Online Booking & Extra Time for Connections

[PTF62]

Tried to book a single Advance train ticket to Newcastle yesterday, where the first leg of the journey is on FCC changing at Peterborough, then onto an East Coast train.

I thought the connection time at Peterborough was a bit tight, 10 minutes, as when catching a London bound FCC in the morning regularly see the Peterborough train passing through a few minutes late, and I have also been caught once before when FCC cancelled the train that was due to form the first leg of the journey (any chance of recruiting some drivers?).

So I used the function on the National Rail enquires website to add 1/2 hour increment to the time allowed to change trains. It comes up with some sensible train times, and I hit "buy"

It now puts me through to the East Coast mixing desk web site, where the times have reverted back to the 10 minute change, and now there is no option to increase the change time. The answer from speaking to East Coast web support was 'tough, not our problem, that is the way the web site is'.

I am aware of the multitude of booking websites, are there any where you can enter that additional time is required to change?

 

[John @ home]

[is] there any where you can enter that additional time is required to change?

If buying from eastcoast.co.uk, yes.

On the home page, click Text only version (to the right of "Buy Rail Ticket). Enter the station you're Travelling from and click continue. Enter the station you're Travelling to and click continue. Enter travel date(s) and time(s) and click continue. Enter number of passengers, add railcards if appropriate, and click continue. Choose Extended station change times and click continue. Choose ticket flexibility option and click Next.

This should give you 30+ minutes connections at Peterborough.

 

[PTF62]

Thanks, saved me making a trip to the station to buy the ticket.

You would have thought that the East Coast web support team would have known that was how you booked such tickets on their website.

 

[AlterEgo]

Thanks, saved me making a trip to the station to buy the ticket.

You would have thought that the East Coast web support team would have known that was how you booked such tickets on their website.

Indeed.

Out of pure interest, what's the longest connection time one can specify using this method?

 

[PTF62]

Out of pure interest, what's the longest connection time one can specify using this method?

Having just tried it, there is just the option of extra connection time or not, not like the NRE where you can specify the amount, and it just seems to add 1/2 hour.

 

[LexyBoy]

Bear in mind that even with the original 'tight' connexion at Peterborough, you would be carried on the next available EC service in the event of your FCC service being delayed.

Additionally, if the FCC leg is not reserved (I'm guessing it's not on an "EC & Connections" ticket), then you may take an earlier FCC train than the one shown on your original itinerary.

 

[button_boxer]

Again the DB system for booking German trains wins hands down, letting you specify a minimum wait at each individual via point. I used this to book a through London-Spezial ticket for the last Eurostar to Brussels connecting with the second ICE to Frankfurt the following day by asking for a 10 hour connection time.

 

[PTF62]

Bear in mind that even with the original 'tight' connexion at Peterborough, you would be carried on the next available EC service in the event of your FCC service being delayed.

Thanks for pointing that out, but the problem is that if I don't make the connection with the EC train then there is no point in travelling, as the meeting would already well underway before I got there.

Hence why I was happy to take my time waiting at Peterborough to ensure I made the connection.

Additionally, if the FCC leg is not reserved (I'm guessing it's not on an "EC & Connections" ticket), then you may take an earlier FCC train than the one shown on your original itinerary.

The trouble is how do you know if the FCC leg is not reserved until you buy and collect the ticket...

 

[bb21]

The trouble is how do you know if the FCC leg is not reserved until you buy and collect the ticket...

I am not aware of any FCC train being reservable.

Also if you explicitly tick the box during the process to request seat reservations (which happens automatically with Advance tickets), the reservation details should be displayed on the final screen prior to payment being demanded. Any train in your itinerary that cannot be reserved will not be included, and this is usually accompanied by a warning message at the top of the screen in red informing you that parts of the journey cannot be reserved.