Alternative website for looking up train fares?

[tornado]

I am aware of a number of websites that offer a striped-back approach to providing train times using publically available data as an alternative to the TOC websites and nationalrail.co.uk. Is there a similar one showing train fares?

I am fed up of the slowness of TOC websites, and the nationalrail website is an eyesore. I just need a very minimal interface to check current ticket prices.

 

[MikeWh]

brfares.com

 

[tornado]

That website doesn't show the currently available fares, only a list of possible ones including some strange promotional ones which are rarely used.

Alternatively, is there a TOC with a fast search engine. GWR's certainly isn't.

 

[Haywain]

That website doesn't show the currently available fares, only a list of possible ones including some strange promotional ones which are rarely used.

Alternatively, is there a TOC with a fast search engine. GWR's certainly isn't.

A website can only be as fast as the time taken to go to the external sources it needs to access to match fares with quota availability.

 

[tornado]

A website can only be as fast as the time taken to go to the external sources it needs to access to match fares with quota availability.

Sure, but the extra time taken on top depends very much on the user interface. The national rail website is clunky but noticeably faster than the TOC sites I've tried. In fact some mobile apps e.g. LNER are faster to display a fare search than their websites.

I would have thought that fares would be publically accessible in the same way that train times are, therefore anyone could build a website to access them.

 

[py_megapixel]

Sure, but the extra time taken on top depends very much on the user interface. The national rail website is clunky but noticeably faster than the TOC sites I've tried. In fact some mobile apps e.g. LNER are faster to display a fare search than their websites.

Avanti's website is fast - took about 3 seconds to retrieve the list of fares on a search from Cheltenham to Basingstoke (first two stations to pop into my head). https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/where-we-go/plan-a-journey

Beware though that their website seems to be very easily broken by adblockers, so if you have one installed you will probably need to disable it.

 

[tornado]

Avanti's website is fast - took about 3 seconds to retrieve the list of fares on a search from Cheltenham to Basingstoke (first two stations to pop into my head). https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/where-we-go/plan-a-journey

Beware though that their website seems to be very easily broken by adblockers, so if you have one installed you will probably need to disable it.

Wow, not bad! It has a nice clean design and entering a railcard is so much easier than nationalrail.co.uk. Also much faster than GWR which proves my point that quality of website coding makes a big difference.

Avanti also seem to have laid things out in a very logical manner. LNER's website is also quite modern but such a mess to navigate.

Now, if only nationalrail would get their act together and update the early 2000s design on their site.

 

[Wallsendmag]

On Wednesday I had to purchase return tickets from one of those terrible LNER journey planner ticket machines. It demanded that I reserve seats for every leg with LNER, despite the fact that I intended to travel with Northern in both directions. Apologies to anybody who subsequently couldn't get a seat...

Sure, but the extra time taken on top depends very much on the user interface. The national rail website is clunky but noticeably faster than the TOC sites I've tried. In fact some mobile apps e.g. LNER are faster to display a fare search than their websites.

I would have thought that fares would be publically accessible in the same way that train times are, therefore anyone could build a website to access them.

Thats strange as it's driven by the same engine.

 

[Haywain]

I would have thought that fares would be publically accessible in the same way that train times are, therefore anyone could build a website to access them.

They are available to anyone who wants to go to the expense of building a website but why would you do that without selling the tickets? And to do that you need an accredited solution in accordance with the requirements of RDG which means a complex and fully functional website. It has been done - Trainsplit is an example, albeit rather specialised. Perhaps @SickyNicky or @alistairlees might fill you in on how complex it is, unless you are actually planning on doing this and going into competition with them!

 

[tornado]

They are available to anyone who wants to go to the expense of building a website but why would you do that without selling the tickets? And to do that you need an accredited solution in accordance with the requirements of RDG which means a complex and fully functional website. It has been done - Trainsplit is an example, albeit rather specialised. Perhaps @SickyNicky or @alistairlees might fill you in on how complex it is, unless you are actually planning on doing this and going into competition with them!

I take your point. I just find it frustrating that the TOC websites are in general so messy, and it takes longer than necessary to buy an e-ticket. Not found one yet that 1) remembers previous/favourite journeys 2) remembers railcard 3) autofills sensible times of departure/return 4) remembers payment method in a smooth way (and yes I have created accounts with several). It always seem to be clicking about 15 buttons to make a purchase when it could probably be done in 7.

Not to mention the variety of different delivery methods. .pkpass (Passbook) is the widely used standard for ticketing which works across iPhone and Android. Very few TOcs offer this, and the ones that do will just email you the files to be added manually to your Wallet, rather than auto-adding them.

 

[Haywain]

I can understand elements of your frustration, although as rail staff I don't get the joys of buying tickets through a website other than our own (when buying for others). It does a good job of remembering my payment details, for what it's worth, but I don't know about the rest. I think point 3 is tricky as that's really a personal preference depending on where you're going.

 

[mugam4]

I find GTR's websites are quite slick. You have a ticket very fast, especially on mobile. Link

.pkpass (Passbook) is the widely used standard for ticketing which works across iPhone and Android.

pkpass is only officially supported by iOS. I have not encountered any TOCs that support Google Pay. (Yes, I know you can get third party apps that add pkpass support to Android, but this is sub-par.)

 

[Haywain]

I have not encountered any TOCs that support Google Pay.

LNER allows you to download tickets straight to Google Wallet.

 

[Kilopylae]

Now, if only nationalrail would get their act together and update the early 2000s design on their site.

I've just used Avanti's and it has a very similar visual layout and design to GWR's. Both are inferior to National Rail Enquiries, in my view; I rather hope NRE doesn't change to a GWR or Avanti style layout. It's not as clear-cut as you're making it out to be.

 

[tornado]

I'm running a 3rd party pkpass app on Android and it works smoothly. Only 2 clicks to show a pass.

LNER (and I think now Avanti) support Google Wallet for storing tickets but not Google Pay for purchasing them.

If a search engine doesn't autofill then everybody has to fill in month/day/time. If it does autofill to today then users travelling today only have to change the time (faster), and other users have to change day/time (faster) or month/day/time (same). So logically, autofilling does make sense.

I've just used Avanti's and it has a very similar visual layout and design to GWR's. Both are inferior to National Rail Enquiries, in my view; I rather hope NRE doesn't change to a GWR or Avanti style layout. It's not as clear-cut as you're making it out to be.

Have you tried recently? The booking flow order is quite different. For example

GWR: Return field hidden. Need to click a button to display it.
Avanti: Return field always displayed. If left blank it assumes you want a single.

Small differences like this add up along the booking process meaning the difference between clicking 15 buttons to purchase, or far fewer.

 

[Llanigraham]

I take your point. I just find it frustrating that the TOC websites are in general so messy, and it takes longer than necessary to buy an e-ticket. Not found one yet that 1) remembers previous/favourite journeys 2) remembers railcard 3) autofills sensible times of departure/return 4) remembers payment method in a smooth way (and yes I have created accounts with several). It always seem to be clicking about 15 buttons to make a purchase when it could probably be done in 7.

I use the TfW site and that has a facility to remember "favourite" journeys, my credit card and the fact that I have a Railcard.

 

[Wallsendmag]

I use the TfW site and that has a facility to remember "favourite" journeys, my credit card and the fact that I have a Railcard.

Thats quite a low threshold to set