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[cb a1]

Anything I should be doing to not get this warning?


Was trying to book this journey.



EDIT
It seems to be the return journey that's causing grief. If I change the return journey to catch the 11:10 it works fine.
I'm flexible with when I travel, so I'll just catch the earlier train.

 

[GLC]

^I've had a quick look at the logs, and our best guess is that you happened to be a bit unlucky. It seems like the seat reservations for that itinerary, were trying to be made right as there was a data update happening in RARS (which is the centralised system for managing seat reservations), and so our attempts to reserve you seats started failing. I've tried to book the same journey myself and it appears to work fine now. I'm not the best person at diagnosing seat reservations failures, so I'll defer to one of my Raileasy colleagues to provide more info when we've dug into it a bit more

 

[Adam Williams]

I'm intending to travel from St Albans City to Kew Gardens and back this Saturday, coming back before the Mildmay line stops running past Willesden. The ticketing site only offers a one day travelcard for £19.70 but it is possible to purchase a cheaper off-peak return for £17.90 from the Thameslink site. No prizes for guessing which site I'm going to use!

I have asked FastJP to look at why

For what it's worth, this got fixed.

 

[Egg Centric]

Minor display issue, presumably because of this being set down only at Stevenage (image show departure time of 00:00 of a train arriving into Stevenage at 19:05 that is set down only)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Dec 2025 ==



Another nit picking one - the backward/forward facing is the wrong way around here I'm 90% sure. If I'm wrong about that, then it's the other way around in the seat selector (which I think is correct and how I remember it)

(Picture shows in an azuma coach M10 being backwards facing heading north, forward facing heading south).

 

[800Travel]

View attachment 193702

Minor display issue, presumably because of this being set down only at Stevenage (image show departure time of 00:00 of a train arriving into Stevenage at 19:05 that is set down only)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Dec 2025 ==

View attachment 193721

Another nit picking one - the backward/forward facing is the wrong way around here I'm 90% sure. If I'm wrong about that, then it's the other way around in the seat selector (which I think is correct and how I remember it)

(Picture shows in an azuma coach M10 being backwards facing heading north, forward facing heading south).

I believe you are correct - In standard orientation, heading southbound coach M is leading. M10 faces the opposite way to the direction of travel when going southbound, and as you say, is therefore backwards facing for Durham to Darlington and Darlington to London Kings Cross. In the northbound direction, coach M is at the back of the train. M10 then faces in the direction of travel, so is forwards facing.

 

[OscarH]

Another nit picking one - the backward/forward facing is the wrong way around here I'm 90% sure. If I'm wrong about that, then it's the other way around in the seat selector (which I think is correct and how I remember it)

I would say that's more than a nitpick...

I know roughly what that'll relate too, if you have a booking ref can you DM it to me?

 

[Egg Centric]

I would say that's more than a nitpick...

I know roughly what that'll relate too, if you have a booking ref can you DM it to me?

Sure, sent

 

[OscarH]

Sure, sent

Thanks, I've hopefully fixed that now...

I had the forwards and backwards attributes backwards for the new reservation system (in my defense they are rather opaquely named) - I had noticed and fixed it, but then accidentally lost the fix in a git merge somewhere. Cone of shame for me

 

[jacob1710]

Hi, Is there any way to make only a seat reservation through the forum site? There's a connection that doesn't meet the minimum change time so isn't possibly as an itinerary when booking a ticket, but I know pretty much all of the time it can be caught and save 15-20 minutes. I know there are ways of reserving a seat for TPE through their app but it would be nice to be able to use the seat picker on the site if that's possible?

In this instance i'm trying to do 06:18 Pontefract Monkhill to Leeds (Arr 06:53) and then 07:00 Leeds to Manchester Vic.

 

[yorkie]

Hi, Is there any way to make only a seat reservation through the forum site? There's a connection that doesn't meet the minimum change time so isn't possibly as an itinerary when booking a ticket, but I know pretty much all of the time it can be caught and save 15-20 minutes. I know there are ways of reserving a seat for TPE through their app but it would be nice to be able to use the seat picker on the site if that's possible?

In this instance i'm trying to do 06:18 Pontefract Monkhill to Leeds (Arr 06:53) and then 07:00 Leeds to Manchester Vic.

No; if there was one, you'd need to select an earlier train from Pontefract Monkhill (in reality, you can take a later train, providing it's a flexible ticket), however there isn't one, so that isn't possible.

If you just want a reservation, you can do so on the GWR website.

 

[Mike395]

If you've booked the journey through the forum site - if you have a particular seat preference based on the seat selector availability you can always email it to customer.support@trainsplit.com and the support team can grab a specific seat if particularly wanted (so long as it's still available).

