Pre-pandemic and in summer 2020 I regularly purchased through GWR APs from stations such as Penarth and Cogan to Paddington, however since starting to go back to the office in the past few weeks I haven't been able to find any availability of such tickets and instead have had to resort to buying flexible tickets to Swindon and APs onwards in order to keep the costs reasonable. Does anybody know why these tickets are not being sold anymore? Is it linked to TfW's policy on APs/reservations?
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GWR advances to/from TfW local stations
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It seems to be a case of the relevant quotas not being available on the TfW trains. TfW have made all of their trains reservable, including local trains on the Valley Lines. If there is no quota for advance fares, through advance fares can't be booked. The fares continue to exist in the database.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Whats the price difference between advances from Cardiff to/from Paddington with a standard ticket from Cogan/Penarth to Cardiff?
Cogan to Cardiff is £3.30 single. £4,30 day return. The advance fares routed AP Slough are the same from Cardiff to London as they are from Cogan to London. There are slightly cheaper GWR only fares. However, the cheapest advance fares from Cardiff to London are about £27 now (£26.80 GWR only), and there isn't one available at that price until the middle of August.
What seems a bit weird is that GWR might be applying the kind of "7 day / 14 day / 28 day-type" tiering of advance fares that people sometimes advocate on here. Tomorrow and Saturday, the cheapest available fare at any time is £45.80 single, 20 June to 30 June is £42.70, 1 July to 7 July is £39.60, 8 July to 21 July is £36.50, 22 July to 4 August is £33.40, 5 August to 18 August is £30.20, 19 August to 15 September is £26.80, almost as if they are planned price changes. Higher prices apply for some of the journeys.
I assume that the OP was used to seeing cheaper prices.
Wallsendmag
Established Member
Complain to GWR and ask them to give TfW a nudge
TfW aren't under any obligation to allow quotas for GWR advance fares on their service. Indeed it seems the railway will get more revenue if they don't.
Wallsendmag
Established Member
No , but we've just had the same conversation with a couple of TOCs
Envoy
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Those fares that you quote from Cardiff to London - where you have to book way ahead to get something like £26 are not user friendly and will dissuade many from rail travel. The Welsh Government want people off the roads and onto the trains but most people simply won’t pay these kinds of rail fares.
You say that the cheapest fare for Saturday is £45.80 one way. I have just checked fares for Saturday from Birmingham to London return and get roughly £33 using the slower stopping trains of West Midlands Railway to £47 using the Avanti high speed services - all at convenient times. A third operator - Chiltern has fares roughly in the middle using Marylebone as the London terminus. Now, I know that it is a bit shorter in distance from Birmingham to London than Cardiff to London - but not as much as to make such a price differential. So, First Group run Avanti & GWR but GWR has no competition on the route - thus allowing First to get away with these high fares and all this book way ahead stuff to get the prices down. The East Coast Mainline also has several operators (including First) and I dare say that mile for mile, it will also have more user friendly fares than the GWR.
When I last checked, paying on the day for a day return from a Cardiff suburban station nearly always worked out cheaper to pay for the local leg separately - even when you would do all travel on TfW. On journeys from Cardiff Central, if you call at any of these places, checked out using them as a ‘split point’ - even though you stay on the same train:>
Swindon, Gowerton, Cheltenham, Filton, Taunton, Exeter, Cwmbran, Ludlow, Crewe. If changing at Bristol Parkway - check that out as well.
Always check out these sites for finding lower fares via ‘splits’:> TrainTickets.com and trainsplit.com (where I prefer the classic site v the ‘new’ version - click ‘Proceed’).
You say that the cheapest fare for Saturday is £45.80 one way. I have just checked fares for Saturday from Birmingham to London return and get roughly £33 using the slower stopping trains of West Midlands Railway to £47 using the Avanti high speed services - all at convenient times. A third operator - Chiltern has fares roughly in the middle using Marylebone as the London terminus. Now, I know that it is a bit shorter in distance from Birmingham to London than Cardiff to London - but not as much as to make such a price differential. So, First Group run Avanti & GWR but GWR has no competition on the route - thus allowing First to get away with these high fares and all this book way ahead stuff to get the prices down. The East Coast Mainline also has several operators (including First) and I dare say that mile for mile, it will also have more user friendly fares than the GWR.
When I last checked, paying on the day for a day return from a Cardiff suburban station nearly always worked out cheaper to pay for the local leg separately - even when you would do all travel on TfW. On journeys from Cardiff Central, if you call at any of these places, checked out using them as a ‘split point’ - even though you stay on the same train:>
Swindon, Gowerton, Cheltenham, Filton, Taunton, Exeter, Cwmbran, Ludlow, Crewe. If changing at Bristol Parkway - check that out as well.
Always check out these sites for finding lower fares via ‘splits’:> TrainTickets.com and trainsplit.com (where I prefer the classic site v the ‘new’ version - click ‘Proceed’).
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