Moorthorpe to York - anomaly?

[Nndos2]

Evening,

I am travelling to York from Sheffield later in the week splitting the fare using my Travelmaster to the South Yorkshire border.

To travel from Doncaster to York using the Virgin East Coast the cheapest day return I can find is £19.00 for the 20 minute journey.

However if I purchase a ticket from Moorthorpe to York it gives me the option of a £14.10 day return. As the stopping service gives me limited time in York one of the suggested routes on the journey planner is to change at Swinton and then at Doncaster onto an East Coast service (another option is via Leeds).

Is this fare anomaly a valid route? It seems strange that to purchase a ticket from Swinton to York the fare is £21 and £19 from Doncaster yet I can travel through the stations from Moorthorpe for £14.10 according to the Hull Trains App.

How much grief am I likely to get from the East Coast guard concerning this? Having a cheaper fare from a station further out than Doncaster is surely going to cause some conflict from the guard?

Any suggestions would be appreciated,

Thanks.

 

[Paul Kelly]

According to the routeing point calculator at http://data.atoc.org/rp_calc, there are no appropriate origin routeing points for a Moorthorpe to York journey: all of Wakefield Group, Pontefract Group, Swinton and Doncaster fail the fares check. At a random guess, perhaps because of this the WebTIS booking engine (behind the Virgin East Coast website) is being more lenient and allowing journeys that wouldn't normally be allowed? I really have no idea. Personally I would say if all routeing points fail the fares check then only through trains and routes up to three miles longer than the shortest route are permitted.

 

[adrock1976]

Of course, now this has been highlighted, we should sit tight for the meantime until some point during Friday when this anomaly is "rectified" by ATOC.

If you can get a printout of an itinerary, that may be your get out of jail free card if there are any issues in relation to its validity.

 

[Paul Kelly]

Of course, now this has been highlighted, we should sit tight for the meantime until some point during Friday when this anomaly is "rectified" by ATOC.

The route isn't actually permitted so there is nothing for ATOC to rectify, as far as I can see.

 

[Nndos2]

Surely if I reserve a seat on the VTEC via their website when I book the ticket and print off the itinerary then they'd struggle to challenge me on it?

 

[furlong]

Surely if I reserve a seat on the VTEC via their website when I book the ticket and print off the itinerary then they'd struggle to challenge me on it?

If you regard that as an essential element of your contract, then yes, they'd struggle to challenge it - you specified the trains you wished to travel upon and was offered a price for that service and both you and the train companies agreed to the contract.