Advance ticket validity on SWT

[extendedpaul]

Yes, I recall something like that a while ago. Tickets were cancelled quite close to the date of travel.

I've noticed that on Megatrain routes that are offered at weekends no tickets are released for some dates, presumably due to engineering works en route. For example between London and Portsmouth there are Megatrain tickets on Saturdays 20 May, 3 June, 24 June and 1 July but not on 27 May, 10 June, 17 June.

On 1 July incidentally there are currently £1 tickets available, unusual this late in the day. I've often noticed them to be snapped up within minutes of midnight when they go on sale.

 

[DelW]

However, if I use the advance search facility to request less time to cross London the transfer time is then reduced to 39 minutes and I arrive at Newport 30 minutes earlier. From past experience I regard 39 minutes as adequate time for the transfer and 69 minutes excessive.

Might this provide a solution to excessive cross London transfer times ??

I have come across that option on the NRE site and it does provide more realistic timings. However I don't think it was on option within the GWR 'mixing desk' website when I made the booking. Having said that, I didn't go looking for it as I've never had 'specified train only' on the SWT sectors before.

Yesterday I made a similar trip, though to Manchester this time. Instead of booking right through, I had tickets split at Euston, with anytime validity on SWT. Annoyingly I just missed a connection at Waterloo on the way back (it would have been extremely tight at just 17min, so I didn't expect to make it), so I still had almost a half-hour wait at WAT.

 

[gray1404]

So the question now is, if you select to allow less time to cross London on NRE, which other TOCs will carry those shorter transfer times over when you continue to their sites from NRE to finish the booking and buy the ticket.....

Hope you managed to save some money too by splitting your tickets

 

[extendedpaul]

So the question now is, if you select to allow less time to cross London on NRE, which other TOCs will carry those shorter transfer times over when you continue to their sites from NRE to finish the booking and buy the ticket.....



That's interesting. I've just tried a sample journey, 09.15 Rainham(Kent) to Newport (S.Wales) on 01/08/17, starting with NRE and continuing to GWR. While I did not complete the purchase the system seemed quite happy to sell me a ticket with the reduced 39 minute transfer time and arriving at Newport at 12.31 instead of 13.04.

I'll try it "for real" next journey I book, though when I think of all the boring 45 minutes I've hung around at Paddington for a booked train which apparently could have been 15....

 

[DelW]

Hope you managed to save some money too by splitting your tickets

This was a work trip, so paid for by my employer, who chose the ticket split.

It showed the benefits of booking well ahead though - the Manchester trip booked a week ago (using Virgin advance singles and SWT anytime) cost over three times as much in standard class as my Liverpool trip did in first class (booked as soon as advances were available).