ServerHoster
Member
In a few days I will be travelling from Plumley, one of my local stations, to Manchester. I wanted to buy an off peak ticket as I wasn't sure about what time I'd make the return journey. I went to check the tickets available on the CrossCountry app, to find that only Advance Singles are being offered, with no flexible options. If I were to purchase Advance Singles, it would cost £12.90 for a return journey with a railcard.
(A screenshot of the CrossCountry app with ticket options for Plumley to Manchester Piccadilly, the only tickets available are Advance Singles)
I also tried the Uber app which refused to show any journeys at all. As I was at a train station at the time, I also went to the Avanti ticket machine to see what it would offer me - it also said no journeys could be found. After this I just went to the ticket office who sold me an off peak day return for the correct price of £8.75 (with a railcard).
After doing a bit more research, I have come to the conclusion that this must be a side effect of the Stockport engineering works for the next 3 weeks - as the off peak ticket I was sold states, "only valid for travel via Stockport" - but the recommended route to get to Manchester during these works is to change at Altrincham for Metrolink (ticket acceptance in place for this), which does not go via Stockport.
So, it seems like someone from Northern (or whichever train company is responsible) hadn't set up an easement or done whatever changes are required to actually sell flexible tickets "via Stockport" for this service. Ticketing websites and machines just see the fact that the journey doesn't go via Stockport and refuses to sell flexible tickets.
I had a look at what the situation was for other stations on the line. For Chester and Mouldsworth, it will happily sell you a flexible ticket because the restriction is "only valid for travel via Altrincham" rather than Stockport, and the altered journey goes through Altrincham. For stations between Delamere and Hale, it will only sell Advance Singles - refusing to sell a flexible ticket because these have the Stockport restriction. For Altrincham and Navigation Road, it is refusing to sell any form of ticket at all, probably because they want you to buy a Metrolink ticket. Which is fine for a non-railcard holder, but if you have a railcard then a rail ticket will be cheaper than a Metrolink ticket.
This problem is made worse by the fact that the majority of stations on this line have no ticket office at all. Only Knutsford, Hale and Altrincham have ticket offices, where passengers aware of this problem may be able to buy the correct ticket from the ticket office (if they're open). For passengers at other stations, they are at the mercy of the Northern planner-based ticket machines, which use the same journey planners as the apps, so will probably also be unable to sell the correct ticket. Or perhaps buy from the train from the conductor onboard, who could be unhappy that they didn't "buy before you board".
This will also affect passengers who are buying tickets close to the time of travel, or at peak times, as Advance tickets go up in price as each tier gets sold, and are generally more expensive during peak times.
So overall, this really does have the possibility to overcharge passengers. A £12.90 vs £8.75 ticket is a significant fare difference of around one third. Multiply that by the number of people who might use this service over those few weeks, and that's quite a lot of money! I'm wondering what would be the best way to raise this problem to Northern? I'm not really hopeful that their customer services team could fix it. (does anyone remember when I contacted Southern about a ticketing issue? https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/southern-daysave-group.281157/#post-7157408)
Edit: I have just been informed that there indeed is an easement on this route. So it seems like many websites and ticket selling systems are ignoring the easement entirely - or maybe there's a different issue preventing these tickets from being sold
(A screenshot of the CrossCountry app with ticket options for Plumley to Manchester Piccadilly, the only tickets available are Advance Singles)
I also tried the Uber app which refused to show any journeys at all. As I was at a train station at the time, I also went to the Avanti ticket machine to see what it would offer me - it also said no journeys could be found. After this I just went to the ticket office who sold me an off peak day return for the correct price of £8.75 (with a railcard).
After doing a bit more research, I have come to the conclusion that this must be a side effect of the Stockport engineering works for the next 3 weeks - as the off peak ticket I was sold states, "only valid for travel via Stockport" - but the recommended route to get to Manchester during these works is to change at Altrincham for Metrolink (ticket acceptance in place for this), which does not go via Stockport.
So, it seems like someone from Northern (or whichever train company is responsible) hadn't set up an easement or done whatever changes are required to actually sell flexible tickets "via Stockport" for this service. Ticketing websites and machines just see the fact that the journey doesn't go via Stockport and refuses to sell flexible tickets.
I had a look at what the situation was for other stations on the line. For Chester and Mouldsworth, it will happily sell you a flexible ticket because the restriction is "only valid for travel via Altrincham" rather than Stockport, and the altered journey goes through Altrincham. For stations between Delamere and Hale, it will only sell Advance Singles - refusing to sell a flexible ticket because these have the Stockport restriction. For Altrincham and Navigation Road, it is refusing to sell any form of ticket at all, probably because they want you to buy a Metrolink ticket. Which is fine for a non-railcard holder, but if you have a railcard then a rail ticket will be cheaper than a Metrolink ticket.
This problem is made worse by the fact that the majority of stations on this line have no ticket office at all. Only Knutsford, Hale and Altrincham have ticket offices, where passengers aware of this problem may be able to buy the correct ticket from the ticket office (if they're open). For passengers at other stations, they are at the mercy of the Northern planner-based ticket machines, which use the same journey planners as the apps, so will probably also be unable to sell the correct ticket. Or perhaps buy from the train from the conductor onboard, who could be unhappy that they didn't "buy before you board".
This will also affect passengers who are buying tickets close to the time of travel, or at peak times, as Advance tickets go up in price as each tier gets sold, and are generally more expensive during peak times.
So overall, this really does have the possibility to overcharge passengers. A £12.90 vs £8.75 ticket is a significant fare difference of around one third. Multiply that by the number of people who might use this service over those few weeks, and that's quite a lot of money! I'm wondering what would be the best way to raise this problem to Northern? I'm not really hopeful that their customer services team could fix it. (does anyone remember when I contacted Southern about a ticketing issue? https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/southern-daysave-group.281157/#post-7157408)
Edit: I have just been informed that there indeed is an easement on this route. So it seems like many websites and ticket selling systems are ignoring the easement entirely - or maybe there's a different issue preventing these tickets from being sold
Last edited:
