Unable to find a Valid Fare

[Class73Electro]

Hi - hoping to use your collective knowledge here!

Trying to get a trip from Portsmouth to Hastings, avoiding Brighton (its bad enough on a normal day - bank holiday will be awful.

Normally I would go "across the top" via Redhill-Tonbridge, which still has the cheap fare, but the line is having engineering works. The NRE Website is showing Portsmouth-Gatwick Gatwick-Hastings, but displays the message "We have been unable to find a valid fare, please replan your journey". Which seems a bit strange as the ticket I get will say "via Edenbridge/Polegate" the train from Gatwick goes via Polegate, and not going into London, so can't see what is wrong with this journey? Why can I go up to Redhill and across, but not from the closer Gatwick?

Thanks!

 

[jfollows]

I think it’s because

1. Portsmouth to Hastings is not valid via Gatwick Airport
2. Portsmouth to Polegate is not valid via Gatwick Airport

in the routeing guide.

I haven’t rigorously checked this.

If the ticket said “via Gatwick” of course this would be fine, but it doesn’t.

 

[Watershed]

When you say you want to go Portsmouth-Gatwick Gatwick-Hastings - was there a first 'via' point you meant instead of Gatwick? If you do Portsmouth-Horsham-Gatwick-Polegate-Hastings then you would be doubling back between Three Bridges and Gatwick. This double-back is likely the root cause of the problem.

Looking at Mon 18 August as an example date, if search for Portsmouth to Hastings on NRE and specify 'avoiding Clapham Junction' to get the desired route, I get fares returned for journeys changing at Havant and Brighton, or just Brighton. There are also journeys with the double-back between Three Bridges and Gatwick - I suspect this is because the Gatwick-Hastings service doesn't call at Three Bridges but as I say, these are not valid because of the double-back.

 

[Class73Electro]

I think it’s because

1. Portsmouth to Hastings is not valid via Gatwick Airport
2. Portsmouth to Polegate is not valid via Gatwick Airport

in the routeing guide.

I haven’t rigorously checked this.

If the ticket said “via Gatwick” of course this would be fine, but it doesn’t.

Fair enough, strange though since I've done HGS - Tonbridge, Tonbridge - Redhill, Redhill - Portsmouth (which is valid on NRE)

When you say you want to go Portsmouth-Gatwick Gatwick-Hastings - was there a first 'via' point you meant instead of Gatwick? If you do Portsmouth-Horsham-Gatwick-Polegate-Hastings then you would be doubling back between Three Bridges and Gatwick. This double-back is likely the root cause of the problem.

Looking at Mon 18 August as an example date, if search for Portsmouth to Hastings on NRE and specify 'avoiding Clapham Junction' to get the desired route, I get fares returned for journeys changing at Havant and Brighton, or just Brighton. There are also journeys with the double-back between Three Bridges and Gatwick - I suspect this is because the Gatwick-Hastings service doesn't call at Three Bridges but as I say, these are not valid because of the double-back.

I'm just trying to avoid Brighton (crowds over the bank holiday will be mayhem!) and London (and the triple price!)

 

[Watershed]

Fair enough, strange though since I've done HGS - Tonbridge, Tonbridge - Redhill, Redhill - Portsmouth (which is valid on NRE)


I'm just trying to avoid Brighton (crowds over the bank holiday will be mayhem!) and London (and the triple price!)

Travelling via Gatwick is fine, if you continue via Tonbridge for example. The issue is with doubling back between Three Bridges and Gatwick.

You can avoid the double-back by adding an extra change at Haywards Heath - so you'd do Portsmouth-Three Bridges-Haywards Heath-Hastings. The end-to-end journey time is the same as changing at Gatwick. Most journey planners don't come up with this because it's no quicker and involves extra changes - they don't take into account the issue with it being a non-permitted route until the next step when they check for valid fares.

Really, there ought to be a double-back easement added to cover this kind of scenario.

 

[MrJeeves]

Really, there ought to be a double-back easement added to cover this kind of scenario.

They should just remove the ticket route restrictions in easement 700458 which would solve this for everyone.

Easement 700458 | eNRG Browser

enrgbrowser.com

 

[Class73Electro]

Travelling via Gatwick is fine, if you continue via Tonbridge for example. The issue is with doubling back between Three Bridges and Gatwick.

You can avoid the double-back by adding an extra change at Haywards Heath - so you'd do Portsmouth-Three Bridges-Haywards Heath-Hastings. The end-to-end journey time is the same as changing at Gatwick. Most journey planners don't come up with this because it's no quicker and involves extra changes - they don't take into account the issue with it being a non-permitted route until the next step when they check for valid fares.

Really, there ought to be a double-back easement added to cover this kind of scenario.

OK great - thanks!

 

[yorkie]

he NRE Website is showing Portsmouth-Gatwick Gatwick-Hastings, but displays the message "We have been unable to find a valid fare, please replan your journey". Which seems a bit strange as the ticket I get will say "via Edenbridge/Polegate" the train from Gatwick goes via Polegate, and not going into London, so can't see what is wrong with this journey?

The forum's site will be able to sell a combination of tickets, if the through ticket isn't deemed valid.

Alternatively, if you are keen to use the cheaper ticket....

If ticket acceptance is in place but not encoded in the fares data, you could obtain the ticket from a ticket office (or online with an itinerary via the route that has engineering works) and use the ticket via the alternative route.

If ticket acceptance is not formally in place, you can sometimes be given discretionary permission from staff to travel via a route that would not normally be considered valid, so it can be worth asking.

The NRE Website is showing Portsmouth-Gatwick Gatwick-Hastings, but displays the message "We have been unable to find a valid fare, please replan your journey". Which seems a bit strange as the ticket I get will say "via Edenbridge/Polegate" the train from Gatwick goes via Polegate, and not going into London, so can't see what is wrong with this journey?

What itinerary are you looking at? For future reference, you can go to http://www.fastjp.com/ and use the various options to generate an itinerary that suits, you can paste the link back here, and we can look into it. However, I see that for this journey, @Watershed and @MrJeeves have found the answer.

You could try contacting GTR to see if they would consider making an easement or alteration to the data to allow this.