What does "closed for bookings" mean?

[jon1234]

Hi there

I'm trying to book tickets around Christmas time from Newcastle to Lewes. I waited for Southern to release their advance fares between London and Lewes, as these are about £30 cheaper than off-peak tickets.

The National Rail advance booking dates page has now updated to say tickets are available till 29 December (weekends) and 10 January (weekdays). However, there are lots of dates around Christmas where it says "bookings are closed" in the notes - 23, 24, 27, 30 and 31.

I'm confused what this means. I can't see any engineering works. Does this mean Southern won't ever release advance tickets on these dates? Or that they will in the coming weeks when timetables are confirmed? I called National Rail and Southern helplines and neither of them seemed to know.

Do I bite the bullet and pay for the more expensive off-peak tickets now, knowing that the Newcastle to London leg will only keep getting more expensive? Or do I wait for the cheaper advances to come out whenever that might be?

Thanks for any help or advice.

 

[island]

It means that the timetable for the dates in question has not yet been finalized, and this will inevitably be due to potential engineering works. Accordingly, advance tickets won't be released. It's likely they will be available at some later date.

 

[Mainline421]

Do I bite the bullet and pay for the more expensive off-peak tickets now, knowing that the Newcastle to London leg will only keep getting more expensive?

Why would you do that out of interest? The price of Off-Peak tickets does not change, so for Newcastle-Lewes it will always be £69.45 with a Railcard whether you buy today, or on the day of travel at the station.

 

[akm]

It means that the timetable for the dates in question has not yet been finalized, and this will inevitably be due to potential engineering works. Accordingly, advance tickets won't be released. It's likely they will be available at some later date.

I note the TOCs either side of southern (se, SWR) have no such caveats. Are there really potentially going to be just-affecting-Southern eng works that aren't yet decided, on just that handful of dates?

 

[jon1234]

It means that the timetable for the dates in question has not yet been finalized, and this will inevitably be due to potential engineering works. Accordingly, advance tickets won't be released. It's likely they will be available at some later date.

Thank you. Appreciate it - the people working at National Rail and Southern seemed to have no idea!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Oct 2024 ==

Why would you do that out of interest? The price of Off-Peak tickets does not change, so for Newcastle-Lewes it will always be £69.45 with a Railcard whether you buy today, or on the day of travel at the station.

Ah sorry - I meant booking just the London to Lewes leg off peak. But thanks for pointing out there are flexible ticket options. I didn't realise that was still the case with LNER no longer selling off-peak Newcastle to London.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Oct 2024 ==

Oddly, National Rail have now removed the "closed for bookings" section for Southern on the advance booking page. But you still can't buy advance tickets for 24, 27, 30 and 31.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Oct 2024 ==

No wait, scrap that (sorry not sure if you can edit posts...) I was looking at timetables not advance tickets.

 

[Mainline421]

Ah sorry - I meant booking just the London to Lewes leg off peak.

Even that there would not be any advantage to buying before the day

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Even that there would not be any advantage to buying before the day

That isn't quite true, because you absolutely do need a seat reservation if you intend to travel on LNER (or any long distance TOC) around the festive period, unless you want to take your chances with the handful of unreserved seats being available. However with engineering work and likely constrained timetables, I'd want piece of mind.

At the very least, make a free seat reservation as soon as they're available, and buy the ticket on / close to the day itself.

 

[Mainline421]

because you absolutely do need a seat reservation if you intend to travel on LNER (or any long distance TOC) around the festive period

I do and I absolutely won't bother with a reservation. But in any case the OP was considering booking the London-Lewes leg separately for which reservation is not possible (and would probably cost more than a through Off-Peak ticket)

 

[island]

I note the TOCs either side of southern (se, SWR) have no such caveats. Are there really potentially going to be just-affecting-Southern eng works that aren't yet decided, on just that handful of dates?

Yes.