Great Western Railway (GWR) has launched a Black Friday sale offering up to 50% off selected train tickets, but you’ll need to book by 11.59pm on Monday 2 November 2026.
The four-day sale started on Friday 30 October, with 60,000 discounted tickets available for selected journeys between 6 November and 17 December.
We’ve checked the advertised fares ourselves and found that booking directly with GWR can work out cheaper than using another ticket website.
How much are the GWR Black Friday tickets?
GWR allocated 50,000 Standard Class and 10,000 First Class tickets to the sale when it launched.
Advertised single fares include:
- Cheltenham Spa to London Paddington – from £20
- London Paddington to Bath Spa – from £21
- Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington – from £22
- London Paddington to Cardiff Central – from £29
- Exeter St Davids to London Paddington – from £32
- Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington, First Class – from £44
These are starting prices for selected trains, not return fares. The cheapest tickets may sell out before the sale closes.
We checked the £22 tickets and found an extra fee
When Skint Dad checked prices on Saturday 31 October, GWR was offering a £22 ticket for the 11am train from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington on Tuesday 17 November.
The direct journey takes 1 hour and 36 minutes.
We followed the booking through to the payment stage, where the total remained £22 with no additional fees.
We then checked the same train and ticket on Trainline.
Although Trainline also advertised the £22 sale fare, it added an 89p booking fee at checkout, bringing the total to £22.89.
For this particular journey, booking directly with GWR would have saved 89p.
We also checked the fare with a 26–30 Railcard selected, but the £22 promotional price stayed the same.
These were the prices showing when we checked. Fares and booking fees can change, so it’s worth comparing the final total before paying.
Does the sale really save you 50%?
Not every ticket is half price.
GWR says its advertised saving is based on the average discount across routes included in the sale, compared with the Advance Single fares most commonly bought on those routes.
That doesn’t mean every ticket is 50% cheaper than it was before the sale.
Our check confirmed that the advertised £22 ticket was available at the payment stage, but we couldn’t establish what that particular ticket cost before Black Friday.
If you have a Railcard, compare the sale price with a normal ticket using your Railcard. You could also try another departure time or see whether splitting your journey into separate tickets works out cheaper.
Our rail fares explainer covers other ways to cut train costs, including Advance tickets and split ticketing.
Which dates are excluded?
The offer only applies to selected Advance Single tickets, meaning you’ll normally need to travel on the train you’ve booked.
There are also some restrictions:
- 28 and 29 November: No promotional fares are available for any journey.
- 7, 14 and 21 November, plus 11 and 12 December: Selected journeys between London Paddington and South Wales are excluded.
- 5, 6, 12 and 13 December: Certain South West journeys via Swindon are excluded.
Some busy morning and evening trains aren’t included either.
Railcard discounts and other offers can’t be added to the sale fares, although children aged 5 to 15 can receive a 50% child discount.
Advance tickets are normally non-refundable if you change your mind, although your passenger rights still apply if services are cancelled or disrupted.
You can read the full promotional terms on Trainline.
How to book before the sale ends
You can search for discounted tickets through GWR’s Black Friday sale page or its app.
Choose your route and travel date, then check the available trains for sale fares.
If you’re flexible, try another departure time or day to see whether you can find a cheaper ticket.
Before booking, compare the final price, journey time and any extra fees. In our checks, a cheaper alternative involved two changes and took nearly two hours longer than the direct train.
The sale ends at 11.59pm on Monday 2 November 2026, although individual discounted tickets could sell out sooner.
