Manchester to Edinburgh Tickets

[YorkshireBear]

Having a bit of a tough time with Manchester to Edinburgh Tickets and have exhausted all my usual ways of solving it.

Looking at going up Saturday the 10th back on the 11th. The TPE website gives us for two adults no railcards the option of a £133.60 off peak return. Avanti and Northern only. It lets you select an outbound itinerary but won't let me select one on the Sunday, even if it is an Avanti and Northern itinerary. Is this because on Sunday for some reason it tries to send you via Warrington? I can't get the TPE search engine to force the change at Preston on the Sunday. But could obviously just do this ourselves to force the point. It will let me select itineraries on the Monday with a change at Preston.

Cannot find this fare on any other website, Avanti currently won't sell tickets for the 11th because there is a strike two days later.

Can anyone help with my confusion.

 

[hkstudent]

Having a bit of a tough time with Manchester to Edinburgh Tickets and have exhausted all my usual ways of solving it.

Looking at going up Saturday the 10th back on the 11th. The TPE website gives us for two adults no railcards the option of a £133.60 off peak return. Avanti and Northern only. It lets you select an outbound itinerary but won't let me select one on the Sunday, even if it is an Avanti and Northern itinerary. Is this because on Sunday for some reason it tries to send you via Warrington? I can't get the TPE search engine to force the change at Preston on the Sunday. But could obviously just do this ourselves to force the point. It will let me select itineraries on the Monday with a change at Preston.

Cannot find this fare on any other website, Avanti currently won't sell tickets for the 11th because there is a strike two days later.

Can anyone help with my confusion.

Avanti has the policy of compulsory reservation, which means that on the strike day of 11th, since the schedule is not confirmed, they cannot sell you the ticket.
In a risky approach, you can try booking a 10th Dec Off Peak return ticket with selection of return on 12th Dec but opt to return on 11th Dec.

 

[mangyiscute]

Since Avanti have strike action on the 11th, they haven't published the timetable for that day yet so you cannot book tickets using their services on that day yet due to the compulsory reservations as mentioned above.
However, I would not be surprised if Avanti do not run any Edinburgh trains on the 11th so I would not purchase that ticket yet as you might not be able to use it - the price of that ticket will not change and it cannot "run out" so there's no risk in leaving it until the 9th/10th to book it once avanti have published their timetables - even if a train gets ''sold out" you can still buy an off peak ticket for it and sit in any unreserved seat.
However, since I expect no Avanti trains will run, i think unfortunately you will have to pay a higher fare, the cheapest journeys I can find are around £180

On a side note, does anyone know the policy if someone has bought a TOC restricted ticket and then can't use that ticket on the TOC it is restricted too due to strikes - can they use another TOC or do they have to buy a new ticket?

 

[Haywain]

On a side note, does anyone know the policy if someone has bought a TOC restricted ticket and then can't use that ticket on the TOC it is restricted too due to strikes - can they use another TOC or do they have to buy a new ticket?

If other TOCs have not agreed ticket acceptance with Avanti they are at liberty to refuse such a ticket.

 

[mangyiscute]

Would it not be considered in the EU laws about having a right to travelling on any alternative service if you are delayed by an hour+

 

[Haywain]

Would it not be considered in the EU laws about having a right to travelling on any alternative service if you are delayed by an hour+

That is up to the TOC at fault to reroute the passenger - how they do that (if they do) is up to them but that would still require a different ticket or ticket acceptance.

 

[Mainline421]

Avanti has the policy of compulsory reservation, which means that on the strike day of 11th, since the schedule is not confirmed, they cannot sell you the ticket.
In a risky approach, you can try booking a 10th Dec Off Peak return ticket with selection of return on 12th Dec but opt to return on 11th Dec.

It's worth emphasising Avanti only requires a reservation when booking online not a compulsory reservation requirement for travel. Edit: even that doesn't apply here, the ticket the OP wants can be booked using the open return option on avantiwestcoast.co.uk

You can purchase this ticket at a station ticket office @YorkshireBear, there is no real advantage to buying in advance unless you're particularly fussed about reserving a seat. It's very likely they won't be running to Edinburgh on the 11th though, so you might need another ticket to cover the gap.

 

[plugwash]

On a side note, does anyone know the policy if someone has bought a TOC restricted ticket and then can't use that ticket on the TOC it is restricted too due to strikes - can they use another TOC or do they have to buy a new ticket?

IIRC NRCOT has a rule that if a passenger would otherwise be stranded overnight, any TOC in a position to do so is required to offer assistance, but it doesn't specify exactly what form this assistance must take. An operator running one of the handful of trains on a strike day could easilly argue that carrying their own passengers took proiority over carrying other TOCs passengers.

There is also the EU passenger rights and obligations, but unfortunately the way that is written can make it difficult to use in practice on the UK rail network. since it requires you to persuade your original carrier to rebook you, it doesn't merely let you jump on a train.

Also while we all know compulsory reservations aren't being enforced on the ground, the fact remains they are what is listed in the timetable data. So given that the trains are marked as compulsory reservation and given that no reservations have been released yet Avanti could well argue that you never had a valid itinerary for the day in question in the first place.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[mangyiscute]

Just to add, the strike for the 11th has been cancelled and Avanti say a normal timetable will run, so you should be fine to use this ticket, and I expect the trains will be showing in the journey planner very soon if not already

https://twitter.com/AvantiWestCoast/status/1598740873910652954?t=oMVyCqk3A2-bd5e9Pj7B4w&s=19