Written August 2026
Freshers' week, with the kettle and the three bin bags, is a drive-all-the-way job. Fair enough. But the other eight trips a year are one person and a rucksack, and they do not need a whole car crossing the country twice.
The pattern that works: a parent drives the first stretch, the student catches a train the rest of the way, and everyone is home before the radio gets annoying. The whole question is which station makes the swap, and that is what Partway, our free iPhone app, works out in about ten seconds.
Student fares are genuinely decent once a railcard is involved, and a 16-25 Railcard takes about a third off most tickets. The trick is that the fare depends heavily on where the train journey starts. The same trip can be far cheaper from a station a little further along, and a lift is exactly how you reach that station without any faff.
Meeting halfway also means nobody does the grim city-centre leg. The driver turns back before the traffic starts, the student gets a fast train instead of two hours of small talk in the slow lane, and the app shows the driver a plain map link with the detour counted, so the plan takes one text to agree.
Before the next trip home, put the drive into Partway and see what the right drop-off saves. Free on the App Store, no sign-up, UK trains.