Beautiful parts of the North can be visited for just £1 thanks to a flash train ticket sale. Until 4pm today (January 5) Northern Rail is offering thousands of tickets for £1 through its 'Low Fare Finder'. The tickets are valid for travel between Wednesday, January 10 and Friday, March 1 and must be booked at least seven days in advance of travel.
Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “The ‘Low Fare Finder’ is a great new tool to help people find the cheapest fares – fast. And the ‘Flash Sale’ is a great opportunity to put it to the test – with five million tickets from just £1 available across the network up for grabs. As always, customers should book early to avoid disappointment. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
Using the 'low fare finder', you can travel to the following destinations for £1:
- Darlington to Middlesbrough
- Darlington to Newcastle
- Middlesbrough to Whitby
- Middlesbrough to Newcastle
- Middlesbrough to Saltburn
- Middlesbrough to Sunderland
- Middlesbrough to Bishop Auckland
- Durham to Newcastle
- Durham to Chester-Le-Street
- Bishop Auckland to Redcar
- Newcastle to Middlesbrough
- Newcastle to Chester-Le-Street
- Newcastle to Hartlepool
- Newcastle to Sunderland
- Newcastle to Durham and Darlington
The cheapest fares are not available every day and between every destination, but the sale means that there are plenty of tickets going for cheaper than they're usually available.
For example, it is possible to get from Hull to York on January for just £11, when the fare typically costs £35. Manchester to Leeds on January 25 is currently on offer for £8.60 even before railcard discounts have been added.
Save £135 on this luxury Hugo Boss robe that's now less than £35!If you do fancy taking advantage of the deal and like the idea of visiting somewhere new, then Darlington is a lovely market town with a lot of intriguing history. It is built around picturesque parks such as South Park and West Park, offering Victorian splendor and Green Flag awards for their natural beauty, while also having good access to the Yorkshire Moors.
Meanwhile Raby Castle is an impressive Medievil fort outside of the town that has been used as a filming location for Emmerdale, Golden Globe winning and Oscar nominated blockbuster 1917, and Sky Atlantic's Britannia. The Head of Steam Darlington Railway Museum is also well worth a visit, located as it is on the 1825 route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which was the world's first steam-powered passenger railway.
The charm of nearby market towns like Hawes and Reeth are apparent when you leave Darlington and enter countryside known for its stark landscape and lead mining heritage. Just down the trainline from Darlington is Middlesbrough. If you're going to do one thing in the town then it should be visiting the magnificent Transporter Bridge over the River Tees, connecting Port Clarence in County Durham and Middlehaven in North Yorkshire.
It is Grade II listed and the longest existing transporter in the world. The bridge carries a travelling 'car', or 'gondola', suspended below the fixed structure, across the river in 90 seconds. The gondola can carry 200 people, nine cars, or six cars and one minibus. Unfortunately the bridge has been closed since 2022 due to safety concerns. It is thought that repairs could cost up to £7 million.