different fares for the same journey

[40fan]

Today I travelled between Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent using a single ticket and disabled railcard.

The price I looked up on National Rail Enquiries was £7.70

The price of my ticket from a self service machine at Wolverhampton station was £9.85.

When I bought this ticket I suspected that it was dearer than I thought but I could not remember the fare I looked up.

Which fare is the correct one?

 

[Bletchleyite]

http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=WVH&dest=SOT&rlc=DIS

£9.85 is the walk-up off-peak fare.

There is no £7.70 fare. There are however Advance fares at £7.60 and £7.80, which, as the name implies, must be booked in advance (with XC that can be very close to departure) and cannot be purchased from the TVM on the day (though VTEC are I believe trialling TVMs where you can). You probably saw one of these.

 

[Merseysider]

£7.70 is the price of undiscounted short-notice XC Advance fares.

These need to be purchased in advance of travel. The CrossCountry app will sell these up to 10-15 minutes before departure.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Ah, undiscounted ones? With DSB I guess those are the £5.something ones I also saw on BRFares.