Time lag between NRE advance ticket booking horizon page update and tickets actually on sale

[James H]

I regularly book tickets for my weekly commute on SWR as soon as advances go on sale.

The NRE horizons page is usually updated on a Wednesday

Advance Booking Dates | National Rail

Find out the farthest travel dates in the future it is possible to book Advance tickets and reserve seats today.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

but I can't usually book tickets till the Friday

Why such a time lag between the NRE page being updated and the tickets actually being on sale? It makes a nonsense of the NRE page if it doesn't actually correspond to what's on sale.

 

[Adam Williams]

It shouldn't be a manually maintained NRE page at all, this should be electronic data that provides the real-time status of inventory that has been released, distributed to retailers to use.

RARS team weren't interested in progressing it when I suggested that, though.

 

[Haywain]

The NRE horizons page is usually updated on a Wednesday

but I can't usually book tickets till the Friday

Are you booking through the SWR website? If so, have you tried other websites to see if the same limitation applies?

 

[soccermad]

Adam

Just for the uneducated , what is RARS please ?

 

[Adam Williams]

RARS is the shiny new (well, less new now) "Rail Availability and Reservation" system

 

[James H]

Are you booking through the SWR website? If so, have you tried other websites to see if the same limitation applies?

No, not using the SWR website.

I have checked LNER, Trainsplit and Uber but it's always several days after the NRE page is updated that tickets for the furthest out week become available on any of those apps/sites.