Midland Mainline pricing anomaly

[leicstolondon]

Hello train geniuses! I've made an account to check something I've found online to make sure it's valid.

I want to travel from Market Harborough to London St Pancras semi-regularly during peak hours, but not enough to be worth a season ticket (to get there for approximately 8:30am though I can flex slightly on this). The trains are incredibly expensive (£70 or more) even as an advance ticket rather than an anytime return.

I've been trying to find a way to keep the costs down and have found that I can purchase an anytime return ticket to Flitwick via London St Pancras (connecting station for this ticket) for around £30, a fraction of the cost of the journey outlined above. The terms and conditions state that I can board and alight the train at any point along the journey, and doesn't state any exemptions. In theory, my understanding is that this means I can board at Market Harborough, take the leg of the train down to London then not board the second leg of my journey. In a similar way, I can skip the first leg of the journey from Flitwick and join for the second leg from London St Pancras back to Market Harborough. And would be a lot cheaper than purchasing the MHR-STP leg alone (for some reason...). It also means I can be a lot more flexible and missing a train is less of an issue.

This does sounds too good to be true - firstly, I wanted to check if my understanding is correct and my ticket won't be turned down before I book it?

Secondly, as an extension - does anybody know why there is this weird quirk? There are two routes offered when I search in national rail so this might have something to do with it however it just seems like too good of a discount for nobody else to be using it!

Thank you in advance for any advice!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@leicstolondon. Welcome to the forum. Market Harborough station is obviously much further out from Central London than Flitwick is. If you are travelling from Market Harborough, what ticket or tickets would you have from there to Flitwick? You mentioned buying an Anytime return ticket to Flitwick via London St Pancras. Are you actually being offered valid itineraries from Market Harborough to Flitwick via London St Pancras, rather than one requiring intermediate changes at maybe Kettering/Bedford?

 

[CyrusWuff]

Market Harborough to Flitwick isn't intended to be valid via St Pancras, as it would be a massive double-back. Appropriate Routeing Points are Kettering and Bedford, with MI (i.e. the direct route between the two) being the only map.

That said, multiple journey planners - including the National Rail website - say a Market Harborough - Flitwick return is (currently) valid for that route. I don't rate your chances of getting through the gates at St Pancras without an argument, however.

 

[leicstolondon]

I've screen shotted an example here from the national rail app - this is obviously just the first leg however shows clearly I can book a ticket via St Pancras.

I assume this means with an anytime return I could just get off at St Pancras and don't need to board the next train?

 

[fairlie]

Are seat reservations possible on that route? It might be worth getting them to show you were reserved onto that train with that ticket.

 

[leicstolondon]

Are seat reservations possible on that route? It might be worth getting them to show you were reserved onto that train with that ticket.

Good shout! Yes you can, feels like useful evidence

 

[Watershed]

I've screen shotted an example here from the national rail app - this is obviously just the first leg however shows clearly I can book a ticket via St Pancras.

I assume this means with an anytime return I could just get off at St Pancras and don't need to board the next train?

Legally speaking, yes. However it's clearly not intended to be valid that way and in practice, I would expect great difficulty in using such a ticket; you'd probably be charged for a new ticket at best or a Penalty Fare at worst. You'd then have to go through the rigmarole of appealling that etc. - and in any event, it wouldn't be long before this 'loophole' gets closed and you're back to paying the 'normal' fare.

If this is a journey you do at least twice a week (on average), you might want to consider buying a Flexi Season 'splitting' an intermediate station - such as Flitwick. In other words, you'd have a Market Harborough to Flitwick (or wherever) Flexi Season and a Flitwick to London Flexi Season. This is unambiguously permitted - see condition 14.3 of the National Rail Conditions of Travel:

if you are using a Season Ticket ... in conjunction with another Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination to be valid.

A bit of research suggests that Harpenden is the cheapest station to split at for Flexi Seasons, as you'd pay an average of £67.21 per day. I appreciate that's not a big saving, but at least this would give you the flexibility to take any train in each direction, rather than being limited to the exact one you book when you're using an Advance ticket.

The other benefit of a Flitwick to London Flexi Season is that it would be issued to London Thameslink rather than London Terminals, which means you'd be entitled to travel on from St Pancras to any of the intermediate Thameslink stations as far as London Bridge or Elephant & Castle. That might save you the cost of a Tube fare, if your office is somewhere near one of the Thameslink stations. Tickets to London Thameslink are available from further afield (e.g. Market Harborough) but it tends to cost extra, whereas from Flitwick it's included by default.

 

[yorkie]

I see that the routeing guide was amended, to remove this anomaly:

Changes from 06 Aug 2025 (584) to 07 Aug 2025 (585).

Easement changes:

Added:

701393 (Circuitous Route) Passengers travelling from Market Harborough, Kettering, Corby and Wellingborough to Flitwick, Harlington (Beds), Leagrave, Luton, Luton Airport Parkway and Harpenden may not travel via London St.Pancras. This circuitous route easement applies in both directions. This overcomes the unintended effect of a related positive easement.[/b][/indent]
nre.co.uk had allowed travel via St Pancras for itineraries which only change trains there, possibly because of easement 701296 below. This tries to prevent it.

And yet more proof that the pricing managers watch these forums like hawks, even if posts are reasonably quickly removed...

We have therefore unhidden this thread, as there is no point keeping it hidden any more!

 

[Haywain]

Tickets to London Thameslink are available from further afield (e.g. Market Harborough) but it tends to cost extra, whereas from Flitwick it's included by default.

It's not just Flitwick but stations from Bedford southwards, including Harpenden.