W/S ups fares

[merlodlliw]

received today by e mail from a colleague

Not so far promulgated by email from WSMR, I noticed tonight that the on the day return fare from Wrexham to Marylebone had gone up from £53 to £60. A 13.2% increase.

The WSMR poster in Wrexham General had been amended manually, effective from Monday, 6 September.

No doubt there are still bargains available on the internet for those who book in advance.

more travellers from Wrexham are needed to support this direct service.

 

[142094]

Was looking last night, advances are around £6.90 from Wrexham - London with a railcard, which is still good value. Will have to try it one day (1st class of course) to see what it is like.

 

[barrykas]

The revised fares have been on the Wrexham and Shropshire website since last Friday, and came into effect with NFM07 on Sunday.

Ticket types are (First) Off-Peak (FSS, FSR, SVS and SVR, all with restriction code WM) and Super Off-Peak (OPS and OPR, with restriction code PW), allegedly with break of journey restrictions in BOTH directions.

One thing that does strike me as odd is the creation of W&S specific fares to/from Tame Bridge Parkway, when route High Wycombe tickets are perfectly valid on W&S services.

Cheers,

Barry

 

[tony_mac]

Was looking last night, advances are around £6.90 from Wrexham - London with a railcard, which is still good value. Will have to try it one day (1st class of course) to see what it is like.

Don't book a 1st class advance fare with a 16-25 railcard on their website.
They don't give the railcard discount, even though they are supposed to.

They agreed it was wrong months ago, but haven't changed it or given me any update.

Also, on the date I checked, the £55 (before discount) 1st advance fares were not showing on eastcoast, but were showing on trainline-powered TOC sites.

 

[142094]

Thanks for that, didn't actully look at the 1st advance prices at the time.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Don't book a 1st class advance fare with a 16-25 railcard on their website.
They don't give the railcard discount, even though they are supposed to.

They agreed it was wrong months ago, but haven't changed it or given me any update.

Also, on the date I checked, the £55 (before discount) 1st advance fares were not showing on eastcoast, but were showing on trainline-powered TOC sites.

It's funny you should say that, as I've been onto WSMR about this very issue for several weeks myself, with no quick response. They've only recently responded, in response to my follow up letter, which stated that the person originally dealing with my complaint (who hadn't until then told me they were looking into it) was on leave.

Lucky that I knew the back up option of using Cross Country for those fares, and also to ignore East Coast's search engine for the more expensive advance first fares..

I'm just very annoyed, as the service provided by WSMR is fantastic! Literally one of the best, if not the best i've ever experienced. Definately better than all the 'usual' franchised TOCs i've used.

 

[Paul Kelly]

Maybe they don't know how to manipulate the fares data they submit to the ATOC fares database in order to achieve the desired effect? If they want to over-ride the normal railcard discounts that are available for first-class advance fares, then as far as I can see what they need to do is add specific non-derivable fares records for the relevant ticket types (1AE and 1AG) specifying an adult and child fare for every railcard and discount type that *is* valid on those two fares. Then the fact that they have left out the YNG railcard from those extra records means that the ticket issuing systems won't allow that combination to be issued. And they need to do this for every flow they offer those fares on.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Well something's definately wrong with the WSMR Advance First fares with 16-25 discount, particularly if you consider that they're showing up perfectly well on trainline powered search engines...

Sounds to me that they aren't too concerned, judging by the length of time it's been wrong.

 

[Paul Kelly]

Oh looks like I misunderstood. I thought that they weren't accepting on board 1st class advance tickets discounted with a 16-25 railcard even though they could be bought at the discounted price from their website. I think I got the wrong end of the stick...

 

[tony_mac]

Sounds to me that they aren't too concerned,

I got this reply in June.

our web site will be changed to reflect this.

 

[voyagerdude220]

I've today strangely received another email from WSMR about this ticketing issue. The reason i find it strange, is because it's exactly the same as the one they sent me a week or so ago, stating that they'll email me 'once the person dealing with my query comes back to me'.

Perhaps someone has seen my messages on here? I'm aware the Managing Director of WSMR, Andy Hamilton, is a member on here, although it doesn't look like he's logged onto the forum for a couple of weeks.

As i've said before on here, I'm a big fan of Wrexham & Shropshire, I've always had a very enjoyable journey when i've used them. It's just annoying that the ticketing issue has taken a long time to be dealt with.

 

[paul@skegby.org.]

When buying tickets for Wrexham & Shropshire is it best to use their web site or any other,say East Coast, is there any difference.

Are there any problems when using 'Print at home tickets', never yet used one.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Just a quick update on the issue regarding WSMR not correctly reducing the price of Advance First tickets with the 16-25 railcard discount:

I've been informed today by WSMR, that they are planning on introducing a new ticketing system on their website next week, which should hopefully rectify the issue.

Whether it does or not, time will tell...

 

[tony_mac]

They have now made the change in fares!

They have also changed the text to imply that you get a YP discount on Flexible First class fares, but you don't. (they used to allow this)

The fares page says

All national railcards are valid with all of our tickets – save 1/3 or more!

and the railcard page says

Senior, Young Persons and Disabled Railcards are available for both Standard Class and First Class fares.

 

[wibble]

Maybe they don't know how to manipulate the fares data they submit to the ATOC fares database in order to achieve the desired effect? If they want to over-ride the normal railcard discounts that are available for first-class advance fares, then as far as I can see what they need to do is add specific non-derivable fares records for the relevant ticket types (1AE and 1AG) specifying an adult and child fare for every railcard and discount type that *is* valid on those two fares. Then the fact that they have left out the YNG railcard from those extra records means that the ticket issuing systems won't allow that combination to be issued. And they need to do this for every flow they offer those fares on.

They don't need to submit an NDS if they're offering standard Railcard discounts. The ticket data needs amending by ATOS to show that it's eligible for the 16-25 Railcard discount. This can be done fairly quickly.