Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder.

It's Thursday the 18th of January and I'm talking to you about Britain's cheapest rail ticket.

Yes, that's what I believe I have found.

It is on trains between Manchester Piccadilly and Stockport Station, which is six

miles south and also in Greater Manchester. The fare is just 70 pence one way for a comfortable

nine-minute journey. The crucial thing is this only works on the hourly trains

with Transport for Wales. It doesn't work on every single departure. It's an advance fare

and therefore when they've run out, they've run out. But it definitely does work.

There's even better news if you're, say, under 31, or indeed over 59, and you

get a rail card because then it's only going to be 45 pence. So why does this exist? And are we

going to see anything like it elsewhere? So it is said, and I haven't been able absolutely

to verify this, that the line between Stockport and Manchester is unusual in that every single

train that goes over the Stockport viaduct, this amazing piece of Victorian engineering which connects Stockport with

Manchester, has to stop at Stockport, as opposed to expresses that might think, okay, well,

we don't want to lose three minutes or so by stopping there, so we'll whizz straight through

and get to London quicker. Anyway, everything stops there.

There are no fewer than five train operators there. You've got cross-country, you've got

Trans-Pennine Express, you've got Northern, you've got Avanti West Coast, and you have got

transport for Wales. Now, the Anytime Fair is a quite challenging £4.90. You shouldn't ever have to pay that,

mostly on Northern trains when I've made the journey before. I found a fare of two pounds.

It seems a fairly popular fare on Northern, which does lots of really good advance tickets.

I also use their app in preference to other apps. It's really straightforward,

...