I am new to this site. Just retired from 48 years in the bus industry. Schedules and route planning. On the topic of rail fares I find some strange anomalies. I was booking a return from Batley to Bentham with Senior Railcard. Price £ 16.35. If I book an extra 5 stations to the Morecambe terminus and an extra 5 back the return price is £15.50. Where is the logic in that?
-
Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Why does Batley to Bentham cost more than Batley to Morecambe?
- Thread starter John B
- Start date
- Status
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
Batley to Bentham is overpriced. I can't see any logical reason for this.
It might get fixed, however I find that if someone spots that a fare is underpriced, it is more likely to be fixed, than a fare being discovered to be overpriced
It might get fixed, however I find that if someone spots that a fare is underpriced, it is more likely to be fixed, than a fare being discovered to be overpriced
ForTheLoveOf
Established Member
- Joined
- 7 Oct 2017
- Messages
- 6,416
Fares for longer journeys are generally priced in "clusters" - that is to say, for a group of stations on one end, to a group of stations on the other end, the fares are the same price, have the same route and the same restrictions (there are exceptions, but that's the "rule"). You can see whether a particular ticket is priced by cluster by going to www.brfares.com and going into Expert Mode.
Sometimes the placement of clusters, and/or the inclusion of certain stations in a cluster, can lead to an anomaly. I don't think that's what has happened here, though.
This is actually not a very surprising set of prices. Batley to Bentham takes its price from two clusters. The origin one is the Dewsbury area. The destination one is Arnside, Silverdale and Carnforth, plus also Wennington and Bentham. A ticket from Dewsbury to Lancaster (or Morecambe, it's the same price) costs very slightly less than a ticket from Dewsbury to Carnforth (or Silverdale or Arnside, same price). It is quite clear why this might have happened but I will say no more on the subject publicly - and recommend that you do the same.
Haywain
Veteran Member
- Joined
- 3 Feb 2013
- Messages
- 24,840
I'm not sure why there should be a need to avoid discussion of this. The reason for the apparent price discrepancy looks to be that Batley to Bentham is priced to be routed for travel via Preston & Lancaster and therefore is seen as further than Batley to Morecambe. Of course, journey opportunities are available travelling via Skipton on which route Bentham is a shorter journey than Morecambe. The only solution would seem to be to either remove permitted routes or to have specifically routed fares (via Preston and via Skipton, for example) for both clusters.
As I found the other week when I wanted to go from Menston to Manchester, there seems to be a bit of a blind spot in the system as regards journeys originating in West Yorkshire which can involve changing between stations in Bradford. The standard return fares for the journey I wanted to make assumed that I wanted to go via Leeds and TPE - I saved about £10 by booking a peak Menston-Halifax return and an off peak Halifax-Manchester.
I agree that it would be better for all stations on the Airedale and Warfedale lines to most stations in Greater Manchester and thereabouts to offer a route Hebden Bridge ticket with this in mind. Shipley to Manchester has them, for example, but not Ilkley to Manchester.
- Status