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As the title says thinking of a train ride from Liverpool to Blackpool in the future, to avoid being penned up in Blackpool North station while waiting to leave Blackpool, they have a terrible reputation and nobody in authority is doing anything about it.
So thinking of arriving in Blackpool North and returning home from Blackpool South breaking my journey in Preston.
Is there a Blackpool "All Stations" type of ticket ?
There isn't, but I have heard that staff will usually accept them the other way round without much of an issue, as a local, informal arrangement. For fairly obvious reasons, it'd be best to buy the ticket to North and use it from South rather than vice versa; as South is ungated, if you ask the guard the worst they'll do is charge a single to Kirkham, which is a not exactly swingeing £5.90 (Anytime)/£5.50 (0900 and later).
Can obviously be done from Liverpool on a "Lancashire Day Ranger" ticket. (Slightly more expensive at £25.90 than a straightforward there and back Off Peak Day Return (CDR) at £17.60, but perhaps more flexible, and you can also set off at 0900, i.e. slightly earlier during the week than you can using a CDR).
There isn't, but I have heard that staff will usually accept them the other way round without much of an issue, as a local, informal arrangement. For fairly obvious reasons, it'd be best to buy the ticket to North and use it from South rather than vice versa; as South is ungated, if you ask the guard the worst they'll do is charge a single to Kirkham, which is a not exactly swingeing £5.90 (Anytime)/£5.50 (0900 and later).
A little update as I'm going there, in a couple of weeks to look at the Tram and the new North ectension, I've now decided to drive to Blackpool and park further south and walk up or bus it.
I can't be bothered with the kettling experience in North or 1tph from South, Northern have lost a fare as its easier to go by car than train.
For anyone looking back on this in the future, always assuming of course that they haven't introduced a Blackpool all stations type ticket or some other highly localised integrated travel product for the area, I have previously solved this and will do so again by splitting at kirkham and wesham.
Do this off your main ticket from wherever you're starting from be it a flexible ticket on advance and then use a single to wherever you want to go with in the Blackpool area to join it up, also bear in mind that quite a few of the stations on the south branch can be reached easily by bus or tram and a few steps by the way, not checked out buses to kirkham but would be un surprised if this can be done also should you decide that returning by train is not for you
There is lots of easy free street parking at the South end. I tend to use Carlyle Avenue.
If you wanted the North end, around Cabin or Bispham has lots of street parking and a tram ride in.
What's this, something new?
Even tried it from Euston too and the Blackpool 'any' is still an option.
Same price as a BPN ticket although if you book a BPS ticket only it's about 30p less (going off single fares)
What's this, something new?
Even tried it from Euston too and the Blackpool 'any' is still an option.
Same price as a BPN ticket although if you book a BPS ticket only it's about 30p less (going off single fares)
What's this, something new?
Even tried it from Euston too and the Blackpool 'any' is still an option.
Same price as a BPN ticket although if you book a BPS ticket only it's about 30p less (going off single fares)
I put in details from Leeds to Blackpool using Northern's website, they offer the Blackpool (any) choice too, I'll bear that in mind when I want to travel there.
I'll try and find out if this option is available at the TVMs in Leeds.
I put in details from Leeds to Blackpool using Northern's website, they offer the Blackpool (any) choice too, I'll bear that in mind when I want to travel there.
I'll try and find out if this option is available at the TVMs in Leeds.
I pretended to book a Leeds-Blackpool day return on Northern for tomorrow choosing the Blackpool (any) option and its choices defaulted to Blackpool North.
That was what I faced when I wanted to travel to Blackpool visiting Blackpool FC's ground which is nearer to South station rather than North.
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If I wanted to travel via Blackpool South/Pleasure Beach in one direction I'd get a ticket to Blackpool North and ask the Guard if I was okay to use that ticket; I'd be very surprised if they said no.
In the highly unlikely event they say no, a single between Blackpool South and Kirkham & Wesham is £5.50.
In an age when all politicians, the RDG and the TOCs love to 'talk the talk' about simplifying tickets, surely a Blackpool Stations destination is quite a low-hanging fruit that could provide a simpler experience quite quickly. Would it be an enormous technical challenge to provide?
In an age when all politicians, the RDG and the TOCs love to 'talk the talk' about simplifying tickets, surely a Blackpool Stations destination is quite a low-hanging fruit that could provide a simpler experience quite quickly. Would it be an enormous technical challenge to provide?
No technical challenge at all. Simply a revenue challenge. Operators want their fare share of all Blackpool tickets. Currently Northern get all South tickets, but for just Blackpool, they'd loose out.
No technical challenge at all. Simply a revenue challenge. Operators want their fare share of all Blackpool tickets. Currently Northern get all South tickets, but for just Blackpool, they'd loose out.
