Liverpool/Merseyrail tickets

[142094]

I am in Liverpool this on Thursday and Friday and will be doing quite a lot of travelling around the area, probably going to some of the terminus stations on the Merseyrail lines. Also may take in a trip to Chester and Warrington.

I've had a look on Merseyrail's site and have also heard about Saveaway tickets in other threads, but cannot find any prices. I understand they are not valid at certain times in the morning, and are not valid to Chester and Warington.

An ideas what thebest combinations of tickets would be?

Cheers in advance.

 

[nedchester]

http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/articleimages/Saveaway 2009a.pdf

 

[323235]

Might be worth looking at a Cheshire or Lancashire Day Ranger. Though these both cover different bits of the Merseyrail Electrics Network.

Cheshire Day Ranger

Lancashire Day Ranger

 

[142094]

Thanks for the link Nedchester, actually looks pretty good value, and gets me to Chester as well. Will just have to either get up a bit later or buy a normal ticket early in the morning.

323235, was looking at that but seems the Saveaway is better value.

 

[323235]

I understand they are not valid at certain times in the morning, and are not valid to Chester and Warington.

An ideas what thebest combinations of tickets would be?

Cheers in advance.

If you want to go to Warrington

Earlestown to Warrington Bank Quay is £3.00
Liverpool to Warrington Stations is £4.90


Chester-Earlestown/Newton Le Willows is £6.80 "Route Warrington"
Chester- Earlestown/Newton "Any Permitted" is £8.60
Chester - Warrington "Any Permitted" is £8.20

 

[tony_mac]

Liverpool to Chester is definitely valid on a Saveway by train, but you can't use buses in Chester or take any other train route.

For other tickets, you want them to / from the Merseyside PTE area.

Chester to Liverpool (Any Permitted is £4.40 CDR) and travel via Warrington.
There is a more expensive 'route Warrington' fare, but the journey planners all say that an 'Any permitted' is allowed via Warrington. If that's a worry, Chester to Bootle Oriel Road only has an Any Permitted fare (£4.40)

Also there is Chester to New Lane; for a £4.40 CDR you could go from Chester to Southport via Warrington and Wigan.

 

[First class]

Just a little reminder regarding the withdrawal of the normal Saveaways from ALL Merseyside rail stations-

From 15 March, scratch card saveaways will no longer be issued from train stations, although they will continue to be valid if purchased elsewhere.
"New" style saveaways will be printed on orange common RSP stock, (normal rail ticket) as a One Day Ranger.

This has numerous advantages i.e. you can now buy any area from any station, they will never 'run out' and stock cannot go missing/stolen and the major problem of numerous dates scratched off and covered up should dramatically reduce. You can, of course, use this new style Saveaway on buses, ferries and trains in their respective areas.

HOWEVER from a staff point of view this is terrible:

1) You cannot easily differentiate between zonal areas as they are on same coloured stock.
2) They still won't work the ticket barriers
3) The "new style" Saveaway does not show any specific ticket restriction, just "as advertised". This will make educating people about the restriction/enforcing it a lot more difficult.
4) It may allow an unaccompanied child to use the ferries as no restriction mentioned.

The next expected step is to introduce an "Anytime" saveaway, followed by the other PTE products being issued through STAR/TIS.

 

[323235]

Why did they not go for special colour coded ticket stock?

Liverpool to Chester is definitely valid on a Saveway by train, but you can't use buses in Chester or take any other train route.

For other tickets, you want them to / from the Merseyside PTE area.

Chester to Liverpool (Any Permitted is £4.40 CDR) and travel via Warrington.

Unless my copy of Avantix is dodgy the £4.40 Chester - Liverpool is showing here as a "Route Birkenhead"

"Route Warrington" is £8.60 or Any Permitted is £8.90.
Though be pointless paying that when you could get one of the cheaper tickets mentioned in several previous posts if applicable.

 

[tony_mac]

Unless my copy of Avantix is dodgy the £4.40 Chester - Liverpool is showing here as a "Route Birkenhead"

My mistake, it is Liverpool to Chester that is £4.40 'any permitted', not the other way round - so if you want to go both ways, use Bootle or New Lane instead.
A Liverpool or Bootle to Chester SDR is £6.15, any permitted, which would allow a much earlier start, but not travel via Wigan.

