London Euston to Fenny Stratford

[Mikey C]

Off to football tomorrow (playing at Mk Dons)

A return from Euston to Bletchley costs £16.60
A return from Euston to Fenny Stratford (which is slightly nearer the ground and would be a new station) is £23.80, i.e. £7.20 more
However the return from Bletchley to Fenny Stratford is only £2.80

The £23.80 fare makes no sense, what is the justification for this?

 

[Hadders]

I believe this is because of competition at Milton Keynes. The introduction of London Midland (now LNR only) fares from Milton Keynes to Euston undercut the Any Permitted fare from Bletchley. LNR are the only operator from Bletchley to Euston so passengers simply purchased the Milton Keynes fare and started/finished short. In response the Bletchley fare was reduced to bring it into line with the LM only fare from Milton Keynes.

This introduced an anomaly at Fenny but where do you draw the line.

 

[island]

It won’t be the first time splitting brought the price down and it won’t be the last.

 

[yorkie]

The £23.80 fare makes no sense

Fares are not designed to be fair, but to be as high as they can be without putting too many people off.

what is the justification for this?

There is no justification but there doesn't need to be. These are not regulated fares so can be anything the train company (West Midlands Trains) wants them to be.

It is very common for train companies to charge more money to someone asking for a longer distance journey, than the sum of two or more shorter journeys.

The company knows many people will pay the higher fare and that's extra money for the company, so they're happy with that.

The company knows some people are price conscious and will either use an accredited "ticket splitting" website (of which there are now very many) or, if they have plenty of time to spare, will calculate their own "splits"; those price conscious people pay a lower fare. Combining multiple fares is absolutely valid for one journey and is becoming increasingly popular.

This occurs all over the country, and often with far greater saving than you identified in this thread. Recent examples are shown on the front page of the Trainsplit website, for example

Leeds to
London Kings Cross
return, going on 07 Mar, 21:21
£39.00 (saving £104.00)

 

[Hadders]

Come to think of it a railcard discounted London Thameslink-Bedford Super Off Peak Day Return at £10.10 is valid from Euston via Bletchley and the Marston Vale Line. Start/finish short at Fenny Stratford.

 

[yorkie]

Indeed; if you put EUS to BSJ into most booking engines you will be offered an itinerary via Fenny Stratford with this fare. (No need to specify a via point, but you could specify via BLY if you want to exclude journeys via St Pancras)

Break of journey, or finishing short, is permitted.

 

[Mikey C]

I believe this is because of competition at Milton Keynes. The introduction of London Midland (now LNR only) fares from Milton Keynes to Euston undercut the Any Permitted fare from Bletchley. LNR are the only operator from Bletchley to Euston so passengers simply purchased the Milton Keynes fare and started/finished short. In response the Bletchley fare was reduced to bring it into line with the LM only fare from Milton Keynes.

This introduced an anomaly at Fenny but where do you draw the line.

Thanks, that makes sense.

I understand that sometimes splitting journeys can often save money, but wasn't expecting it on so short a leg!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Come to think of it a railcard discounted London Thameslink-Bedford Super Off Peak Day Return at £10.10 is valid from Euston via Bletchley and the Marston Vale Line. Start/finish short at Fenny Stratford.

That's a curious one - why is it valid? Euston is not by any stretch of the imagination "London Thameslink". Or are you effectively starting short a journey that could have started from say Farringdon with a walk as a connection?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Thanks, that makes sense.

I understand that sometimes splitting journeys can often save money, but wasn't expecting it on so short a leg!

It makes more sense than the entire Silverlink tenure where Bletchley to Euston was effectively (unless you wanted to do something odd like use the Southern and change to Overground at Harrow) more expensive than MKC to Euston, as posted above (but those in the know just bought the MKC ticket online and picked it up, I don't know how willing the ticket office were to sell it, and in SS days the TVMs didn't do remote issue). Though they should probably have had the sense to adjust the Marston Vale fares as well.

There have been others in the past. In BR days it was cheaper to split at Ormskirk if you were doing Aughton Park to Burscough Junction, which is about as simple as a connectional journey can get with only one even vaguely reasonable route.

