Chiltern Services London Marylebone - Oxford - inconsistent prices

[jumbo_t]

Hi all. I noticed recently that the fares for Chilterns services on the London Marylebone to Oxford route seem to vary throughout the day: some services are £15.00 advance single, select others are £37.60! Same day, same service, same type of ticket, and doesn't seem to be linked to the time either.

Does anyone know why this is, and how to know which services will be the cheaper ones? I only ask because if you take two advance singles for the cheaper services it turns out to cost a fair bit less than an off-peak return.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Walk up fares between London and Oxford are priced by GWR and £37.60 is the Off-Peak Day Single fare.

Chiltern's Oxford services also call at Bicester Village, so I wouldn't expect to see cheap Advances on trains they know are likely to be busy to/from Bicester.

 

[jumbo_t]

So you're saying they're priced arbitrarily based on expected demand?

 

[Haywain]

So you're saying they're priced arbitrarily based on expected demand?

That's pretty much how Advance fares are used, yes, based on expected demand. But they might appear arbitrary because of that.

 

[CyrusWuff]

That's pretty much how Advance fares are used, yes.

How they're intended to be used anyway. Doesn't stop some TOCs (looking at you, Northern) from offering them on pretty much every train even for short distance journeys though!

 

[MrJeeves]

So you're saying they're priced arbitrarily based on expected demand?

Well, they're either priced arbitrarily, or priced based on expected demand! It can't be both!

 

[jumbo_t]

Sure, whatever. Arbitrarily from the customer's point of view, based on expected demand from that of the TOC.