Buying tickets on Trainline vs TOC

[urbophile]

I've always avoided Trainline because they charge a booking fee. As far as I understood, all booking sites are linked to the same database and hence the same fares should be available on every one.

However, my daughter is planning a trip from Liverpool to London in a couple of weeks, and the cheapest fare she could find on the Avanti site (outward journey a Friday evening) was the off-peak return at £94.60. When she looked on Trainline there were some advance fares (two singles) which added up to around £70.

The only explanation I can think of is that sites like Trainline are offered an allocation of advance tickets which are not available for anyone else to sell. Is this the case or is there another reason for the discrepancy?

 

[miklcct]

This is probably due to split ticketing which train company apps don't do. You can ask her to check on Trainsplit to see if the fare is similar.

 

[Starmill]

It isn't supposed to be the case.

Are you about to advise the dates and times of travel?

 

[skyhigh]

The only explanation I can think of is that sites like Trainline are offered an allocation of advance tickets which are not available for anyone else to sell.

There might be a couple of things going on, but that's definitely not the case.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There might be a couple of things going on, but that's definitely not the case.

It is indeed not. Only TOC sites can be in that position (with "temporary promotions"), not "generic" ones like Trainline.

It'll be because she is being offered a split.

 

[ainsworth74]

If you look closely on the Trainline booking it will most likely somewhere say "Splitsave" (more info on their website here) which means what they're actually doing is splitting tickets (buying more than one ticket for a journey) which is something that no TOC site will do. Personally I think Trainline are operating somewhat dodgily as, unlike someone like Trainsplit, they do not make it clear always that you are getting a split ticket and, more worryingly, don't make it clear what restrictions this might impose on you meaning that customers could come to grief. The other alternative is that the Avanti booking engine is terrible so has simply not spotted that their are two APs available for sale that are cheaper than the Off-Peak Return.

If you'd be willing to say what date and journey your daughter is looking at it would be possible to look into it in more detail. But off the top of my head the above two are the most likely reason for what you're seeing. Trainline don't have access to special tiers of AP tickets (no matter how much they might like people to believe that they do) so that certainly isn't the reason for them being cheaper. As you say the booking fee mostly make them a bad proposition for buying tickets (apart from for journeys on the day where there is no booking fee) but unfortunately some TOCs use very shoddy booking engines whilst Trainline's is very very slick which often means that Trainline looks like a better deal.

 

[Haywain]

The only explanation I can think of is that sites like Trainline are offered an allocation of advance tickets which are not available for anyone else to sell.

That's not going to happen - every train company would prefer to sell tickets to you directly rather than through Trainline.

 

[Hadders]

The only explanation I can think of is that sites like Trainline are offered an allocation of advance tickets which are not available for anyone else to sell. Is this the case or is there another reason for the discrepancy?

This doesn't happen, although Trainline like to pretend it does and many people fall for their misleading advertising claims.

If anything the opposite happens as promotional fares, seat sales etc are normally only available through a TOC's own site.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This doesn't happen, although Trainline like to pretend it does and many people fall for their misleading advertising claims.

If anything the opposite happens as promotional fares, seat sales etc are normally only available through a TOC's own site.

There are odd cases where an incorrectly configured non-Trainline TOC site shows a higher fare for a given journey than a Trainline-based site (there was a thread on it here - all the Trainline based TOC sites plus Trainline itself showed it, but the ones based on the Worldline system didn't), but as you say it's much more likely to be the other way round.

The other thing that can happen is one planner coming up with the same journey involving overlapping trains with a change at X, and another one the change at Y, and them having different prices as a result.

Trouble is that people who see that think it confirms Trainline's advertising...

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@urbophile. Are you able to say what date and journey your daughter was looking at?

 

[urbophile]

@urbophile. Are you able to say what date and journey your daughter was looking at?

Sorry yes. Out 04/02 late afternoon; return 06/02. Liverpool - Euston. I've just rechecked and strangely Avanti is now selling advance singles at £30+ for both directions. It wasn't yesterday though.

 

[robbeech]

Sorry yes. Out 04/02 late afternoon; return 06/02. Liverpool - Euston. I've just rechecked and strangely Avanti is now selling advance singles at £30+ for both directions. It wasn't yesterday though.

Advances are released quite late at the moment due to a variety of reasons, some of them justifiable. It’s unsurprising that they’ve appeared on what would ordinarily be quite close to the date of travel.

 

[allotments]

If lowest price is priority rather than time:

Lowest return price without railcard I can see is 14:07 LNR departure from Liverpool change at Crewe arrive Euston 17:52

LNR only Super off peak return not valid on Avanti services is £36:60.

This journey would be nearly 2 hours slower than the faster Avant services but much cheaper.

 

[urbophile]

If lowest price is priority rather than time:

Lowest return price without railcard I can see is 14:07 LNR departure from Liverpool change at Crewe arrive Euston 17:52

LNR only Super off peak return not valid on Avanti services is £36:60.

This journey would be nearly 2 hours slower than the faster Avant services but much cheaper.

Not much fun that. I think time is important for her so she'll go for the cheapest Avanti ticket she can get.