NR showing duff fares?

[P156KWJ]

Hi, is this correct (bizarely) or is this just a mistake that National Rail have made?

Basically, I happened to notice that it was saying an off-peak return from Carlton to Derby was going to be £26! However, it was showing Anytime returns as being £6.10 STD or £14.20 1st. How does that work? A ticket with more retrictions being almost £20 more for a journey of under 20 miles?

I also, for an experiment tried a very short journey: Nottingham to Beeston (5 minutes). £1.90 anytime return (STD) and £4.70 1st Anytime day return or £10.70 OPR :???: what's going on?

 

[Zoe]

I find the National Express East Coast website the best for looking up fares for any journey in Great Britain and it's only showing Anytime Day Singles and Returns for Standard and First Class.

 

[voyagerdude220]

I find the National Express East Coast website the best for looking up fares for any journey in Great Britain and it's only showing Anytime Day Singles and Returns for Standard and First Class.

I've noticed many faults with the NXEC system..

E.g. If you put a query in for a journey for a Virgin Trains service, and look up the validity of off peak returns etc, on peak services with a railcard, it will show that the off peak singles are valid, but off peak returns- even with the essential railcard, aren't.

(Just to clarify for anyone who might not know- You can use an off peak return on any Virgin Trains service, as long as the journey made is priced by Virgin Trains, as long as you hold a valid railcard.)

 

[clagmonster]

In these cases there are no off-peak tickets. However, the NRE site is programmed to give certain apropriate rovers/rangers as well as point-to-point tickets. In these cases, the £26 Carlton-Derby is an East Mids day ranger, while the £10.70 Beeston-Notts is a Derbyshire Wayfarer.

 

[FusionRail]

I find the National Express East Coast website the best for looking up fares for any journey in Great Britain and it's only showing Anytime Day Singles and Returns for Standard and First Class.

I must say the NXEC system has to be the worst system to use. NRE would be the best for train times/routes, but any TOCs website (using the older system) is best for ticket prices, if you are wanting to use a railcard.

The NRE system cant be wrong, unless there's a major fault, and then all websites using the ticketing system would be wrong.

 

[Zoe]

On the NXEC website you can enter any Great Britain journey and it will show you all the fares and by clicking on a fare it will show you what trains the fare is valid on and in the case of advance tickets it will show the cost of each train.

 

[Max]

On the NXEC website you can enter any Great Britain journey and it will show you all the fares and by clicking on a fare it will show you what trains the fare is valid on and in the case of advance tickets it will show the cost of each train.

NXEC is an interesting one. It's excellent for seeing what fares are available for the full day, especially in the case of advance fares. I also like extra features such as buffet vouchers and the lack of booking fee. However, its routing controls are certainly 'interesting' .

 

[P156KWJ]

I found FCC's booking system easy to use. for route and price details I prefer NR, but for most advance purchase tickets I like EMT, as it shows you the absolute full list.

 

[FusionRail]

On the NXEC website you can enter any Great Britain journey and it will show you all the fares and by clicking on a fare it will show you what trains the fare is valid on and in the case of advance tickets it will show the cost of each train.

Same goes for all the systems. But NXECs is more complicated for quick use.

 

[Zoe]

Same goes for all the systems. But NXECs is more complicated for quick use.

It's not complicated at all for quick use, you just type in your stations and it shows you all the fares.

 

[yorkie]

(Just to clarify for anyone who might not know- You can use an off peak return on any Virgin Trains service, as long as the journey made is priced by Virgin Trains, as long as you hold a valid railcard.)

Oh, come on! They can't insist they price the route, I covered that in my January article. It's totally unenforceable and I've never heard of TMs looking up every ticket they check in Avantix

 

[Mojo]

I also, for an experiment tried a very short journey: Nottingham to Beeston (5 minutes). £1.90 anytime return (STD) and £4.70 1st Anytime day return or £10.70 OPR :???: what's going on?

It's not an Off Peak Return. If you look at the ticket type, it's a Derbyshire Wayfarer.

 

[janb]

Oh, come on! They can't insist they price the route, I covered that in my January article. It's totally unenforceable and I've never heard of TMs looking up every ticket they check in Avantix

Just read your article. You are likely right about the practical nature of enforcing it on the train. However there is a slight enforcement at the point of sale in that booking office staff can easily see who prices the flow (under RJIS/STAR for example at least) and shouldn't sell a ticket that isn't valid for trains the customer wants to travel on. When selling an off-peak ticket any restrictions should be explained to the customer (TPE ask staff to stamp and initial the back of the ticket to say this has been done). So in that scenario a customer can't really plead ignorance if they want to chance it.

Now I'm not sure how the online engines work, whether they differentiate who prices what, and thus not offer inappropriate tickets or not.

Btw, "some internal railway manuals" is The Manual, the railway bible really.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Oh, come on! They can't insist they price the route, I covered that in my January article. It's totally unenforceable and I've never heard of TMs looking up every ticket they check in Avantix

I know, i just felt like adding that bit, to make myself look "good"

 

[yorkie]

.... However there is a slight enforcement at the point of sale in that booking office staff can easily see who prices the flow (under RJIS/STAR for example at least) and shouldn't sell a ticket that isn't valid for trains the customer wants to travel on....

if Virgin ticket office staff want to try to enforce a mythical rule that only exists in internal manuals that are in breach of consumer law, then the solution is simple: purchase elsewhere. If booking office staff are awkward like this then they'll only put people off and that just encourages people to book online (the online booking sites will happily give you reservations on such trains in accordance with the 'public' version of the rule).

 

[P156KWJ]

It's not an Off Peak Return. If you look at the ticket type, it's a Derbyshire Wayfarer.

but very misleadingly it is listed as an OPR

 

[Mojo]

but very misleadingly it is listed as an OPR

It's not listed as an Off-peak return though. It's listed as a Derbyshire Wayfarer. It's listed as an Off-peak (ie: not Any time, not Advance) ticket, which it is, as it's only valid off peak.

I do agree with you though that it's misleading, I rasied this exact same issue about rovers & rangers in the fares view in Sept last year: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=19566