High Wycombe to Berwick-upon-Tweed via Glasgow / Edinburgh ?

[General Zod]

Afternoon folks. I've just been messing about on Trainline and asked for a HWY - Berwick via Carlisle ticket and was surprisingly offered the said ticket but instead of being allowed the HWY-CAR-HEX-NCL route the journey I was given was route Glasgow or Edinburgh. I was just wondering if this is valid ? The route via Hexham seems more obvious but is not valid.

Routeing Guide :

Taking Berwick to be in Edinburgh Group then HWY - BWK is covered by maps :

EG+BS+MW
EG+CG+MW
MW+NE

This does allow the journey via Glasgow / Edinburgh.
If you take Berwick to be in Newcastle Group the results are very different. Which group does one use to calculate the valid route ?

cheers.

 

[MikeWh]

The valid routing points are one where the fare from origin to destination routing point (also origin routing point to destination) is no more expensive than the fare from origin to destination. I'm no expert though, but I'd be surprised if Edinburgh was a valid routing point for that journey.

 

[OwlMan]

The valid routing points are one where the fare from origin to destination routing point (also origin routing point to destination) is no more expensive than the fare from origin to destination. I'm no expert though, but I'd be surprised if Edinburgh was a valid routing point for that journey.

Both Edinburgh & Newcastle pass the "fares rule" so both are valid routeing points ( Using the SOS prices any permitted all are the same price; via "Not London" both Newcastle & Edinburgh are cheaper than Berwick On Tweed)

Peter

 

[yorkie]

The valid routing points are one where the fare from origin to destination routing point (also origin routing point to destination) is no more expensive than the fare from origin to destination. I'm no expert though, but I'd be surprised if Edinburgh was a valid routing point for that journey.

I'm not surprised to be honest.

Why not? Because the fares to Edinburgh/Glasgow are actually, relatively speaking, quite reasonable. East Coast know that they effectively have a monopoly for Berwick & Newcastle. Virgin likewise with Carlisle & Preston. EC don't tend to price their tickets higher to places like Berwick, but no cheaper either. But on the West Coast, Virgin have not capped the prices at the Glasgow/Edinburgh limit so it's actually cheaper to buy an Anytime from London to Glasgow/Edinburgh and finish short at Carlisle, than it is to get a ticket to Carlisle. This is not untypical of the sort of demand-based pricing Virgin does.

 

[General Zod]

Gents,
What would the reaction of the average gripper be if he came across someone with this ticket between Carlisle and Edinburgh ? Would the fact that the HWY-BWK ( OPR not London £111.40) being more expensive than the HWY - EDB ( OPR not London £110.80) be enough to convince him of the ticket's validity ? Do many people use the via EDB route to get to BWK from the West Coast ; enough for the Virgin gripper to be familiar with the nuance of the route & ticket validity ?

Z

 

[yorkie]

If the Berwick ticket was cheaper than Edinburgh, alarm bells would probably ring (that wouldn't necessarily make it invalid - but it would indicate that Edinburgh wasn't a valid Routeing Point and therefore the maps would need to be consulted), the fact it is more expensive means it is pretty obvious that Edinburgh is going to be a valid routeing point and therefore it is going to be valid.