 

[Prodigy]

Brilliant website, saved me a lot of money when I went to London from Manchester last month. My only suggestion is to be able to do an advanced search on the iPhone app with the ability to exclude certain TOCs like you can on the website.

 

[yorkie]

Brilliant website, saved me a lot of money when I went to London from Manchester last month. My only suggestion is to be able to do an advanced search on the iPhone app with the ability to exclude certain TOCs like you can on the website.

Perhaps @GLC may be already looking into that...?

Note that the forum would only recieve commission if using the forum site, not any of the Trainsplit apps.

 

[Tester]

Note that the forum would only recieve commission if using the forum site, not any of the Trainsplit apps.

This is important and perhaps not widely known.

 

[Prodigy]

Perhaps @GLC may be already looking into that...?

Note that the forum would only recieve commission if using the forum site, not any of the Trainsplit apps.

Ahhhh, in that case with that info in mind, I'm happy to continue using the website over the app considering it helps you guys out. Thanks for the info Yorkie.

 

[Adam Williams]

There is definitely nothing stopping you from using the apps for the journey notifications, planning journeys to see departures and for viewing journey details/ticket in-app (they'll use the same accounts system) - but continuing to buy through the RailUK Forums site.

The commission question comes up every few months but nothing has changed here: only purchases attributed to tickets.railforums.co.uk or tickets-classic.railforums.co.uk have the revenue shared.

In any case, to answer the question, iOS will get advanced options fairly soon, I suspect.

 

[ChrisC]

Note that the forum would only recieve commission if using the forum site, not any of the Trainsplit apps.

Thanks for that reminder. I did know, but when out on the move and wanting to book a last minute ticket I often forget and use the TrainSplit app instead. I always use the website when booking tickets from home before I set out so the forum gets commission for my longer more complicated journeys.

 

[ainsworth74]

Here's one I've just spotted. Why is not possible to by a Redcar Central - York Off-Peak Day Return (Route: Not via Darlington) in conjunction with an itinerary which includes the LNER service to Middlesbrough? For instance:

https://tickets.railforums.co.uk/re...LeaveAfterInbound=0&Adults=1&OpenReturn=false

It's forcing APs even though those are more expensive than the flexible Off-Peak Day return. Data issue (the service is non stop from York to Thornaby so the system cannot identify it doesn't go via Darlington?)? Mandatory Reservation nonsense?

 

[yorkie]

Here's one I've just spotted. Why is not possible to by a Redcar Central - York Off-Peak Day Return (Route: Not via Darlington) in conjunction with an itinerary which includes the LNER service to Middlesbrough? For instance:

https://tickets.railforums.co.uk/re...LeaveAfterInbound=0&Adults=1&OpenReturn=false

It's forcing APs even though those are more expensive than the flexible Off-Peak Day return. Data issue (the service is non stop from York to Thornaby so the system cannot identify it doesn't go via Darlington?)? Mandatory Reservation nonsense?

There is a cheeky TOC exclusion in the data, excluding LNER.

I will ask someone to get this reported, as it should be removed.

Note that it wasn't ever correct, as LNER serves Northallerton. It would be more correct to exclude XC, but there really shouldn't be any such exclusions in route data, as diversions can happen.

 

[ainsworth74]

I will ask someone to get this reported, as it should be removed.

Cheers!

Note that it wasn't ever correct, as LNER serves Northallerton. It would be more correct to exclude XC, but there really shouldn't be any such exclusions in route data, as diversions can happen.

Back in the day, when TPE had a very early morning service via Darlington, they used the Train UID to allow these tickets on that service in the data. This worked fine apart from when the UIDs changed which they do do from time to time...

We should probably just be grateful they exist at all I suppose...

 

[CyrusWuff]

Cheers!

Back in the day, when TPE had a very early morning service via Darlington, they used the Train UID to allow these tickets on that service in the data. This worked fine apart from when the UIDs changed which they do do from time to time...

More specifically, they change at every timetable change.

 

[SWT_USER]

I've just booked a couple of journeys including EMR (as part of a longer journey) but the site wouldn't give me a seat reservation for the EMR journey only.. both times it included Sheffield to London.

Is this an error? Or is there any other way to reserve a seat? It's an advanced ticket for the weekend the ECML is closed in February so I can imagine it's going to be horribly busy.

 

[Mike395]

I've just booked a couple of journeys including EMR (as part of a longer journey) but the site wouldn't give me a seat reservation for the EMR journey only.. both times it included Sheffield to London.

Is this an error? Or is there any other way to reserve a seat? It's an advanced ticket for the weekend the ECML is closed in February so I can imagine it's going to be horribly busy.

It'll be a diagram they're expecting to reasonably shortly have 810s on, but aren't sure exactly on when they'll be introduced; those diagrams currently have seat reservations disabled (industry side, this isn't something unique to TrainSplit).

