On a similar note (although perhaps a new thread should be started?), I was bemused today to have to get the 09:41 from Morecambe to Lancaster (10 minute journey) and then wait over an hour for the 10:57 to New Street, despite there being a 10:32 from Morecambe which would have allowed 15 minutes to connect to the same train at Lancaster, which is ample given the minimum for Lancaster is six minutes. I was on a single through Advance ticket from Morecambe to Hereford, purchased from Trainsplit, so thought I'd better stick to the given itinerary even though it made little sense.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had any issue had I taken the 10:32 - the Northern guards, although they usually do check tickets, don't tend to study them too hard (not paper ones anyway), and the only reason I didn't was that it would have been Sod's Law that the 10:32 got cancelled at the last minute or heavily delayed, or some Revenue bod happened to be on that train scrutinising the reservation slips as well as the ticket.
Couldn't help wondering why the system didn't select the 10:32 in the first place, as the extra hour's wait seems totally pointless. I guess my ticket might have been a fraction cheaper (can't remember now, bought it a while ago), but it seems a bit petty to charge more just to avoid an unnecessarily long delay hanging around for a connection, cluttering up the station. For the avoidance of doubt I didn't select "add extra time". (By the way, is it possible to select "add extra time" for one connection when your journey involves more than one but you don't need extra time at all of them?).
It's not as if Morecambe to Lancaster trains are particularly busy, in fact on Wednesday this week I had a whole coach to myself from MCM to Bare Lane on the 09:01! I could understand that the 10:32, being the Leeds train, probably gets quite busy onwards from Lancaster, but I wouldn't be taking up a seat on it by that point.
