Journey Planner Showing Incorrect Fares?

[zoneking]

This weekend, 2nd-3rd March, engineering works seem to be closing the quarry lines, so all trains are going through Redhill. As a result, there are no trains from Purley to Redhill, and a 12 minute journey becomes 42 minutes. You have to go via East Croydon.

Leaving aside the fact that trains are passing through Purley on their way to Redhill, the journey planner is giving the fare as £8.70 instead of the usual £4.40. Surely this is some mistake? A ticket from Purley to Redhill is £4.40. The longer route is unavoidable due the route changes. Passengers should not be penalised for this inconvenience.

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/PUR/RDH/020319/1615/dep

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

This weekend, 2nd-3rd March, engineering works seem to be closing the quarry lines, so all trains are going through Redhill. As a result, there are no trains from Purley to Redhill, and a 12 minute journey becomes 42 minutes. You have to go via East Croydon.

Leaving aside the fact that trains are passing through Purley on their way to Redhill, the journey planner is giving the fare as £8.70 instead of the usual £4.40. Surely this is some mistake? A ticket from Purley to Redhill is £4.40. The longer route is unavoidable due the route changes. Passengers should not be penalised for this inconvenience.

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/PUR/RDH/020319/1615/dep

It's not a mistake. National Rail Enquiries looks for combinations of tickets where the through ticket isn't deemed valid. Presumably no-one at the RDG or GTR have thought it an important enough issue to make time in their busy schedule to ensure that people can actually buy tickets (other than by using the likes of National Rail Enquiries or TrainSplit) when engineering closures occur. </rant>

The normal through ticket must be accepted via East Croydon, as otherwise you'd be being sold nothing at all (as you couldn't actually make journey at all)!

 

[Belperpete]

I have had cases where the planner says that there are no tickets available during engineering works (e.g. replacement buses being used on part of the route). In your case, the planner has worked out that there are no trains on the direct route, but you can go via the more expensive indirect route. As ForTheLoveOf says, the direct ticket should be accepted on the indirect route during the works, but the planner has not offered it because the TOC haven't entered a temporary easement into the system. The problem you have is in actually buying the direct ticket if the planner isn't offering it. All the web-sites that I use require you to specify the train you intend travelling on (at least for the outward journey) in order to buy a ticket, which is a problem in situations like this where the planner cannot find any trains. In order to get the cheaper ticket, you may have to buy it at the station, as TVMs don't ask which train you want to travel on.

 

[furlong]

This is another area where the train companies are unnecessarily putting themselves at risk of being found in breach of consumer law i.e. suggesting people must buy more expensive tickets than required. Their planners should know both the normal and amended timetables, and show fares based on the normal timetable. Instead they seem to have chosen to have a system that needs temporary easements to be created every time but haven't allocated sufficient resources to ensure those easements exist. Ask the ORR what action it's taking to enforce compliance, perhaps?