Norwich to Stafford

[linusnorton]

Hello,

I'm having some trouble deciphering why a particular journey is allowed within the rules of the national routeing guide.

I'm looking at Norwich to Stafford on a weekday, leaving at ~7:30am. Both Trainline and National Rail return journeys that go from Norwich to London Liverpool Street, underground to Euston and then up to Stafford.

My understanding is that this journey is not direct, is not the shortest and therefore must follow a map. The allowed maps are AB+BV. Neither of these go to London. What's going on?

 

[Merseysider]

There are Advance fares routed +VTWC & Connections; the + symbol specifically permits travel via London

 

[linusnorton]

Wow, TIL. Where is that rule documented?!

The routeing guide london route data even says that route 00452 (VTWC &CONNECTNS) has a london marker of 3 - "the route does not mention London"

 

[Starmill]

I don't think that's actually a rule.

I think it's more likely that trainline themselves (perhaps to simplify matters) simply assume travel via London Group is permitted on tickets with the cross-London marker.

trainscanbecheaper.info does not allow travel via London.

 

[linusnorton]

That would be reasonable I guess.

I also just noticed that National Rail is actually splitting my ticket.

 

[Paul Kelly]

Looks to me like a bug in Trainline's journey planner.

 

[yorkie]

Looks like their provider made the assumption that the 'split route check' should apply at London for these fares because of the cross-London marker.

The fares themselves are obviously intended to be valid via London, and the assumption results in these fares being deemed valid.

But a correct implementation would effectively deem these fares unsellable without further intervention.

 

[kieron]

See post #5. If nationalrail.co.uk had this bug, it doesn't now.