SWR - New Milton to Waterloo Price Doubles?

[Kezza25]

I can’t find any literature to explain this but NWM to WAT goes from £42.90 return on 9th Feb to £119.60 on the 16th Feb

Looks like advance ticket pricing has gone up. Is this intentional or a mistake. Thanks?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I can’t find any literature to explain this but NWM to WAT goes from £42.90 return on 9th Feb to £119.60 on the 16th Feb

Looks like advance ticket pricing has gone up. Is this intentional or a mistake. Thanks?

Welcome to posting to the forum.

I'm not expert, but I would guess that Advance tickets haven’t yet beenn released for 16 February so you are seeing the off-peak price instead.

 

[Kezza25]

Thanks. I wondered that too although normally it will just say fares not available this far out.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Thanks. I wondered that too although normally it will just say fares not available this fare out.

My understanding is that tickets can be sold up to a year in advance, so whoever you are looking at wouldn't be doing anything wrong by advertising full price tickets for mid February. But if it's not what they normally do it does raise questions.

 

[Kezza25]

Yes, I think I’m also conscious they tried/did something similar in 2024 which they had to row back from.

 

[Snow1964]

SWR website says Advance tickets released upto 13th February

Get Cheap Advance Train Tickets | South Western Railway

Save money on your fare by buying an Advance train ticket up to 12 weeks before your travel date. Find more info here.

www.southwesternrailway.com

13 Feb is exactly 11 weeks from today (or as SWR excludes 25, 26th Dec from working days is operationally 10 weeks, 5 days)

Near top of page also says upto 12 weeks (which is very vague as that could be 1 week).

No idea why they are holding back the 12th week from release. Maybe someone on this forum will know.

 

[yorkie]

I can’t find any literature to explain this but NWM to WAT goes from £42.90 return on 9th Feb to £119.60 on the 16th Feb

Looks like advance ticket pricing has gone up. Is this intentional or a mistake. Thanks?

You may want to switch to the forum's ticketing site, which states what you are getting.

£119.60 is also far too much to pay for flexible tickets!

Edit: I've included an updated screenshot showing a return from New Milton to Waterloo for 16th February priced at over a third less than the price quoted by SWR from the forum's ticketing site.

 

[Kezza25]

Thanks all.
The screenshot isn't clear but the pricing you can see in my OP is for a return; not one way.

Hopefully it will fix itself soon and they've not just scrapped advance fares again.

 

[Kite159]

Thanks all.
The screenshot isn't clear but the pricing you can see in my OP is for a return; not one way.

Hopefully it will fix itself soon and they've not just scrapped advance fares again.

Or going back in time where advance fares are kept for the trains expected to be less busy, ie not the high peak trains.

If the DfT can get £100 from someone commuting from say Southampton why would they be fussed over losing out on someone paying £42.

Especially with regulated fares frozen.

 

[Kezza25]

If the DfT can get £100 from someone commuting from say Southampton why would they be fussed over losing out on someone paying £42.

You could use this rationale for all sorts tbh; just hike everything where people have no choice.

 

[yorkie]

Thanks all.
The screenshot isn't clear but the pricing you can see in my OP is for a return; not one way.

I was posting very quickly as, like many others, I had places to be this morning, but I have now amended my screenshot to be a valid comparison with a return. The saving is over a third off, i.e. better than a Railcard holder would get if booking with SWR for that journey.

In this case, you should wait because there is a good chance Advance fares will be released, however it is worth considering purchasing elsewhere than the SWR site, as SWR charge premium fares for some journeys, which some sites will circumvent. I had a quick look for 9th February, and found the forum's site sells tickets for a couple of quid less than SWR, which is a much smaller saving, but still worth considering.

Furthermore, using the forum's site helps with the forum's running costs

 

[Kezza25]

Thanks for that yorkie; I wasn’t aware of the website tbh and have already had a good look around; thanks for sharing.