I bought the cheapest train ticket in the UK for just 10p - it's rail companies' best-kept secret but there's a VERY bizarre catch

Daily Mail​

24-04-2025

A train enthusiast has revealed how he managed to get his hands on the UK's cheapest train ticket - but there's a very bizarre catch.
Known as The Right Track on social media, the 16-year-old spent just 10p on a ticket bought at Cambridge railway station.
'I bought the cheapest train ticket in all of the UK,' he explained. 'You can't buy it from a ticket machine, or online. And it costs 10 pence.'
The ticket can only be purchased at certain staffed ticket offices in the UK - and the price hasn't been changed since 1988.
But in recent years, people have stopped buying them and the cheap tickets have gone under the radar as one of National Rail's best kept secrets.
It's not advertised anywhere but is carried by most ticket companies in the UK, including Avanti West Coast, CrossCounty, London Northwestern Railway - plus many more.
The 10p tickets come with an extraordinary catch - as you in fact can't use them to travel anywhere.
Instead, they're called a 'platform ticket' and permit the holder to stand on the platform for 60 minutes - perhaps to bid goodbye to a loved one, or merely to admire the trains going by.
The TikToker filmed himself going up to the ticket office and asking for a 'platform ticket'.
'I don't even know if they're going to have it in stock, because it's basically a secret,' he admitted.
The young adventurer was initially told 'no', but the officer turned to the computer and started doing 'some train station magic' - eventually presenting him with the 10p ticket in the flesh.
But when he tried to use it, the ticket wouldn't work on the barriers, meaning he had to buy a ticket from Cambridge to Ely to actually let him through.
'This is a platform ticket,' he explained. 'And it is exactly what it sounds like. It lets you stand on the platform of a railway station for 10p for 60 minutes.'
He explained that it was introduced in the 19th century to allow non-travellers onto platforms to see off or greet passengers.
'These tickets are even more quirky because they've managed to beat inflation. The last time the price was updated was in 1988,' he added.
Taking to the comments, people were fascinated that such a bargain still exists amid soaring train ticket prices - but others merely speculated that it was 'useless'.
People wrote: 'So the platform ticket doesn't give you the access to platform? What the hell';
'Brilliant video. I had no idea these were even a thing. I've learned something new today. Thanks';
'We were doing this in the 70s';
'So you're saying i can buy a ticket just to go onto a plataform and just watch the trains go by? This sounds like a dream';
'Is it a train ticket if the ticket doesn't give you access to a train?';
'I never knew you needed a ticket to actually enter a platform in the UK. It's not the case in my country (Poland), where you could just sit on the platform for free for hours if you wanted lol';
'Yet it's still over £100 to go from the north to the south by train...'
In its terms and conditions, the National Rail website states that the tickets are 'not valid on trains' and are valid only at the station where issued.
The website further reads: 'If customers are not travelling by train but wish to access the station platform - for example where there are ticket barriers in operation and they wish to assist someone onto the train or if they are a railway enthusiast - they may need to buy a Platform Ticket, depending on the discretion of staff.
'Not all train companies still issue Platform Tickets but where they are still sold they cost ten pence (10p) and can only be purchased from the station ticket office. There is no charge to assist a disabled passenger to a train.'
In March, rail passengers were hit by a 4.6 per cent hike in prices - with some going up by almost 17 per cent from £30 to £35.
This comes as figures show that 554 trains have been cancelled every Sunday since August last year.