Glasgow Airport rail + bus tickets

[lewisdicks]

Saw this on the Scotrail website

500 bus from Glasgow stations​

Get the train to Glasgow Central or Glasgow Queen Street and hop on the AirportExpress 500 bus to Glasgow Airport. Only tickets marked to, from or via "Glasgow Air XBus" are valid on this bus service.


Are these tickets still being sold at the moment? Tried to ask Scotrail and NRE and neither could confirm. Wanted to see if I could a 26-30 railcard discount on it to cut costs down.

 

[Haywain]

Wanted to see if I could a 26-30 railcard discount on it to cut costs down.

You can't get a railcard discount on the bus link:

Railcard, Privilege and Inter-Rail discount fares do not apply on rail-link services. Holders of Railcards should be issued with a discounted ticket to Aberdeen and purchase a separate ticket for the coach service.

And the cost of a ticket to Aberdeen might not be helpful either!!

 

[Gaelan]

The McGills 757 serves Glasgow Airport and Paisley Gilmour Street station, and (according to a pdf from 2021) has a single fare of £2.70, plus £2.75 for a ScotRail single from Glasgow Central to Paisley, gets you there for under a fiver.

 

[Watershed]

The fares still exist in the data, see e.g. fares from Glasgow Air XBus to Edinburgh.

However, there is nothing in the data that tells journey planners how to get to or from Glasgow Air XBus. Therefore, these fares can only be sold by ticket issuing systems (TISs) that don't require a journey to be planned (e.g. ScotRail TVMs and ticket offices), and only if Glasgow Air XBus are added or whitelisted as an origin/destination in the relevant TIS.

If buying this fare from a ticket office, it may help to quote code H789 (for Glasgow Air XBus), as TISs can sometimes use rather cryptic abbreviations for unusual origins/locations like these.

 

[T-Karmel]

If I manage to buy a ticket from Glasgow Air XBus to Glasgow Central (appreciating possible obstacles noted by @Watershed above) will I be able to use it for the express bus? The return ticket is listed for £15 on First Bus website but it is only £8,40 on the BR Fares.

 

[Haywain]

If I manage to buy a ticket from Glasgow Air XBus to Glasgow Central (appreciating possible obstacles noted by @Watershed above) will I be able to use it for the express bus? The return ticket is listed for £15 on First Bus website but it is only £8,40 on the BR Fares.

It's an add-on fare, so would also need a rail ticket component, but is valid on the service 500 express bus.

 

[Gaelan]

It's an add-on fare, so would also need a rail ticket component, but is valid on the service 500 express bus.

Are you sure? BRfares shows it as a normal bus single.

In any case, even if you're just going to Glasgow city centre, a return from the airport to Argyle Street is £10 (and has no break of journey restriction) - so still a better deal than a bus ticket!

 

[Haywain]

Are you sure?

I am sure. Because it does not qualify for railcard discounts it would be a separate fare in the fares system so that it can be issued with a rail ticket that has had a discount applied. In the same way, PlusBus fares show in BRFares, but should never be issued without an accompanying rail ticket.

 

[Buzby]

I would never consider taking a train to Glasgow Airport - the faff of a short journey, finding the right exit and the bus for the remainder. Far better to take the AirPort Express bus all the way (or save money by taking the X77 non-fast for a bit of sightseeing on the way)!

 

[MrJeeves]

Because it does not qualify for railcard discounts it would be a separate fare in the fares system so that it can be issued with a rail ticket that has had a discount applied.

I don't think that's the reason, in the same way that integrated tickets for Luton DART exist but the DART portion isn't (shouldn't be) discounted by railcards.

This is exactly what non-derivable fare overrides exist for, isn't it?

Then again, it might just be a case of there not being much use of making the process less complicated for the (presumably) small number of these issued compared to something like the DART.

 

[Haywain]

This is exactly what non-derivable fare overrides exist for, isn't it?

Fare overrides? The very idea gives me the shivers!!

