London Midland - finding their own fares

[stephen rp]

I'm going Warrington to Moreton-in-Marsh next Wednesday (first thing). I'm never sure whether the LM site is showing its own cheapest fare (even for Crewe-London - I use tpexpress and click their "slower routes" to find the LM only fares). I need a good price advantage to use advance tickets (and I get railcard discount on the fares quoted).

Trying to split tickets (and looking only for singles) LM came up with a first class advance for £22.50 Liverpool S Parkway to Worcester at either 0640 or 0715 (connections possible in from Sankey). (The £18 std advance is sold out.) So that would be with singles at either end £39.20 against the anytime single £59.50. Splitting at Wolverhampton gives £55.30 - I couldn't find a better split but trainsplit came up with the bizarre thing that anytime single is available Wolverhampton to Honeybourne but not to Moreton, and that brings it down to £49.40!

But how on the LM site do you know if you've got their cheapest fare? There's a £39 OPR Crewe-London on the 0649 direct train but it doesn't come up on LM.... (as it's a long journey via Brum and the 07 55 gets in 10 mins later - but it does show on the tpe site).

 

[Haywain]

But how on the LM site do you know if you've got their cheapest fare? There's a £39 OPR Crewe-London on the 0649 direct train but it doesn't come up on LM.... (as it's a long journey via Brum and the 07 55 gets in 10 mins later - but it does show on the tpe site).

On the LM site you simply need to select travel via Birmingham New Street (BHM) and the £39 Off Peak Return will show up.

 

[Oscar]

Please use the standard 3-letter codes when shortening names of ticket types to avoid confusion - the Off-Peak Return you refer to is SVR, not OPR. OPR is London Midland's Super Off-Peak Return. You can find the codes at brfares.com. You can also use this website to check the validity (operator/time restrictions) of the tickets you find on ticket retailing websites.