Restriction code FB and CrossCountry

[arb]

I've been playing around with the National Rail Enquiries journey planner for the sake of seeing what's available after the May timetable change, solely out of curiosity, and not for a specific journey that I want to make. I was looking at journeys from Ely to Brighton, at weekends (or bank holidays). The normal price quoted for this (full price, no railcards) is the £33.20 super-off-peak single, restriction code FB (BRFares link). However if the initial leg from Ely to Cambridge happens to be allocated to a CrossCountry train, the price goes up to the £49.70 off-peak single, restriction code B3 (BRFares link).

This is perhaps most obviously visible if you search for Ely to Brighton journeys on the late May bank holiday, 31st May, between 07:00 and 10:00, when the timetable is such that many of the journeys offered suggest CrossCountry to get to to Cambridge. There are fewer journeys where a CrossCountry leg is suggested at weekends, but the same thing can be seen on the 07:54 departure from Ely on every Saturday.

Can anybody see why the super-off-peak is not being allowed on CrossCountry's trains? I've seen a similar unexpected issue before where a restriction code included a restriction on trains out of Birmingham New Street that was then being applied to any CrossCountry Ely to Cambridge train. But I can't see anything similar this time around in restriction code FB, in either the published or unpublished restrictions. As I said at the beginning, I'm asking out of curiosity, not because I want to actually book the journey.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Looking on Realtime Trains, the XC services all appear to be marked as "Reservation Compulsory", so it's probable there are no reservable seats for the Ely - Cambridge hop on the dates you're looking at.

Either that or reservations aren't open for that route yet.

 

[Hadders]

But if the XC Train was Reservation Compulsory then it wouldn't be able to sell the Off Peak Single at £49.70.

My suspicion is that XC might be blocking seat reservations on their trains where a Weekend Super Off Peak Day Single is used. LNER used to prevent seat reservations with these tickets between Stevenage and London (not sure if they're still doing this) so it wouldn't surprise me if XC are doing it as well.

 

[FenMan]

But if the XC Train was Reservation Compulsory then it wouldn't be able to sell the Off Peak Single at £49.70.

My suspicion is that XC might be blocking seat reservations on their trains where a Weekend Super Off Peak Day Single is used. LNER used to prevent seat reservations with these tickets between Stevenage and London (not sure if they're still doing this) so it wouldn't surprise me if XC are doing it as well.

From memory, weren't the weekend-only Super Off Peak tickets restricted to travel on Great Northern and Thameslink services at one stage? The fares data may still reflect this.

 

[Hadders]

From memory, weren't the weekend-only Super Off Peak tickets restricted to travel on Great Northern and Thameslink services at one stage? The fares data may still reflect this.

Some are routed via City Thameslink but that wouldn’t prohibit the use of XC.

 

[arb]

A simpler ticket with restriction code FB that shows the same issue is a straightforward Ely to London Terminals. The super-off-peak FB is allowed with any combination of Great Northern/Thameslink/Greater Anglia, but not allowed with CrossCountry.

 

[Haywain]

But if the XC Train was Reservation Compulsory then it wouldn't be able to sell the Off Peak Single at £49.70.

My suspicion is that XC might be blocking seat reservations on their trains where a Weekend Super Off Peak Day Single is used. LNER used to prevent seat reservations with these tickets between Stevenage and London (not sure if they're still doing this) so it wouldn't surprise me if XC are doing it as well.

I don’t think LNER ’prevented’ reservations so much as never being aware of the possibility of them being needed for the additional ticket types that GTR (or was it FCC?) introduced. I can’t recall ever being questioned about reservations not being possible.

 

[Hadders]

I don’t think LNER ’prevented’ reservations so much as never being aware of the possibility of them being needed for the additional ticket types that GTR (or was it FCC?) introduced. I can’t recall ever being questioned about reservations not being possible.

You could purchase the ticket with an itinerary to travel the train but if you requested a reservation it would say they weren't available. If you purchased a more expensive ticket then you could get a reservation!

Back to the OP's query - there are Super Off Peak tickets available between Ely and Cambridge. You cannot reserve a seat on an XC service when you purchase one. Buy a more expensive Off Peak fare and you can reserve a seat...... Something very fishy going on.

 

[kieron]

Back to the OP's query - there are Super Off Peak tickets available between Ely and Cambridge. You cannot reserve a seat on an XC service when you purchase one. Buy a more expensive Off Peak fare and you can reserve a seat...... Something very fishy going on.

Can you reserve a seat on an XC service after buying a super off peak day ticket? Reserving seats is supposed to be fairly straightforward with them.

 

[robbeech]

Can you reserve a seat on an XC service after buying a super off peak day ticket? Reserving seats is supposed to be fairly straightforward with them.

I would assume you can do it with their social media team and it wouldn’t be questioned if there’s no actual real reason for it to be prohibited initially.