 

[Gaelan]

Fare overrides? The very idea gives me the shivers!!

yes: the DART has railcard fares that correspond to a 34% discount on the rail portion only.

Incidentally, St Andrews is in a similar situation to Glasgow Airport - bus link, no railcard fares - but TrainSplit appears willing to retail standalone bus tickets. (Of course that’s not the case for Glasgow because there’s no timetable data - but maybe ticket offices can)

 

[Haywain]

Incidentally, St Andrews is in a similar situation to Glasgow Airport - bus link, no railcard fares - but TrainSplit appears willing to retail standalone bus tickets. (Of course that’s not the case for Glasgow because there’s no timetable data - but maybe ticket offices can)

What can be done and what should be done are not always the same things. An add-on fare needs to be added to something. Whether Trainsplit is correct or not in selling a standalone St Andrews bus link ticket I couldn't say.

 

[realemil]

or save money by taking the X77 non-fast for a bit of sightseeing on the way

Important to note that the X77 is a bus that goes to Ayr via Prestwick Airport! The 77 will take you to Glasgow Int Airport, but journey times are around an hour, compared to 15 minutes on the Glasgow Express Bus.

The 77 goes via the West End, Partick, Braehead, and other places before actually arriving at the airport.

I would rather pay the £10 single or £16 return for the express bus IMO. It would be very silly to go to Paisley, as other posters above have pointed out.

 

[MrJeeves]

Fare overrides? The very idea gives me the shivers!!

You and me both!

 

[Gaelan]

yes: the DART has railcard fares that correspond to a 34% discount on the rail portion only.

Incidentally, had a look at the fares data here: it's in the "Non Standard Discounts" file, and slightly horrible but not as bad as I was expecting; basically, for every combination of ticket type and railcard, they define a supplement that should be added to the "normal" railcard fare for journeys to Luton Airport.

It appears that the data format would support a single rule such as "any ticket type with any railcard to Luton Airport consists of the equivalent fare to Luton Airport Parkway plus xyz supplement" - it's not immediately clear to me why they wrote them out individually.

 

[MrJeeves]

it's not immediately clear to me why they wrote them out individually.

At a wild guess, perhaps to ensure some rogue TIS doesn't misinterpret the data.

 

[paul1609]

Important to note that the X77 is a bus that goes to Ayr via Prestwick Airport! The 77 will take you to Glasgow Int Airport, but journey times are around an hour, compared to 15 minutes on the Glasgow Express Bus.

The 77 goes via the West End, Partick, Braehead, and other places before actually arriving at the airport.

I would rather pay the £10 single or £16 return for the express bus IMO. It would be very silly to go to Paisley, as other posters above have pointed out.

It's only 1.5 miles from Gilmour Street to departures taking 35 mins. So you could take the train from Central and walk faster than most of the slow bus options!

 

[richardderby]

I've done the McGill's 757 many times this year. It's just over two quid with a contactless card and leaves right outside paisley station.. there is a real time timer so you know exactly
when the bus is coming..

 

[paul1609]

I've done the McGill's 757 many times this year. It's just over two quid with a contactless card and leaves right outside paisley station.. there is a real time timer so you know exactly
when the bus is coming..

It's not really an airport link bus though diverts to serve a couple of housing schemes enroute. It's even worse on the continuation to Clydebank unless things have changed in the past couple of years.

 

[richardderby]

Yes your right, it does trundle about a bit, but takes less than 15 mins, and with a non stop train from glasgow central taking 9 minutes, it's not a bad route really,. especially if you've got rail staff facilities..

 

[T-Karmel]

Thanks all, I managed to get the rail ticket for that bus and saved me a chunk of money.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Yes your right, it does trundle about a bit, but takes less than 15 mins, and with a non stop train from glasgow central taking 9 minutes, it's not a bad route really,. especially if you've got rail staff facilities..

Yes, I agree. I've done it before and the rail route is much nicer than the bus, especially if the M8 is congested.
You also have the Gourock/Wemyss Bay stoppers taking 15 mins to Paisley 3tph, on top of the 4tph first stop Paisley.