Who would be expected to know...?

[Johnny Lewis]

My Dad is travelling from Liverpool up to Glasgow on Monday so, out of curiosity, I looked to see what fare he would have to pay, were he booking it himself (he has a ticket provided for him). Apparently, he is "booked" on the 15.25 from Wigan, which is a Virgin service, so the connection from Liverpool is 14.01, all stations to Wigan. (Were he to catch the 13.57, he would connect into a train which would get him to Glasgow almost an hour earlier, but no matter).

The East Coast website offers nothing Advance purchase on this route at all, so the cheapest ticket is £58.50 Anytime Single, or an Off-peak single for £89 (the logic of this defies even me).
However, if one adds route "via Manchester Oxford Road", it will then generate Advance purchase tickets, the cheapest of which is £29.50, involving departing at 13.52 (so just 9 minutes earlier) and changing at Oxford Road and Preston. The train from Preston at 15.41 is the 15.25 from Wigan, so the arrival time at Glasgow is the same.

So, if he had booked this ticket through the TPE website, who are currently offering 25% discount on Advance purchase tickets, this would bring the cost down to around £21-£22. But of course, if one inputs Liverpool to Glasgow on THAT site, there are no promotional tickets, because there isn't a direct service from Liverpool to Glasgow. (Add via Oxford Road, and the promotional fare then appears). This is despite the only part of the journey actually being on TPE is between Manchester and Preston - even the leg from Liverpool to Manchester is on East Midlands Trains.

Now, I have quite a good understanding and appreciation of the ways to try to secure a cheap fare by booking in advance, but even I am stumped as to how this is possible. I cannot believe any unitiated person (such as my Dad, who hates trains and would drive anywhere given the choice) could ever be expected to understand how it is cheaper to travel a longer distance, and how one company can give such a generous discount where 80% of the journey is on TWO other operators' services!

 

[cuccir]

Don't worry, train fares are simple now :roll:

 

[Max]

My Dad is travelling from Liverpool up to Glasgow on Monday so, out of curiosity, I looked to see what fare he would have to pay, were he booking it himself (he has a ticket provided for him). Apparently, he is "booked" on the 15.25 from Wigan, which is a Virgin service, so the connection from Liverpool is 14.01, all stations to Wigan. (Were he to catch the 13.57, he would connect into a train which would get him to Glasgow almost an hour earlier, but no matter).

The East Coast website offers nothing Advance purchase on this route at all, so the cheapest ticket is £58.50 Anytime Single, or an Off-peak single for £89 (the logic of this defies even me).
However, if one adds route "via Manchester Oxford Road", it will then generate Advance purchase tickets, the cheapest of which is £29.50, involving departing at 13.52 (so just 9 minutes earlier) and changing at Oxford Road and Preston. The train from Preston at 15.41 is the 15.25 from Wigan, so the arrival time at Glasgow is the same.

So, if he had booked this ticket through the TPE website, who are currently offering 25% discount on Advance purchase tickets, this would bring the cost down to around £21-£22. But of course, if one inputs Liverpool to Glasgow on THAT site, there are no promotional tickets, because there isn't a direct service from Liverpool to Glasgow. (Add via Oxford Road, and the promotional fare then appears). This is despite the only part of the journey actually being on TPE is between Manchester and Preston - even the leg from Liverpool to Manchester is on East Midlands Trains.

Now, I have quite a good understanding and appreciation of the ways to try to secure a cheap fare by booking in advance, but even I am stumped as to how this is possible. I cannot believe any unitiated person (such as my Dad, who hates trains and would drive anywhere given the choice) could ever be expected to understand how it is cheaper to travel a longer distance, and how one company can give such a generous discount where 80% of the journey is on TWO other operators' services!

Sadly, this is a common problem - that it is almost impossible to find the cheapest fares for some journeys! Last year I wanted to travel from London-Hull with Hull Trains, but due to engineering works, the trains were starting at Peterborough, with passengers being forced to use First Capital Connect services between London and Peterborough. However, advance fares were very difficult to actually find for these journeys.

On Hull Train's own website, you had to specify via Biggleswade to get them to appear (how a regular passenger would know this I have no idea). Meanwhile, at the station (where I ended up booking the ticket), the clerk had great difficulty finding the journeys (via Biggleswade brought up connections onto East Coast services). Eventually, I asked whether East Coast trains could be excluded from the search, and sure enough sub-£10 fares appeared on Hull Trains! If I hadn't suggested this, I would never have been able to book the fares and probably would have ended up paying twice or even three times the price!