Rail tickets to Hawick/Selkirk

[c52]

These exist for many places south of Carlisle on brfares.com, those to Manchester Airport valid on Transpennine only. Transpennine accept both towns as legitimate stations but don't offer any fares. NRE and RUK's booking engine don't recognise the town names. I think - I'm no expert - Hawick is not mentioned in the routing guide.

Can the tickets be bought?

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

223 origins to Hawick available.

Same for Selkirk

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

Looks like it's only Northern and Avanti West Coast offering fares on some of their flows.

The problem looks to be that the railway has not defined any timetables for services to Selkirk etc - therefore there can be no itinerary produced, as no services are loaded in the data. A ticket office could issue this and perhaps a self service machine - but only if it doesn't require use of a journey planner.

 

[c52]

Thank you. I'll try a ticket machine next time I'm near a station.

I didn't know that feature of brfares.

To Manchester Airport all the fares are TPE only and Advance only, so there must be some notion of a service!

 

[infobleep]

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

223 origins to Hawick available.

Same for Selkirk

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks, at face value with no fees. Every British rail fare shown, railcard discounts included.

www.brfares.com

Looks like it's only Northern and Avanti West Coast offering fares on some of their flows.

The problem looks to be that the railway has not defined any timetables for services to Selkirk etc - therefore there can be no itinerary produced, as no services are loaded in the data. A ticket office could issue this and perhaps a self service machine - but only if it doesn't require use of a journey planner.

This is why the ability to book without the journey planner is still useful.

 

[Wallsendmag]

These exist for many places south of Carlisle on brfares.com, those to Manchester Airport valid on Transpennine only. Transpennine accept both towns as legitimate stations but don't offer any fares. NRE and RUK's booking engine don't recognise the town names. I think - I'm no expert - Hawick is not mentioned in the routing guide.

Can the tickets be bought?

Aren't they bus links rather than stations?

 

[c52]

Yes indeed.

 

[Dren Ahmeti]

This is why the ability to book without the journey planner is still useful.

If only there was somewhere you could book tickets like that online…

I don’t always need an itinerary

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

If only there was somewhere you could book tickets like that online…

I don’t always need an itinerary

Even if they could be bought online, it's only half of the problem.

Given the extremely low number sold, it's questionable as to whether it would even be accepted on a bus. It's also quite common that a lot of these schemes/agreements with third parties like bus operators have actually expired/been totally forgotten about, and the ticket has absolutely no validity on the bus, although that's the responsibility of the railway, not the bus operator to resolve. Ordinarily you'd have to buy a bus ticket and claim it back from the rail retailer, which probably then results in the bus link being removed or revised.

 

[Dren Ahmeti]

Even if they could be bought online, it's only half of the problem.

Given the extremely low number sold, it's questionable as to whether it would even be accepted on a bus. It's also quite common that a lot of these schemes/agreements with third parties like bus operators have actually expired/been totally forgotten about, and the ticket has absolutely no validity on the bus, although that's the responsibility of the railway, not the bus operator to resolve. Ordinarily you'd have to buy a bus ticket and claim it back from the rail retailer, which probably then results in the bus link being removed or revised.

It all comes down to pricing managers being proactive! Definitely agree with you on this.

I’ve used a handful of “special” tickets that undercut a lot of fares, or haven’t been inter-available for yonks!

My favourite “unusual” ticket, I will be happy to admit as it doesn’t undercut anything, is the availability of fares to Long Marston, which I use to go to Rail Live, even though it costs £4.65 more (with a 16-25) than Honeybourne…

 

[reb0118]

For a while you could get a fare from Galashiels to Hawick. It was the summation of the appropriate fare from Galashiels to Edinburgh plus the bus add on from Edinburgh to Hawick.

Historically there were add ons routed to various Borders towns routed via Berwick, Carlisle, or Edinburgh as appropriate.

Today, it's all a bit of a shambles.

FYI Borders Buses does an excellent 24hr ticket for its complete network for just over £10.

 

[infobleep]

If only there was somewhere you could book tickets like that online…

I don’t always need an itinerary

I believe it is possible to do so on the Southern branded Web Site.

I think you saved a favourite journey and that allowed you to book a ticket without an itinerary but don't qoute me.

I suspect that goes against the regulations that online resellers most follow but they are owned by a TOC so it's different.

 

[Dren Ahmeti]

I believe it is possible to do so on the Southern branded Web Site.

I think you saved a favourite journey and that allowed you to book a ticket without an itinerary but won't qoute me.

I suspect that goes against the regulations that online resellers most follow but they are owned by a TOC so it's different.

Just tested it, and yes, that works