Day return Milton Keynes to Oxford price

[WolvertonWorks]

Not sure whether to put this here, in Fares or in Speculation....

Talking to a neighbour this morning as a group of us are planning a day trip to Oxford using E-W rail as soon as the line opens to passengers, which we are keeping our fingers crossed will be from the December timetable start date.

Question is are the fares for this route available anywhere yet?

And also will there be peak and off-peak day returns?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

And also will there be peak and off-peak day returns?

There already are such day returns, albeit routed '✠via London', and so quite expensive. So, something routed for the much more direct journey from Milton Keynes to Oxford, maybe 'via Winslow'?

 

[Bletchleyite]

There already are such day returns, albeit routed '✠via London', and so quite expensive. So, something routed for the much more direct journey from Milton Keynes to Oxford, maybe 'via Winslow'?

There's potentially quite a big piece of work to do as there will be loads of WCML to Westcountry type flows for which a "via Winslow" fare will make sense. In the meantime I guess there's splitting

I would be astonished if such a fare wasn't created. My hunch would be the fares will be similar to those to London, but they aren't published anywhere yet.

 

[Haywain]

there will be loads of WCML to Westcountry type flows for which a "via Winslow" fare will make sense.

I suspect most such flows will already have 'not via London' fares, which should suffice. Although it is interesting to see that Nuneaton to Oxford has a fares routed '+ LUMO ST & CH only', which would also work via Winslow.

 

[317 forever]

GIven that fares are usually available 12 weeks in advance, it would make sense for these to be loaded 12 weeks before the line opens. So, around mid September.

 

[CyrusWuff]

GIven that fares are usually available 12 weeks in advance, it would make sense for these to be loaded 12 weeks before the line opens. So, around mid September.

Given a start date for EWR services still hasn't been announced, I wouldn't hold your breath.

Paths have been present (as ECS moves for training purposes) in industry data since at least May last year, so I'm not sure why the media have suddenly latched onto them being in the December 2026 timetable unless they've just discovered that RTT is a thing or something.