay Prediction Paradigm"-planned engineering work, strike action, and severe weather-to forecast when trains would be delayed.

Mr Wise exploited the requirement that trade unions provide two weeks' notice before a scheduled industrial action as a pre-emptive warning of delays.

Strike action results in a staffing shortage for operators, and Mr Wise observed that there was usually a ripple effect for a few days prior to and following the scheduled action.

Sometimes, trains are intentionally delayed to give engineers time to repair the railway or do other maintenance. National Rail posts information about these delays on their website.

The third component was extreme weather, which identifies circumstances that are likely to cause train delays. He also found official data that indicated which stations were more likely to see delayed arrival of trains.

"Combine planned engineering works and strike action with winter weather - your train will be delayed, no question about it," Mr Wise said.

His regular trip from London to Carlisle took five hours, with an average delay of just over an hour. "One hour is the golden median, all your money back for minimal hassle," Mr Wise noted.

To people thinking about utilising the system, Mr Wise suggested using the time to do important tasks and trying the strategy only for trips longer than three hours.