You shouldn't be paying that. The highest price flexible tickets in standard class (£169 each way) are only needed if you're traveling in the peak, which in the

You shouldn't be paying that. The highest price flexible tickets in standard class (£169 each way) are only needed if you're traveling in the peak, which in the morning leaving London stops at 9:06am. So you should be paying the super offpeak fare for that journey (£76.20 each way). There are also sometimes fixed-time Advance single tickets from £20 or so upwards, though nothing on Monday. That having been said, the British railway ticketing system is crazily complicated, and getting a ticket at a sane price is not at all straightforward. Fares can be restricted by route, by operating company, by class, by flexibility, by validity length, and by departure or arrival time. There are 113 different fares listed from London to Newcastle, most of which will not be available for any given departure[0]. You can also do fun(?) things by using a combination of tickets to and from intermediate stations[1], which on some journeys can save guineas. [0]: https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=KGX&dest=NCL https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=KGX&dest=NCL [1]: https://split.traintimes.org.uk https://split.traintimes.org.uk