Ticket not available on Southern web site

[FiloFax]

I wish to travel on an off peak return from Blackhorse Road to Fishbourne via London Victoria on Saturday 10/10/26. This is for two adults with a Two Together travel card.
I used the RailUK Forums search engine and this offered me off peak returns.
I then did the same search on the Southern web site and this said no results were found.
Can someone confirm whether this ticket is valid ?

 

[Haywain]

Can someone confirm whether this ticket is valid ?

A ticket sold, or tickets, by an accredited retailer will be valid for travel by the itinerary issued as part of the process.

 

[SaltAndVinegar]

Should anybody query it, you can show them condition 13.1.2 in the NRCoT which your ticket is issued subject to

National Rail Conditions of Travel | National Rail

The gateway to Britain's National Rail network. A portal into UK rail travel including train company information and promotions; train times; fares enquiries; ticket purchase and train running information

www.nationalrail.co.uk

If anyone tries to claim you can’t use multiple tickets for whatever reason, see condition 14.2.

 

[yorkie]

I wish to travel on an off peak return from Blackhorse Road to Fishbourne via London Victoria on Saturday 10/10/26. This is for two adults with a Two Together travel card.
I used the RailUK Forums search engine and this offered me off peak returns.
I then did the same search on the Southern web site and this said no results were found.
Can someone confirm whether this ticket is valid ?

Do you have a link?

Also, can you detail your intended itinerary?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 08:50 ==

A ticket sold, or tickets, by an accredited retailer will be valid for travel by the itinerary issued as part of the process.

Indeed; @FiloFax you can simply book using the forum's site and be confident that GTR are fully required to accept the ticket(s) on the itinerary you travel with.

It's not uncommon that TOC websites refuse to offer itineraries, or offer much more expensive fares, or don't come up with cheaper routes, etc; this is because the underlying journey planners they use are often inferior to those used by Trainsplit, which is behind the forum's ticketing site. On other occasions, TOC journey planners don't find the journeys because they require a combination of tickets, which most (but not all) TOCs refuse to sell.

 

[FiloFax]

Do you have a link?

Also, can you detail your intended itinerary?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 08:50 ==


Indeed; @FiloFax you can simply book using the forum's site and be confident that GTR are fully required to accept the ticket(s) on the itinerary you travel with.

It's not uncommon that TOC websites refuse to offer itineraries, or offer much more expensive fares, or don't come up with cheaper routes, etc; this is because the underlying journey planners they use are often inferior to those used by Trainsplit, which is behind the forum's ticketing site. On other occasions, TOC journey planners don't find the journeys because they require a combination of tickets, which most (but not all) TOCs refuse to sell.

Southern Web site : https://ticket.southernrailway.com/search
Search Criteria:



Results from this search:



I used this link to get to RailUK Forum : tickets.railforums.co.uk

I input the same seach on this site. I used 'Travel Via' on the 'Advanced Options' to select I wished to travel via London Victoria. This site returned results:

 

[Swedenorer]

Southern just offered me two discounted OP at £48.80

 

[FiloFax]

Southern just offered me two discounted OP at £48.80

On the search , did you specify you wish to travel via London Victoria ?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 09:53 ==

Do you have a link?

Also, can you detail your intended itinerary?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 08:50 ==


Indeed; @FiloFax you can simply book using the forum's site and be confident that GTR are fully required to accept the ticket(s) on the itinerary you travel with.

It's not uncommon that TOC websites refuse to offer itineraries, or offer much more expensive fares, or don't come up with cheaper routes, etc; this is because the underlying journey planners they use are often inferior to those used by Trainsplit, which is behind the forum's ticketing site. On other occasions, TOC journey planners don't find the journeys because they require a combination of tickets, which most (but not all) TOCs refuse to sell.

I tried post a response with screen grabs, but it's got stuck, I guess due to the size of the images.

