Merseyrail £2 return offer

[northwichcat]

Merseyrail seem to be doing a £2 day return offer valid for travel on Sunday 7th August, Sunday 14th August and Sunday 21st August. £2 day returns are available for Liverpool-Southport, Liverpool-Chester and Chester-Southport. They don't seem to be Merseyrail specific tickets so the latter would be valid on the direct Chester-Stockport-Southport services as long as you don't travel short or break your journey.

They don't seem to be available for journeys to Liverpool from other stations e.g. West Kirby, New Brighton, Ellesmere Port, Ormskirk and Hunts Cross.

 

[ChrisTheRef]

The offer is running this Sunday and next (7th and 14th) but has been withdrawn on the 21st.

It's a return journey between any two Merseyrail stations for £2.

Break of journey is not permitted and they're only valid on Merseyrail services.

 

[trainophile]

Where has this been publicised please?

 

[ChrisTheRef]

It's just been publicised around Merseyrail stations today.

I work for them and only found out two days ago!

 

[trainophile]

Oh thanks. I used Merseyrail today and didn't see or hear anything about it at the station (Southport) - mind you I had an Advance ticket so didn't go into the booking area. Sounds like a good offer, pity it's only Sundays.

 

[northwichcat]

Yesterday, you can buy the £2 tickets for Chester-Liverpool, Liverpool-Southport and Chester-Southport off the good online ticketing sites i.e. not the trainline and rail easy powered ones. They didn't show an operator restriction on Southport-Chester just showing it as an Off-Peak Day Return for £2. Maybe they realised they had been put in incorrectly and removed them. An 'Any Permitted' Southport-Chester ticket is valid via Manchester so it could have meant a lot of £2 returns being used for Chester-Manchester and Manchester-Southport if they really didn't have a Merseyrail restriction printed on them.

 

[vjm1975]

Merseyrail have placed stickers on the TVM's at unmanned stations explaining how to access the £2 special offer.

 

[nedchester]

Merseyrail have placed stickers on the TVM's at unmanned stations explaining how to access the £2 special offer.

They never do that for the Day Saver. Maybe they should rather than ripping passengers off!?!

 

[supervalkoinen]

I think it might be time for Bache to become a staffed station or, at least, to get an additional TVM.

The queues to buy tickets, combined with the fact that many people don't understand the ticketing options, mean that passengers who arrive up to 10 mins early for a train finish up missing it, with a further 15-minute wait.

Yesterday I saw more than a dozen passengers left ticketless on the platform. Personally, I now find at busy times I have to arrive approx 12/13 mins before departure to be reasonably sure of catching my planned train. Kind of defeats the purpose of the 15 min service.

 

[Polarbear]

I think it might be time for Bache to become a staffed station or, at least, to get an additional TVM

Agreed. At times, (not just peak hours) it's becoming a big problem. Mind you, it would help if Merseyrail could be bothered to properly advertise the Daysaver & people knew which was the best ticket to buy.

I would guess that a fair bit of time is wasted by people rooting around trying to find a cheap day return.

A start would be a 2nd TVM. I seem to recall that as part of the original franchise agreement for Merseyrail, staffing of all the stations was to be done. I understand that there were draft proposals for a ticket office to be built at Bache, but agreement regarding land ownership issues could not be resolved with Morrisons (who have a supermarket next to the Bache station).

 

[WestCoast]

Agreed. At times, (not just peak hours) it's becoming a big problem. Mind you, it would help if Merseyrail could be bothered to properly advertise the Daysaver & people knew which was the best ticket to buy.

I would guess that a fair bit of time is wasted by people rooting around trying to find a cheap day return.

A start would be a 2nd TVM. I seem to recall that as part of the original franchise agreement for Merseyrail, staffing of all the stations was to be done. I understand that there were draft proposals for a ticket office to be built at Bache, but agreement regarding land ownership issues could not be resolved with Morrisons (who have a supermarket next to the Bache station).

I agree with what you are saying about staffing, but I bet many Merseyrail stations would be unstaffed if they were in the TfGM area (or no PTE), when you cross the PTE border on the City Line it's very noticeable. Of course, there is a guard to buy tickets from on Northern services (well, if they can get to you on the Glossop Line!).

I hope the £2 Southport - Chester isn't "M Only", I can see a very cheap day out coming on!

 

[yorkie]

We went to Southport today and one of us needed a Southport - Liverpool ticket, but he had already bought online a ticket from Meols Cop to Liverpool which was, I think 2.20gbp with his Railcard (it was cheaper from Meols Cop than Southport as he used the Southern 25% off discount, when it worked with any operator, but this was only on Off Peak Day not Anytime Day tickets!)

So, having thought he'd saved money he ended up 20p down! Nevermind, only 20p!

Some of the fares in this area seem odd, as we wanted to go from Warrington to either Halewood or Hunts Cross. We discovered that it was cheaper to buy a ticket to Hunts Cross - which is beyond Halewood. Of course, knowing the UK rail fares system as I do, I am not surprised it is cheaper to buy further.

Anyway this is a fantastic offer and I congratulate Merseyrail for running it.

 

[Flowerpower]

Is this £2 return deal tomorrow only applicable to Southport > Chester or can you use it for any station on that line as your journey starting point ?

 

[ChrisTheRef]

Is this £2 return deal tomorrow only applicable to Southport > Chester or can you use it for any station on that line as your journey starting point ?

It's £2 return between any two stations on the Merseyrail network

 

[Flowerpower]

Thank you for the clarification .