Hi all,
I am located in Germany and planning a journey to the UK around the new year.
The GWR site mentiones on the one hand that its possible to book three months in advance, but not journeys after Dec. 8th.
Does anyone know when booking for the period after that date becomes available?
Thank you very much.
Martin
Network Rail, who are the Government-owned company that owns and maintains the track, are currently experiencing significant problems with scheduling engineering works the usual 12 weeks (3 months) in advance (basically, they have a big backlog from overrunning upgrades, and not enough staff to sort out the backlog quickly!). They are currently confirming timetables only approximately 1.5 months in advance, depending on the exact line.
It's quite unfortunate, since Advance tickets - which are the equivalent of Deutsche Bahn's
Sparpreise: i.e. the cheapest tickets - don't get released until the timetable is confirmed, since they are fixed to specific trains and if there is no confirmed timetable then there are no trains to fix the ticket to!
National Rail Enquiries ("NRE",
www.nationalrail.co.uk) is a useful site operated by the Rail Delivery Group, which is the industry association that represents all train companies. On
this page on NRE, you can see how the current "booking horizon" varies depending on the train company in question, and the route on that train company which you want to book on. And on
this page on NRE, you can sign up for alerts to find out when timetables are confirmed, and hence Advance tickets released. Finally,
this page on NRE tells you when it is
estimated that timetables will be confirmed for each date/route/train company.
When the timetable is confirmed and Advance tickets are released, please come back here for further advice on the best tickets for your journey - whilst it is of course possible to simply book whatever NRE recommends with a normal search, often there is a cheaper and/or more flexible ticket (or combination of tickets) which you could use. You won't find that out without having "insider knowledge" from somewhere like here!
I think we're all rather jealous of the much more simple, cheap and logical fare system in Germany!
