UK trains - will ticket cover collage of different providers?

radia

This is a ridiculously basic question but I've never taken a long enough train journey in the UK to have changes within it.
If I buy a ticket between two cities that aren't conveniently connected directly but I can get from one to the other with a couple of changes, and I buy an end to end ticket ('return to XXX') at the starting point, do I have to stick to a single operator or can I mix and match - Virgin, Arriva, CrossCountry etc. in whatever way I please to get to my destination?
Thanks!

spurious

I know in Birmingham you can by tickets that are for all providers, or a specified one. It's probably the same elsewhere.

radia

Ah right - makes sense. Thanks.
I presume the more flexible ones are also more expensive?

spurious

Yes. The further in advance you buy the cheaper it usually is too - travelling outside peak hours also helps.

highlydebased

What journey is it?

The two obvious operator specific restrictions I can think of are London Midland only tickets for Euston -Birmingham as their services are slower than Virgins', and Southern/Thameslink/Gatwick Express only from Gatwick

whomitconcerns

It usually say on the ticket if any available service or if it's a certain company only

LXFlyer

If you're touring around a BritRail pass may offer better value and is flexible.

http://www.britrail.net

Advance tickets tend to be specifically restricted to one operator and a particular departure.

Open tickets are by their very nature unrestricted but far far more expensive.

radia

That's great. Thanks everyone for all the info.

coylemj

lxflyer wrote: »

Advance tickets tend to be specifically restricted to one operator and a particular departure.

Open tickets are by their very nature unrestricted but far far more expensive.

But if you buy a ticket for a multileg journey, there is often multiple operators involved (that's usually why there's more than one leg) but that shouldn't bother the passenger, just select the trip with the best combination of price and travel/wait times.

Second point above is valid, it's definitely best to pin down the travel times for the best price, provided you avoid peak travel times i.e. in the south-east don't travel towards London before about 10 a.m. and get out of London before 4 p.m. or so.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

And if you have a smartphone, install the 'National Rail' app

LXFlyer

coylemj wrote: »

But if you buy a ticket for a multileg journey, there is often multiple operators involved (that's usually why there's more than one leg) but that shouldn't bother the passenger, just select the trip with the best combination of price and travel/wait times.

Second point above is valid, it's definitely best to pin down the travel times for the best price, provided you avoid peak travel times i.e. in the south-east don't travel towards London before about 10 a.m. and get out of London before 4 p.m. or so.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

And if you have a smartphone, install the 'National Rail' app

Sorry - of course if it's a multi-leg trip it will cover whatever operators are providing it - but an advance ticket will be restricted to specific trains, unless a connection is missed of course due to late running.