Wonder if this possibly explains why Northern's website sometimes appears to default to what are mostly their own services and their own advance tickets?
What's this, something new?
Even tried it from Euston too and the Blackpool 'any' is still an option.
Same price as a BPN ticket although if you book a BPS ticket only it's about 30p less (going off single fares)
This is just the creation by trainline of a more convenient option on their widget. It's a good idea. It appears to search for both Blackpool North and South, and present the journey (and fare) results accordingly. The underlying structure of tickets is not affected - they are still to either Blackpool North or South.
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I put in details from Leeds to Blackpool using Northern's website, they offer the Blackpool (any) choice too, I'll bear that in mind when I want to travel there.
I'll try and find out if this option is available at the TVMs in Leeds.
The Northern website will be the same as thetrainline website because the Northern booking engine is provided by Trainline.
You won't find this on any TVMs because they just use the fares data; certainly you won't find it on a TVM that does not involve journey planning (as it will only show available fares, and there are no fares to "Blackpool N / S". You might find it on a TVM that has journey planning, though no TVMs are powered by Trainline, so far as I know.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
I pretended to book a Leeds-Blackpool day return on Northern for tomorrow choosing the Blackpool (any) option and its choices defaulted to Blackpool North.
That was what I faced when I wanted to travel to Blackpool visiting Blackpool FC's ground which is nearer to South station rather than North.
Assuming that you select "Blackpool (Any)", and were using the Northern website, then I expect it found the fastest journeys, most of which are to Blackpool North. You may have mistaken this for "defaulting" to Blsckpool North. It will depend where (and when) you are coming from as to whether there is ever a fastest journey to Blackpool South, causing it to show up.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
In an age when all politicians, the RDG and the TOCs love to 'talk the talk' about simplifying tickets, surely a Blackpool Stations destination is quite a low-hanging fruit that could provide a simpler experience quite quickly. Would it be an enormous technical challenge to provide?
Agreed. Now that franchising is dead it should be easy. The relative amounts of capacity (Blackpool North has maybe 10 times as much capacity as Blackpool South) may have been a reason for discontinuing it though - I don't know.
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No technical challenge at all. Simply a revenue challenge. Operators want their fare share of all Blackpool tickets. Currently Northern get all South tickets, but for just Blackpool, they'd loose out.
Wonder if this possibly explains why Northern's website sometimes appears to default to what are mostly their own services and their own advance tickets?
Wonder if this possibly explains why Northern's website sometimes appears to default to what are mostly their own services and their own advance tickets?
I tried another tack.
Using National Rail's journey planner, I searched for off-peak day return fares to Blackpool today from various stations:
Kirkham & Wesham to Blackpool South £5.60, Blackpool North £6.00
Preston to Blackpool South, £7.30, Blackpool North £8.00
Fares and train options immediately displayed for both Blackpool termini.
Then I ran this search for Bamber Bridge, one stop out of Preston on the Blackburn line, only served by Northern, requires change at Preston.
Bamber Bridge to Blackpool North, £9.60 - results came up automatically when Blackpool (all stations) selected
Bamber Bridge to Blackpool South, £9.60, I had to edit destination to Blackpool South to force search results.
I'm at a loss why there's a fare differential to/from Preston and Kirkham but not to/from Bamber Bridge even though Northern sets the fares
My guess would be that Northern keep all the fare to South, so want to encourage that. To North they will share with TPE & Avanti so get less of the fare. With the difference they probably get roughly the same.
My guess would be that Northern keep all the fare to South, so want to encourage that. To North they will share with TPE & Avanti so get less of the fare. With the difference they probably get roughly the same.
My guess would be that Northern keep all the fare to South, so want to encourage that. To North they will share with Avanti so get less of the fare. With the difference they probably get roughly the same.
No. From Kirkham and Preston, the average traveller will go for North, so South needs to be discounted to attract traffic. From Bamber Bridge until recently the service went to South, so no need to discount the fare.
No technical challenge at all. Simply a revenue challenge. Operators want their fare share of all Blackpool tickets. Currently Northern get all South tickets, but for just Blackpool, they'd loose out.
My guess would be that Northern keep all the fare to South, so want to encourage that. To North they will share with TPE & Avanti so get less of the fare. With the difference they probably get roughly the same.
No. From Kirkham and Preston, the average traveller will go for North, so South needs to be discounted to attract traffic. From Bamber Bridge until recently the service went to South, so no need to discount the fare.
If it's the same fare on off-peak day returns from Bamber Bridge to either Blackpool termini, has anyone recently travelled to/from Bamber Bridge and travelled through Blackpool North and South that day, to test whether those tickets are genuinely interavailable?
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