This morning I tried to buy the 'festive 1st' upgrade on VTEC from Hull to London (the extended weekend first scheme in place over Christmas). Back in East Coast days this always used to be £15 one way (in line with the price for Doncaster), but on trying to buy this today I was told firmly it would be £25.
This is consistent neither with the VTEC website, which states that a 'longer' journey (£25) is "going to or from York, Wakefield or beyond" (Hull doesn't fit into this category so you would anticipate being a 'shorter' journey, which is £15), nor NRE (which, as we all know, is supposed to be the 'definitive source' of information). This states that the Hull journey falls into "Zone 2 - London/Stevenage Hull/Brough/Selby and all stations south of York and Wakefield £20.00".
I honestly don't mind if Virgin have put the price up (though would question the logic when Hull Trains seem to have total control of the Hull/Brough/Selby-London market thesedays), but what I do mind is that the information for passengers is as clear as mud. Would it really be difficult to state that stations north of Doncaster would incur a charge of £25? The current wording on the website seems to be almost deliberately written to exclude Hull from the higher price tier (and I would argue that Selby is categorically not beyond York but the implication from staff was that this would also be £25!). Does anybody know when the price was hiked? What's even more irritating is that the staff were adamant that the price has always been £25 beyond Doncaster, but I know for a fact that this wasn't the case a while ago.
This is consistent neither with the VTEC website, which states that a 'longer' journey (£25) is "going to or from York, Wakefield or beyond" (Hull doesn't fit into this category so you would anticipate being a 'shorter' journey, which is £15), nor NRE (which, as we all know, is supposed to be the 'definitive source' of information). This states that the Hull journey falls into "Zone 2 - London/Stevenage Hull/Brough/Selby and all stations south of York and Wakefield £20.00".
I honestly don't mind if Virgin have put the price up (though would question the logic when Hull Trains seem to have total control of the Hull/Brough/Selby-London market thesedays), but what I do mind is that the information for passengers is as clear as mud. Would it really be difficult to state that stations north of Doncaster would incur a charge of £25? The current wording on the website seems to be almost deliberately written to exclude Hull from the higher price tier (and I would argue that Selby is categorically not beyond York but the implication from staff was that this would also be £25!). Does anybody know when the price was hiked? What's even more irritating is that the staff were adamant that the price has always been £25 beyond Doncaster, but I know for a fact that this wasn't the case a while ago.