Nowadays if there are two of you it's cheaper (by about 20p, so I doubt this one is in any danger of being "corrected", hence posting it here) to buy a Northern Duo from Aughton Park to Burscough Junction and stop short at Ormskirk!

 

[Hadders]

That's a curious one - why is it valid? Euston is not by any stretch of the imagination "London Thameslink". Or are you effectively starting short a journey that could have started from say Farringdon with a walk as a connection?

Bedford - London has always been valid via Bletchley. Bedford fares being issued to London Thameslink rather than London Terminals does not change this.

 

[kieron]

A return from Euston to Bletchley costs £16.60
A return from Euston to Fenny Stratford (which is slightly nearer the ground and would be a new station) is £23.80, i.e. £7.20 more
However the return from Bletchley to Fenny Stratford is only £2.80

The £23.80 fare makes no sense, what is the justification for this?

The £23.80 is there because your ticket allows you to travel via Bedford, and London-Bedford off peak day returns cost about that much. There are "via Bletchley" tickets defined (which don't let you use the MML), but the off peak day returns for this route are the same price as the "any permitted" ones.

Why they're the same price isn't something I can help you with, though.

That's a curious one - why is it valid? Euston is not by any stretch of the imagination "London Thameslink". Or are you effectively starting short a journey that could have started from say Farringdon with a walk as a connection?

A "London Thameslink-Bedford" ticket costs the same as a "London Terminals-Bedford" one, so there's not that much to gain by quibbling about which ticket someone actually has.

 

[Mikey C]

Bedford - London has always been valid via Bletchley. Bedford fares being issued to London Thameslink rather than London Terminals does not change this.

I must try that route to Bedford this summer, a handy way to experience the Marston Vale line in one direction.

The £23.80 is there because your ticket allows you to travel via Bedford, and London-Bedford off peak day returns cost about that much. There are "via Bletchley" tickets defined (which don't let you use the MML), but the off peak day returns for this route are the same price as the "any permitted" ones.

Why they're the same price isn't something I can help you with, though.

Thanks, it does seem a bit of a pricing quirk! The prices for Watford to Fenny make more sense (£16.60 vs £16.10 for going to Bletchley only) as clearly there's no option of going via Bedford here

 

[45107]

Off to football tomorrow (playing at Mk Dons)

A return from Euston to Bletchley costs £16.60
A return from Euston to Fenny Stratford (which is slightly nearer the ground and would be a new station) is £23.80, i.e. £7.20 more
However the return from Bletchley to Fenny Stratford is only £2.80

The £23.80 fare makes no sense, what is the justification for this?

It makes no sense to go to MK Dons.
Good win for Charlton and it keeps the franchise in the relegation zone, 6 points adrift of safety & 7 adrift of the real Dons.

 

[yorkie]

That's a curious one - why is it valid? Euston is not by any stretch of the imagination "London Thameslink". Or are you effectively starting short a journey that could have started from say Farringdon with a walk as a connection?

Why wouldn't it be valid? It was questioned before and answered: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...super-off-peak-day-return.93921/#post-1650665

The Manual explicitly states that travelling via Bletchley is allowed.

Fares to and from central London stations on First Capital Connect’s Thameslink route via St Pancras International, Farringdon, City Thameslink and Blackfriars
From all stations between Bedford and Kentish Town (inclusive) fares are available to ‘LONDON THAMESLINK’ (NLC 4452). These may be used via the Thameslink route to travel to St Pancras International, Farringdon, City Thameslink, London Blackfriars, London Bridge or Elephant & Castle.

In addition, tickets from Bedford Stations to London Thameslink are also valid to London Euston via Bletchley (and vice versa).

And see:-

Bedford - London has always been valid via Bletchley. Bedford fares being issued to London Thameslink rather than London Terminals does not change this.

The intention of "London Thameslink" was to give additional validity, not remove it.

Most booking engines will correctly offer these fares. Those that don't are in error (though it is an understandable error to make).