These are the details:
Southern Web site : https://ticket.southernrailway.com/search
RailUK Forum : tickets.railforums.co.uk

Search critera :
Date : 10/10/26
Ticket Type : Return
Dept : Blackhorse Road
Dest : Fishbourne
Via : London Victoria

 

[yorkie]

On the search , did you specify you wish to travel via London Victoria ?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 09:53 ==



I tried post a response with screen grabs, but it's got stuck, I guess due to the size of the images.

These are the details:
Southern Web site : https://ticket.southernrailway.com/search
RailUK Forum : tickets.railforums.co.uk

Search critera :
Date : 10/10/26
Ticket Type : Return
Dept : Blackhorse Road
Dest : Fishbourne
Via : London Victoria

When you do a forum search, can you get to the screen where you have selected the itinerary you want and it shows you the summary of what you have selected, and then copy the URL (web address) of that page?

From another thread:

For example, this link is fine up to the day of the search, while this link (on the page showing the actual trains selected) would be useful for a long time after the time of travel had expired.

View attachment 212828

 

[Swedenorer]

No I just assumed it would offer via vic. I can't imagine it wouldn't be valid that way.

 

[FiloFax]

When you do a forum search, can you get to the screen where you have selected the itinerary you want and it shows you the summary of what you have selected, and then copy the URL (web address) of that page?

From another thread:

I think I see what you mean....this is the URL to the Southern search results:

Booking Engine

ticket.southernrailway.com

This is the URL to the RailUK forum results:

Results | RailUK Tickets

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

tickets.railforums.co.uk

 

[yorkie]

I think I see what you mean....this is the URL to the Southern search results:

Booking Engine

ticket.southernrailway.com

This is the URL to the RailUK forum results:

Results | RailUK Tickets

TrainSplit is a free service that makes it easy to find the cheapest train tickets for your journey.

tickets.railforums.co.uk

Yep, that's perfectly fine and is valid on the Victoria Line

 

[FiloFax]

Yep, that's perfectly fine and is valid on the Victoria Line

Thanks for confirming. I've booked my tickets now, via the RailUK booking website.

 

[yorkie]

Thanks for confirming. I've booked my tickets now, via the RailUK booking website.

Great. You're welcome

 

[dastocks]

Do you have a link?

Also, can you detail your intended itinerary?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 08:50 ==


Indeed; @FiloFax you can simply book using the forum's site and be confident that GTR are fully required to accept the ticket(s) on the itinerary you travel with.

It's not uncommon that TOC websites refuse to offer itineraries, or offer much more expensive fares, or don't come up with cheaper routes, etc; this is because the underlying journey planners they use are often inferior to those used by Trainsplit, which is behind the forum's ticketing site. On other occasions, TOC journey planners don't find the journeys because they require a combination of tickets, which most (but not all) TOCs refuse to sell.

In this case it's more likely to be a side effect of engineering work between Three Bridges and Brighton next weekend. GTR like to manipulate timings and connections to manage loading on diverted trains and stop the journey planner from generating unintended itineraries.

A particular favourite is when the route north of Gatwick is closed: it's impossible to generate an itinerary to travel from Brighton to Gatwick that uses the direct service from Brighton to Gatwick that is usually provided.

 

[Edvid]

In this case it's more likely to be a side effect of engineering work between Three Bridges and Brighton next weekend.

Tried the Blackhorse Road - Fishbourne 'open return' search via Victoria on 24 October (no engineering works on the outbound leg that day) and the OnTrack Retail (?) journey planner that GTR use still won't generate journey options.

Said works are relevant to this weekend's north-of-London (e.g. Luton Airport Parkway) - Brighton ticket options though. Victoria-Brighton services will be diverted via Littlehampton which TrainSplit (Fast JP) and Trainline planners correctly still offer the usual through tickets for, the OTR planner won't unless you limit yourself to changing at Lewes for rail replacements, and NRE shows through singles from Brighton but not the other way round or returns in either direction (!)