 

[SWT_USER]

It'll be a diagram they're expecting to reasonably shortly have 810s on, but aren't sure exactly on when they'll be introduced; those diagrams currently have seat reservations disabled (industry side, this isn't something unique to TrainSplit).

Thanks.. hopefully they don't open up reservations prior to the day then or those booking later will have taken all the reservations!

 

[MotCO]

Thanks.. hopefully they don't open up reservations prior to the day then or those booking later will have taken all the reservations!

I think if the seats become bookable, an email to the ticket site might secure a reservation.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

I'm trying to plan for a journey from Hag Fold to Stratford International next February, and I understand I won't be able to get my desired itinerary due to having too many changes (onto slow trains to stop at all the stops), but while I can get the parts to (sometimes) work seperately, if I disable splits (because I want the £78.55 Off-Peak return), it just says no reservations avaliable (one time it gave me just First Class tickets, but I haven't been able to repeat that).
Since EMR has disabled reservations pending 810s, and all the Avantis still have reservations when I turn the filters off, I have no clue what's doing it here.

I want to travel via Uttoxter and Attenborough (and then get slow trains the rest of the way to St Pancras) on the way there, and travel via the Lioness line to Watford junction, then slow trains to Rugby, then via Stone.

As far as I can tell, this is all valid as per the routing guide, but (from what I've read) the new Terms and Conditions require me to get an itinerary showing (at least the route of) the trains I want to take, so I can't just buy the ticket and go on my own routing.
I don't mind that it doesn't show the slow trains, but I don't want to have to argue about the validity via Uttoxter/Attenborough or on the Lioness line or via Stone.

Example search that doesn't work at all:

Results | RailUK Tickets

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

tickets.railforums.co.uk

 

[alistairlees]

I'm trying to plan for a journey from Hag Fold to Stratford International next February, and I understand I won't be able to get my desired itinerary due to having too many changes (onto slow trains to stop at all the stops), but while I can get the parts to (sometimes) work seperately, if I disable splits (because I want the £78.55 Off-Peak return), it just says no reservations avaliable (one time it gave me just First Class tickets, but I haven't been able to repeat that).
Since EMR has disabled reservations pending 810s, and all the Avantis still have reservations when I turn the filters off, I have no clue what's doing it here.

I want to travel via Uttoxter and Attenborough (and then get slow trains the rest of the way to St Pancras) on the way there, and travel via the Lioness line to Watford junction, then slow trains to Rugby, then via Stone.

As far as I can tell, this is all valid as per the routing guide, but (from what I've read) the new Terms and Conditions require me to get an itinerary showing (at least the route of) the trains I want to take, so I can't just buy the ticket and go on my own routing.
I don't mind that it doesn't show the slow trains, but I don't want to have to argue about the validity via Uttoxter/Attenborough or on the Lioness line or via Stone.

Example search that doesn't work at all:

Results | RailUK Tickets

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

tickets.railforums.co.uk

You have misunderstood. Just buy the off peak return for a route that works, and then travel on any route by which it is valid.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

You have misunderstood. Just buy the off peak return for a route that works, and then travel on any route by which it is valid.

Oh that's easier, looking at the earlier thread in more detail I see the routing guide is still part of the contract

I had read this:

- Removing the Routeing Guide from the contract would be a big shift. Historically that was provided as a way for people to calculate valid routes themselves; this being before the widespread use of online journey planners. An anachronistic inconvenience for RDG these days, I suspect, but a retrograde step which should be resisted. The Routeing Guide provides a level of introspection into the otherwise obtuse fares system, and if it ceased to be contractually valid (and published) then we'd be entirely reliant on whatever journey planners spit out.

But not seen this:

The easiest way to check for valid routes is to use the journey planner at www.nationalrail.co.uk. You can also check the National Routeing Guide which is available at data.atoc.org/routeing-guide or ask the Ticket seller when you buy your Ticket.

...which isn't in an "info" box and thus does form part of the contract.

If I'd've realised that I wouldn't have posted my home station but it's out there now so no point trying to take it back.

 

[Adam Williams]

Example search that doesn't work at all:

it's rejecting it because:

The following doubleback was encountered:

From Beeston and Attenborough; through Long Eaton
Not Permitted: Doubleback while tracing mapped route.

 

[crablab]

Oh that's easier, looking at the earlier thread in more detail I see the routing guide is still part of the contract

It's not. It's in an "info box", which is not explicitly part of the contract.

The quotation you're citing from @Bletchleyite is from an earlier version, where the Routeing Guide was explicitly in a paragraph of the contract.

See the bottom of page 12 of the NRCoT 2025 from the National Rail website.

In practice as long as you can get a journey planner to subsequently generate the journey it's probably fine.