Unable to book slower journey on Avanti website

[dcsprior]

Hi, I was looking to book the 17:19 from Milton Keynes Central to Edinburgh on Tue 15 Jul. This results in getting in to Edinburgh on the same train as catching the 17:24 would, but involves one less change.

The National Rail Enquiries website showed me the 17:19 option, and gave me a link to click through to the Avanti site


But when I click that I get an error:


I'm presuming that it doesn't show a journey that starts earlier unless it also finishes earlier?

I bought the ticket on the LNER site instead, but this meant I couldn't pick my seat on the seating plan which I think the Avanti site would've allowed me to do, as the LNER website only does that for its own services.

This is a journey I am likely to make every 3-6 months... for next time, is there some way I can force the Avanti site to show the slower option?

 

[drueberflug]

is there some way I can force the Avanti site to show the slower option?

Look out for any stops there are or aren't listed in the journey shown by National Rail Enquiries, and add that stop to the "Add via/avoid station" section on the Avanti page.
In this case, you'd want to avoid Stoke-on-Trent, where you'd have to change for an EMR service, to connect at Crewe.



Also, you could use the forum's ticketing page where you can also exclude EMR for the query, thereby possibly forcing the journey that NRE offers.



I've queried that journey for you already: https://tickets-beta.railforums.co....&adv:ob:ExcludedTocs=EM&adv:ob:Avoid=7013140P

But then, maybe a trip on EMR wouldn't be too bad... you might get to see the refurbished class 170s, and the worst thing that could happen is that you'll be so severely delayed that Delay Repay would make your journey effectively free

 

[Watershed]

You could enter via: Atherstone. That's a station that the 17:19 WMT service calls at, but the 17:24 Avanti train doesn't have that in its schedule as it doesn't call there and it's only a small station. The journey planner therefore thinks that the 17:24 Avanti train doesn't go through there. Alternatively you could enter avoid: Stoke.

Alternatively you could use the forum's ticketing site, which allows you to specify the exact parameters and has a seat selector for all TOCs that support 'real' seat reservatikons.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Jun 2025 ==

But then, maybe a trip on EMR wouldn't be too bad... you might get to see the refurbished class 170s, and the worst thing that could happen is that you'll be so severely delayed that Delay Repay would make your journey effectively free

Given that the next itinerary from Crewe gets you to Edinburgh near midnight I would far rather avoid the delay, personally speaking.

The WMT service isn't the most punctual but it should be a fairly easy connection, as the Edinburgh service is booked out of platform 11 at Crewe, which is only a short walk across from platform 7.

 

[drueberflug]

Alternatively you could use the forum's ticketing site, which allows you to specify the exact parameters and has a seat selector for all TOCs that support 'real' seat reservatikons.

Nonetheless, it is a bit annoying to see that Avanti apparently have some Avanti-exclusive Advance fares.
In this case, the journey involving an EMR service would be £39 on Avanti, but more than double that when booked anywhere else!

 

[Watershed]

Nonetheless, it is a bit annoying to see that Avanti apparently have some Avanti-exclusive Advance fares.

They're not Avanti-exclusive - they're just bog standard Advances with route "AP Rugby" in Avanti's V2x range. If I had to guess, I would say it's likely to be an issue with whitelisting on other sites.

 

[dcsprior]

Alternatively you could use the forum's ticketing site, which [...] has a seat selector for all TOCs that support 'real' seat reservatikons.

Oh, I didn't know this. I've used it before, but hadn't realised it had that feature

 

[OscarH]

They're not Avanti-exclusive - they're just bog standard Advances with route "AP Rugby" in Avanti's V2x range. If I had to guess, I would say it's likely to be an issue with whitelisting on other sites.

No, V2U is a common code, not something they've done anything insane with in the past and randomly changed its meaning, and it's whitelisted.

I expect either Avanti had cached the £39 and it was no longer available and would have failed, or TrainSplit had cached it wasn't available and cancelled reservations meant it now was

 

[Watershed]

No, V2U is a common code, not something they've done anything insane with in the past and randomly changed its meaning, and it's whitelisted.

I expect either Avanti had cached the £39 and it was no longer available and would have failed, or TrainSplit had cached it wasn't available and cancelled reservations meant it now was

I was thinking about the route code but on second thoughts, you're probably right.