New Lane to Chester VIA HUYTON

[mullin]

Right folks, I'm confused. I've no issues with buying a ticket from the above stations (New Lane to Chester VIA HUYTON), anytime day single, £4.80 16/25 railcard.

Reversing it, trainline sites say "No tickets are available, please refine your search". LondonMidland's site says one train for this fare, but it doubles back?

D. Chester 15:15
A. Liverpool Lime Street 15:58
Train continues to Chester

D. Liverpool Lime Street 16:16
A. Edge Hill 16:20
Train continues to Manchester Victoria

D. Edge Hill 16:49
A. Liverpool Lime Street 16:58
Train terminates at Liverpool Lime Street

D. Liverpool Lime Street 17:08
A. Liverpool Central 17:10
Train continues to West Kirby

D. Liverpool Central 17:23
A. Southport 18:09
Train terminates at Southport

D. Southport 18:17
A. New Lane 18:31

But this doesn't help me either as I want to go via Wigan.



So, my general plan is Megatrain from London to Liverpool, spend a couple of hours in Liverpool then head to Parbold where I wish to end my journey.
The anytime single (Chester --> New Lane) is valid for starting late, finishing early, correct?


Now if I've got the routing guide correct, Chester to Wigan groups CG, CL, ML

ML is Chester --> Hooton --> Liverpool --> Huyton --> Wigan


Am I missing something as to why I can't get trains to appear for £4.80? Or is it just not valid for some reason? It's 20% cheaper than buying the Liverpool to Parbold ticket, so I'd quite like it if so.


Thanks in advance (hope I've not confused anyone too much!!)

 

[tony_mac]

You can't use Wigan as a routeing point - it fails the 'fares check' rule.

If you use Liverpool as a routeing point, then as there are no direct trains, you must take the shortest route to Liverpool, which is via Southport.

 

[mullin]

OK, the Liverpool bit makes sense, but this still gets me....

You can't use Wigan as a routeing point - it fails the 'fares check' rule.

Then how come New Lane to Chester Via Huyton is valid? ie it's fine on the outward bound leg?

Suppose this is what happens when you've spent the evening booking ferries, flights and working on booking trains. So confused. Least a ferry is point to point and you generally can't 'split tickets' on them

 

[Solent&Wessex]

You can't use Wigan as a routeing point - it fails the 'fares check' rule.

If you use Liverpool as a routeing point, then as there are no direct trains, you must take the shortest route to Liverpool, which is via Southport.

Beat me to it. New Lane is associated with Liverpool, Wigan or Preston. Wigan fails the fare check rule (the fare from Chester to Wigan is more expensive than the fare from Chester to New Lane), thus it is not permitted to use Wigan as a routeing point, or take any route which passes through Wigan. The only permitte routes would be the permitted routes between Chester and Liverpool then the shortest route from Liverpool to New Lane, which is via Southport.

 

[tony_mac]

Then how come New Lane to Chester Via Huyton is valid? ie it's fine on the outward bound leg?

It's just some imperfection in the website coding.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The only permitte routes would be the permitted routes between Chester and Liverpool then the shortest route from Liverpool to New Lane, which is via Southport.

...and the shortest route

 

[mullin]

Final question on this then I hope, how do you find out which is the shortest route? Where can I find a list of miles between stations?

 

[Solent&Wessex]

Final question on this then I hope, how do you find out which is the shortest route? Where can I find a list of miles between stations?

There are two ways. They are shown in the National Rail Timetable - this is deemed to be the definitive guide for Routeing Guide purposes. Mileages are shown on the first page of each table. This is quite slow and cumbersome if switching between different tables however.

Alternatively RailMiles can calculate it for you.

 

[mullin]

Many thanks to everyone for the quick and helpful responses