No fares available - Evesham to Cheltenham Spa

[MrJeeves]

Hey all!

I've found a strange fare anomaly, where supposedly no tickets are available between Evesham and Cheltenham Spa.

Presumably, this is due to the fact that previously you would need to go rather out of your way up to Birmingham, then back down to Cheltenham, but with the opening of Worcestershire Parkway, this isn't really needed anymore.

BR Fares does show XC fares available, but no booking itineraries are offered by any booking websites that I've found.

Any ideas how to work around this? I've not tried at a TVM, but I imagine it wouldn't work either.

 

[SickyNicky]

Hmmm. Looks like all fares are routed VIA WORCESTER or are GWR only. That means travel must be via Worcester Shrub Hill (onto the infrequent service from there to Cheltenham). Changing at Worcestershire Parkway doesn't have any valid tickets, even though it's a Permitted Route (shortest).

This must be an oversight, especially since the walkup fares are priced by CrossCountry.

Even if the through walkup tickets were valid, it's still cheaper to split tickets at Worcestershire Parkway.

 

[plugwash]

It appears to me that the issue is that all the walk-up fares are "via Worcester" and all the advance fares are "GWR only" but the fastest and presumablly shortest route (Evesham to Worcestershire Parkway on GWR and then Worcestershire parkway to Cheltenham Spa on Crosscountry) follows neither of those.

On the NRE app, if I search for jouneys with no via points I get mostly non-ticketable itineraries, but if I add "Worcster (all stations)" as a via point I get slower but ticketable itinaries.

 

[Birmingham]

Go to the ticket office, ask for a ticket to Cheltenham, they’ll sell you the via Worcester, ask if you can change at Parkway, they’ll say yes.

 

[AnyFile]

Strange enough the tickets from Evesham to Gloucester have Any Permitted route. The Anytime Day return and the Anytime Day Single have the same price to both destination, while the Gloucester ones are a little more expensive in the case of Off Peak Day Return an Off Peak Day Single.

Anyway would be a ticket routed via WORCESTER also be valid via Worcestershire Parkway or changing between the two stations?

 

[Ken H]

Probably quicker by bus. Change at Tewkesbury.

 

[SickyNicky]

Anyway would be a ticket routed via WORCESTER also be valid via Worcestershire Parkway or changing between the two stations?

Worcestershire Parkway isn't a member of the Worcester group, so not without continuing on to Worcester itself. Probably no-one would care.
It would be an interesting conversation with the guard on the Turbostar from Worcestershire Parkway to Cheltenham if they weren't happy, though.

 

[Watershed]

I fail to see why it wouldn't be valid, even with the silly current situation. You can undertake the split route check at Worcester, and of course Worcester to Cheltenham is valid via Worcestershire Parkway.

 

[yorkie]

Go to the ticket office, ask for a ticket to Cheltenham, they’ll sell you the via Worcester, ask if you can change at Parkway, they’ll say yes.

I agree a ticket office is probably going to sell it.

Far better, therefore, not to use a ticket office; split ticket sites such as Trainsplit will issue a cheaper combination of tickets for this journey.

Also be sure to avoid using National Rail Enquiries; all options are claimed to be "valid by this service only" (which it always says when split tickets are involved, even if the fares are fully flexible) and then hands you over to GWR who say "We're sorry but this ticket is no longer available. Choose a different time or date of travel and search again". Of course, NRE could hand you over to a split ticket provider, but they'd far rather give passengers an error message.

 

[SickyNicky]

I fail to see why it wouldn't be valid, even with the silly current situation. You can undertake the split route check at Worcester, and of course Worcester to Cheltenham is valid via Worcestershire Parkway.

Ah yes, of course, it's fine. But no online site is going to suggest it.

 

[kieron]

Strange enough the tickets from Evesham to Gloucester have Any Permitted route. The Anytime Day return and the Anytime Day Single have the same price to both destination, while the Gloucester ones are a little more expensive in the case of Off Peak Day Return an Off Peak Day Single.

Anyway would be a ticket routed via WORCESTER also be valid via Worcestershire Parkway or changing between the two stations?

It would be. If I request Evesham-Cheltenham via Worcester on nre.co.uk*, it gives some results with a change at Worcester Shrub Hill, and some with changes at Worcester Shrub Hill and Worcestershire Parkway.

It doesn't tell you that you are free to miss out the Worcestershire Parkway-Worcester Shrub Hill-Worcestershire Parkway section from the second route, but you are.

These tickets changed from being "any permitted" ones to being "via Worcester" ones in 2018 or 2019, some time before Worcestershire Parkway opened. I think it would be helpful if they were changed back.

* You may need to delete any nationalrail.co.uk cookies you have for this link to open correctly.

 

[yorkie]

It would be. If I request Evesham-Cheltenham via Worcester on nre.co.uk*, it gives some results with a change at Worcester Shrub Hill, and some with changes at Worcester Shrub Hill and Worcestershire Parkway.

It doesn't tell you that you are free to miss out the Worcestershire Parkway-Worcester Shrub Hill-Worcestershire Parkway section from the second route, but you are.

These tickets changed from being "any permitted" ones to being "via Worcester" ones in 2018 or 2019, some time before Worcestershire Parkway opened. I think it would be helpful if they were changed back.

* You may need to delete any nationalrail.co.uk cookies you have for this link to open correctly.

It reminds me of the situation described 5 years ago regarding London to Edale:

It's an absurd situation, but yes, if the itinerary doesn't go via Sheffield or via Manchester, then unless there's an easement put in place, you won't get a fare for the journey.

In practice you are not going to have any problems changing at Stockport. The ticket is valid for doubling-back via Manchester but you are not compelled to do the double-back.....

It's amusing how in some cases passengers are unable to double-back when it is necessary to do so in order to have sensible itineraries, and yet in other cases passengers may be forced to double-back in order to be given an itinerary.

That said this is a fairly moot point in this case, as savvy passengers will be using a split ticketing website, and paying less than the through fare anyway.

It amazes me that anyone would buy tickets from a TOC website when you can be not only charged more money for the same journey, but are also often not offered the fastest and/or cheapest itineraries. I guess some people just don't realise this happens and are trusting of the TOCs.