Train booking platform Loco2 has launched a money-saving feature that it says could reduce the costs of one-way tickets by up to 50%.

Pricehack works by splitting journeys into smaller legs and working out the cheapest price for each leg. Split-ticketing, as the process is called, is already available on small, niche sites such as trainsplit.com, splitticketing.com, and ticketysplit.com, but Loco2 says it is the first to make it more accessible to passengers by making the feature an integrated part of its booking process. The company says it will apply to around 200 million UK train journeys, or a third of all journeys (excluding short journeys where it doesn’t apply). It currently applies to one-way routes only, including first class fares, but it will launch on return journeys over the summer. A £1.50 fee is charged on journeys that cost less than £100 and £6 on journeys over £100. The website covers continental Europe, too, but split-ticketing does not apply to those journeys.

Rail travel expert Mark Smith, who runs The Man in Seat 61 website, says “Pricehack has several advantages over other systems, including allowing split-ticketing on advance journeys, and it can ensure one seat reservation across multiple split tickets.”

Loco2 was created in 2012 by a sister and brother hoping to encourage more people to choose rail travel over flying. The company was acquired by French rail network SNCF in 2017.