High Speed 1 First Class

[heart-of-wessex]

Hello all,

Just been looking online to see what the price of a Ebbsfleet return is as I might be going there on the 21st from St Pancras. I went online to find not only a return fare a £22.50, but also a first class fare at £24.20!? When buying standard, it gives you the opportunity to upgrade to first class for £1.70.

As expected, it doesn't actually find any trains for you to select but it still gives you the opportunity to just go ahead and buy the ticket. Would you get a £1.70 refund if you turned up to find there was no first class on the Javelins?

Had I searched, say, St Pancras International to Faversham, I'd expect a first class fare as you can still continue on the 'classic' lines on a 375 from Gravesend to Faversham.

But with a Ebbsfleet return, there is no other real feasable route, considering the price is PLUS HIGHSPEED too, and called SE Weekender. You couldn't exactly use this on a Eurostar for first class instead. I looked up Stratford International too just to see what it brings up, and oddly that also offers an £11 or so return fare, and £1.50 for a first class upgrade.


Are these maybe defunct fares that were put in in case Javelins had first class or something? Surely otherwise they'd be taken off an not available for sale?

 

[D365]

Isn't Southeastern high-speed considered enough of a 'premium' already?

 

[Eagle]

But with a Ebbsfleet return, there is no other real feasable route, considering the price is PLUS HIGHSPEED too, and called SE Weekender. You couldn't exactly use this on a Eurostar for first class instead. I looked up Stratford International too just to see what it brings up, and oddly that also offers an £11 or so return fare, and £1.50 for a first class upgrade.

I think you can work out a route from Victoria/Charing Cross (or any other appropriate London Terminal) to Gravesend to Ebbsfleet, which I believe is a permitted route, that uses services with first class.

"PLUS HIGH SPEED" doesn't mean you have to use HS1, just that you may use it.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Quite a steep return fare as it is, might as well be a FC only unit!

Eagle - Ah I see, so from St Pancras that would probably include Tube transfer too, depending if the cross was on the ticket. If so I suppose an extra £1.50 wouldn't be so bad as you'd get a bit more mileage out of it. Depends if you call first class in a 375 worth going a longer way to get the most out of your ticket worth going for.

 

[rmt4ever]

I remember something in the paper a couple of years ago along the lines of "train company selling first class tickets with no first class" and stating how passengers were being ripped off with this money making scam


Ps found it

 

[heart-of-wessex]

Reminds me of the time when I was able to select a First Class single from Freshford to Trowbridge!! Unsure if it's there now, but a couple of years ago I found it and was for just one service at around 1400-1500 or so. Never did work out what it was, might have been part of the diagram for the hire-in SWT 158, but even then that's declassified.

EDIT

You still are actually able to buy a £6.10 First Class Single online over the £3.20 standard fare. Again, no trains come up for reserving a seat but you get the option to go ahead and buy it online.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Happens a lot.

You can buy a First Class single from Bradford to Leeds, if you so desire.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Happens a lot.

You can buy a First Class single from Bradford to Leeds, if you so desire.

However, EC run at least one service in each direction Mon-Fri which does have 1st class

 

[Eagle]

Reminds me of the time when I was able to select a First Class single from Freshford to Trowbridge!! Unsure if it's there now, but a couple of years ago I found it and was for just one service at around 1400-1500 or so. Never did work out what it was, might have been part of the diagram for the hire-in SWT 158, but even then that's declassified.

Freshford to Bradford on any FGW service, Bradford to Trowbridge on a SWT Waterloo service (which has first class).

It seems that there's often a first class fare for any journey where even the smallest part of it can be done on a service with first class.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

I suppose it's just one of those thing's if you are mad enough to get a stopper to Bradford then jump in the 159 for First Class, all 4 miles of it instead of just staying on the stopper !!

It's one of those things I'd do if I still had a fair bit of money spare, just to see the grippers face, if any! I may well be the first person to actually have bought it!

 

[kieron]

It seems that there's often a first class fare for any journey where even the smallest part of it can be done on a service with first class.

Maybe, but the routes which do and don't have first class fares seem a bit haphazard to me.

For instance, Mouldsworth-Stockport has first class tickets, but no trains with a first class section they can be used on. Birkenhead-Newcastle has the trains (at least, once you cross the Mersey) but no first class tickets. Crewe-Kidsgrove is the same, except that the journey can be made on one train which has a first class section.

I'm sure the Waterloo service would be used to explain why they need to keep first class fares for Freshford-Trowbridge, though, if anyone asked.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

I'm sure the Waterloo service would be used to explain why they need to keep first class fares for Freshford-Trowbridge, though, if anyone asked.

Mind though that none of the 5 or so SWT trains a day call at Freshford. You'd need to change at Bradford-on-Avon for an SWT service to Trowbridge and vice versa. A pointless idea really when all the hourly trains that call at Freshford (FGW only) call at Trowbridge anyway. So travelling first class is actually going to slow you down

 

[SoonToBeMrsS]

I think you can work out a route from Victoria/Charing Cross (or any other appropriate London Terminal) to Gravesend to Ebbsfleet, which I believe is a permitted route, that uses services with first class.

"PLUS HIGH SPEED" doesn't mean you have to use HS1, just that you may use it.

Hee hee....

1. Maybe they're trying to be posh "Oh I always travel First Class.. No riffraff here" :roll:

2. Gravesend is beyond Ebbsfleet (as it is beyond on HS route?) so surely it wouldn't be valid. Maybe via Northfleet and walking? Didn't think you could go out and back on yourself. Something to do with direct routes?

Do forgive, but I'm a bit of a newbie, trying to get a grasp of practical routing in the east, southeast and south (including the sodding city of London)

 

[34D]

You may wish to read the Rail UK guide to routeing for background

 

[kieron]

Mind though that none of the 5 or so SWT trains a day call at Freshford. You'd need to change at Bradford-on-Avon for an SWT service to Trowbridge and vice versa. A pointless idea really when all the hourly trains that call at Freshford (FGW only) call at Trowbridge anyway. So travelling first class is actually going to slow you down

I appreciate that it's not useful for a journey between Freshford and Trowbridge. If you complained to a TOC that you had bought a first class ticket and then found that that no trains with first class carriages went that way, I'd expect them to be more sympathetic to someone who couldn't use a first class ticket on any part of that route than to someone who could.

Someone connecting from the return half of a London-Chippenham ticket may be glad of a 1st class Trowbridge-Freshford ticket some day (leaving aside for a moment the fact that London-Chippenham is valid via Wesbury and Freshford anyway).

 

[Deerfold]

However, EC run at least one service in each direction Mon-Fri which does have 1st class

Mon-Sat.

(Though on Saturdays both services run and hour later).