Strike timetable - trains showing "Sold out" on Journey Planners

[CharlieSpotted]

Hi all,

Looking at strike days on journey planners, some services are showing as "This train is sold out". Anecdotally, someone asked about this at a ticket office and was told that those trains wouldn't be running and were in fact cancelled. This seems unlikely? Why would they be showing on journey planners at all if this was the case?

Does anyone know the real answer?

For example the 10.45 train in this screenshot from WMR's app.

 

[Bletchleyite]

In Avanti's case it can mean they haven't opened a train for sales yet, which might be because they aren't confident they can run it.

If this is to be the method of sales going forward, they really need to improve the booking system so it can say "not open for sale yet; expected opening on <date>" rather than "sold out".

For that journey it's inconceivable it'd actually be full - they normally carry fresh air from Wolves to New St where they fill up.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

Thanks @Bletchleyite that does make sense - I think all of the examples I've seen are Avanti services.

It seems to me that the existing text in the app "Not available to buy" would be sufficient - it's the "Sold out" part that's misleading.

 

[Watershed]

It generally just means that the train is (falsely) marked as "reservations compulsory" in the timetable data, and no reservations are available. That could be because reservations haven't opened yet (which some operators are doing before train times are confirmed), or because all reservations have been issued (unlikely given the level of capacity), or because reservations have been closed again (which some operators are doing during strikes or other disruption or busy events).

You can buy a ticket for any other service and, provided it's a flexible ticket that isn't limited to one TOC (there are Avanti only and TfW only fares for Wolverhampton to Birmingham), just use it on any train.

Unfortunately the industry data does not allow booking engines to know why reservations are unavailable for a particular train and so they generally assume it is because they are sold out - as historically, this would be the only reason for this happening. Several operators have persisted with the fiction that their trains are "reservations compulsory", ignoring the significant inconvenience and confusion it causes in situations like this.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

Thanks @Watershed for the additional context.

 

[realemil]

Avanti has disabled purchasing tickets during strike week, with a limited number of advances apparently available.

This is why it’s displaying as sold out.

Strike action | Travel Information | Avanti West Coast

Information on train times, strike information and the latest travel updates on our network.

www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk

While our amended timetables were finalised, we suspended sales of tickets for the three strike dates (21, 23 and 25 June), and for the days after industrial action (22, 24 and 26 June). Once each day's timetable is confirmed and we know which trains are running, some Advance fares will be back on sale.

 

[Wallsendmag]

From looking at our services this norning it would appear that the timetable feed hasn't been updated but the trains are closed for reservations because they are cancelled.