Fares that are difficult to get itineraries for

[yorkie]

This thread is for people to post examples of fares that exist, but most booking sites will not offer unless you go out of your way to specify via points.

For example, from the Dover area to Southampton area (and many more flows) routed "via Barnham":

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

Flow Origin​	Q290​
Cluster​	5033 DOVER PRIORY​	5038 KEARSNEY (KENT)​	​	​
Flow Destination​	Q264​
Cluster​	5890 BEAULIEU ROAD​	5912 REDBRIDGE HANTS​	5922 SOUTHAMPTON AIR​	​
	5906 ASHURST N FOREST​	5914 ST DENYS​	5932 SOUTHAMPTON CTL​	​
	5909 MILLBROOK HANTS​	5921 TOTTON​	5933 SWAYTHLING​

Route​	00947 VIA BARNHAM​
Cross-London​	NO​
Fare Setter​	NSC SOUTHERN​

In most booking sites, you'd need to specify a via point of somewhere like Penshurst (or, alternaively, Falmer) to get itineraries; you may even need two or more via points (which is only possible on Trainsplit).

Are there any other such fares, which usually require one or more via points, to get the fares to show?


To get us started, here are two more:

Flow Origin​	1444 LONDON EUSTON​
Flow Destination​	6691 SHEFFIELD​

Route​	00370 LNR/WMR &XC ONLY​
Cross-London​	NO​
Fare Setter​	LBR WEST MIDLANDS TRAINS​

Flow Origin​	2968 MANCHESTER PIC​
Flow Destination​	1444 LONDON EUSTON​

Route​	00371 LNR/WMR&TFW ONLY​
Cross-London​	NO​
Fare Setter​	LBR WEST MIDLANDS TRAINS​

(On the same route, WMT also price a fare including Northern, and Lumo also team up with TfW)

TOC sites often exclude such cheaper options, but are there are any that are so obscure, that even sites such as Trainsplit and/or Railsmartr don't find them?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 19:26 ==

Edit: OK this one may be the most lengthy deviation by proportion of journey time:

low Origin​	5004 ASHFORD INTL​
Flow Destination​	1072 LONDON TERMINALS​

Route​	00725 VIA HAYWARDS HTH​
Cross-London​	NO​
Fare Setter​	NSC SOUTHERN​

41 mins direct (to STP) vs over 3 hours to any other terminal via Haywards Heath, ie. approx 5 times the journey time to use the cheaper ticket.

More examples would be good; thanks to anyone who can help

 

[Hadders]

Liverpool to Brighton route Southern and WMT

 

[Watershed]

Shrewsbury to London route Warminster-Salisbury!

Bournemouth to Exeter is a good test to see which of the five fare routes are offered by journey planners. I doubt many will come up with the cheapest fares, changing at Dorchester/Upwey and the two Yeovil stations.

Shrewsbury to Basingstoke has 6 different fare routes and similarly most wouldn't come up by default. Especially not the "+via High Wycombe" fares. On that note there are lots of Chiltern + TfW fares, e.g. Holyhead to London.

 

[yorkie]

Thanks, both.

Also if anyone has any loopholes/anomalies that would be considered to be "too cheap" in the eyes of certain pricing managers, it may be best not to post these. Thanks to those who sent me some privately, so as to avoid them being brought to the attention of people who may try to abolish them.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 20:08 ==

Bournemouth to Exeter is a good test to see which of the five fare routes are offered by journey planners. I doubt many will come up with the cheapest fares, changing at Dorchester/Upwey and the two Yeovil stations

Trainsplit does, though it can still be cheaper to split:

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

But yes, I doubt any TOC sites offer that.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 20:13 ==

Shrewsbury to London route Warminster-Salisbury!

Ah yes, I'd forgotten about that one.

Again, Trainsplit does find it, however, there is such good competition on the West Coast Mainline, it would be cheaper and quicker to take WMT, or change onto Lumo, or even to go into Marylebone on Chiltern.

But if I filtered flexible fares only and turned splits off, here it is:

(no via points required)

 

[81A]

Most fares routed “Ealing Common/West Acton”-example.

 

[yorkie]

Most fares routed “Ealing Common/West Acton”-example.

That's different as it requires London Underground timetable data. Very few journey planners have this data and also supply fares.

If you try the newer TVMs provided by GTS / Elizabeth Line, and plan a journey from Reading to East Acton, I think it will be offered as they do have this data. I'm not sure if those machines are at Reading but I have seen them at Ealing Broadway, for example.

 

[81A]

That's different as it requires London Underground timetable data. Very few journey planners have this data and also supply fares.

Interesting, I did wonder whether the Underground element was the issue…

 

[yorkie]

Interesting, I did wonder whether the Underground element was the issue…

Yes, it's not in the NR data feed. If you go to a station with a new TVM provided by GTS (not GWR) you should be able to get NR to LU inclusive journeys with itineraries and fares.

 

[A S Leib]

I think the EMR site just recommends changing at Kettering and Leicester for Bedford to Sheffield unless you specify via St. Pancras (or Doncaster) for via London any permitted fares.

 

[yorkie]

I think the EMR site just recommends changing at Kettering and Leicester for Bedford to Sheffield unless you specify via St. Pancras (or Doncaster) for via London any permitted fares.

The Any Permitted fares are more expensive, and the journey is slower.

However it is true to say that the EMR site doesn't offer cheaper (but slower) journeys via London, which of course the forum's ticketing site does:



I get the impression that DfT/TOCs don't want people to see cheaper options and if passengers don't like the high default fares, the DfT would much prefer those passengers to go by car, as otherwise if more people were encouraged to travel by train, the DfT would need to increase capacity, but that's a whole new topic

 

[Kite159]

Not so much these days but in a previous timetable (when LNR was mostly hourly to Liverpool) getting LNR only fares between London & Liverpool due to an Avanti service being in between the two LNR services. Similar to the London - Manchester LNR+TfW (or LNR + Northern) flexible fares.