The trip from Sheffield to Essex that’s cheaper going via Germany

Long cross-country train journeys can be boring, and many of us have been tempted to find ways to liven them up.

You can get a good book for the journey, or load up the full series of Making a Murderer, or stop over in Berlin for a few hours because it's cheaper that way. Wait, what? MoneySavingExpert writer Jordon Cox found that a seven-hour layover in the German capital would save him £7.72 on his journey from Sheffield to Hutton in Essex, and even did the maths to prove it. Flights costing about a tenner each way meant he could enjoy a trip to the Brandenburg Gate, and currywurst instead of a train station panino. 'Even by my usual standards, I’ll admit this is a rather extreme way of saving money,' Cox wrote. Which just makes us concerned about his usual standards.