Advance tickets on Bustitution

[maniacmartin]

Hi all,

I've just looked online for some tickets from London Terminals to Oxford this upcoming Sunday, and WebTIS is showing me Advance purchase tickets with an itinerary of:
Paddington - Didcot Parkway (train)
Didcot Parkway - Oxford (bus)

I was under the impression that AP tickets were withdrawn during periods of planned engineering works, however it appears that this is not the case here. Does this happen often?
Also, do the bus services have a quota of seats or are they an unreservable connection?

 

[Paul Kelly]

Look here: http://brtimes.com/#board?stn=DID&filt=OXF&show=dep&date=20130310 The Didcot - Oxford buses aren't shown in the timetable as reservable, but most of them are shown as operated as First Great Western, and so will be valid on a "GREAT WESTN ONLY" advance ticket - as long as at least one other leg of the journey is on a reservable train that has quota available for the relevant ticket type.

 

[LexyBoy]

[...]as long as at least one other leg of the journey is on a reservable train that has quota available for the relevant ticket type.

The London-Didcot flow does not have Advance tickets, but trains via Swindon will have allocations of ticket types WES/WDS/WAS etc which are the same as apply for London<>Oxford.

Given the bustitution I would consider using the X90 between London and Oxford for a hassle-free journey, approx 1h40 so the same as the train - £13 single / £16 day return.

 

[radamfi]

Given the bustitution I would consider using the X90 between London and Oxford for a hassle-free journey, approx 1h40 so the same as the train - £13 single / £16 day return.

Out of interest, do you have a particular preference for the X90 compared to the Oxford Tube? If so, why?

 

[maniacmartin]

The London-Didcot flow does not have Advance tickets, but trains via Swindon will have allocations of ticket types WES/WDS/WAS etc which are the same as apply for London<>Oxford.

So its due to the fact that the route diverges at Didcot, and the only way to prevent sale of the APs to Oxford by the booking engine would also stop tickets to Bristol etc being sold?

I've been on the Oxford "Tube" before, a few years ago now. I liked it as you could sit at the very front on the top floor with great views, and next to the heating/aircon air vent. How does the X90 compare for comfort?

 

[34D]

So its due to the fact that the route diverges at Didcot, and the only way to prevent sale of the APs to Oxford by the booking engine would also stop tickets to Bristol etc being sold?

I think they can adjust individual quotas if they wish. There shouldn't be any issues with advances on RRBs.

As a point of note, RRB co-ordinators will actively encourage people with advances to get earlier buses, so there shouldn't be any problem doing such.

 

[Paul Kelly]

The quota from Paddington to Reading and from Reading to Didcot would be available for any journey. But they could put a specific block on journeys to/from Oxford if they wanted - this would be known as a "barred train". I don't get what the problem with selling these tickets with part of the journey on a bus is though - surely if people are willing to buy them, everything is fine?

 

[maniacmartin]

I never said there was a problem, just that I've never seen it before. I had assumed that because buses may have a lower capacity than trains, that a TOC wouldn't want to sell cheap Advances given that they are paying per 50 seats in effect to provide this service, unlike a massive HST which might be carting air around at the weekend.

Then again, perhaps they envisage that there will be virtually no-one on the buses as people don't like RRBs, and the APs currently on sale aren't particularly cheap anyway.

 

[LexyBoy]

I don't know details about Advance allocations so I'll leave that to those who do.

How does the X90 compare for comfort?

It's basically the same, I've not been on the new coaches though. The Tube is aimed more at leisure travellers so has some groups of facing seats, whereas the x90 is all airline.

I prefer the X90 mainly as it's not lining Souter's pockets, it's also a bit quicker as it doesn't stop at Lewknor or Shepherd's Bush. Back when I used it regularly it was also much more reliable, and would pass failed Tubes on the M40 more often than not (not exaggerating). Both firms have new coaches since then.