 

[323235]

My mistake, it is Liverpool to Chester that is £4.40 'any permitted'

hmm that's an interesting one

 

[First class]

My mistake, it is Liverpool to Chester that is £4.40 'any permitted', not the other way round - so if you want to go both ways, use Bootle or New Lane instead.
A Liverpool or Bootle to Chester SDR is £6.15, any permitted, which would allow a much earlier start, but not travel via Wigan.

Cheaper to buy to/from Shotton during the peak, only £6 SDR Liverpool-Shotton Any Permitted and vice versa.

The really strange thing is the season tickets between Liverpool and Chester.

The Any Permitted annual set by Merseyrail is £1108 (valid via Runcorn, Birkenhead and Warrington),
The Any Permitted annual set by ATW is £1268.

Yet both have exactly the same validity! You save £168 just by swapping origin/destination.

Also useful for Liverpool-Warrington as the annual season is £1216.

 

[ukrob]

HOWEVER from a staff point of view this is terrible:

1) You cannot easily differentiate between zonal areas as they are on same coloured stock.
2) They still won't work the ticket barriers
3) The "new style" Saveaway does not show any specific ticket restriction, just "as advertised". This will make educating people about the restriction/enforcing it a lot more difficult.
4) It may allow an unaccompanied child to use the ferries as no restriction mentioned.

The next expected step is to introduce an "Anytime" saveaway, followed by the other PTE products being issued through STAR/TIS.

So, to clarify, they will be printed on normal orange ticket stock. The stations with barriers tell you (both by illustration and staff) to use orange tickets in the barriers. But the barriers will not work with the new saveaways.

I love it when a plan comes together.

 

[First class]

So, to clarify, they will be printed on normal orange ticket stock. The stations with barriers tell you (both by illustration and staff) to use orange tickets in the barriers. But the barriers will not work with the new saveaways.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Correct, although only for a short time.

Apparently the barriers are due a software upgrade and as Central is having another 8 barriers installed in the next month or so, (no manual gates), it would be surprising if they didn't have it all sorted out seeing as it's Network Rail paying.

 

[ukrob]

Correct, although only for a short time.

Apparently the barriers are due a software upgrade and as Central is having another 8 barriers installed in the next month or so, (no manual gates), it would be surprising if they didn't have it all sorted out seeing as it's Network Rail paying.

Where? On the other side of the MtoGo (where the rarely used manual barriers used to be)?

More to the point why - obviously I don't use the station at all times on all days, but I have never seen any delays through lack of barriers so doubling the number of them seems a bit extreme even if removing the manned barrier.

Lets hope the barriers get a software upgrade soon - they will be a hundred times more effective at catching wrongly dated etc scratch tickets than a manual check.

On another note the Central Village plans relating to Central station were approved today.

 

[First class]

Where the current manual barriers are, walk about 5m to where the TVM used to be. The additional barriers will all be installed from the roof supporting wall to the lift passageway wall. So they're much more forward than the current barriers. They will all be set for exit, with the existing ones as entry.

The reason there's no queue is that no more than 40% of people use them.

 

[ukrob]

Where the current manual barriers are, walk about 5m to where the TVM used to be. The additional barriers will all be installed from the roof supporting wall to the lift passageway wall. So they're much more forward than the current barriers. They will all be set for exit, with the existing ones as entry.

The reason there's no queue is that no more than 40% of people use them.

I'm struggling to picture what you mean - could you explain again using other reference points?

 

[First class]

A very crude layout drawing in paint, might clear it up a bit?

 

[ukrob]

A very crude layout drawing in paint, might clear it up a bit?

Thats great thanks, it is actually what I thought you meant from the description - but I thought surely not as there can't be enough room for another 8 gates especially as some will have to be wide ones for disabled and luggage?

 

[First class]

Thats great thanks, it is actually what I thought you meant from the description - but I thought surely not as there can't be enough room for another 8 gates especially as some will have to be wide ones for disabled and luggage?

Where the line is right down the middle between the two sets of gates is going to incorporate one (usually closed) manual gate. The idea is that for Aintree races, other special events, this gate can be opened for additional flows. Do not forget that the wall to the left of the drawing will be removed and the lift area will be re-designed as part of the main concourse area, so at least an extra 5 metres will become available. That is a later project. So they may just install whatever they can fit in for the time being.

 

[ukrob]

Fair enough