Winchester - Nottingham

[afyutr]

I have a couple of questions about this route - one relating to a recent(ish) journey and another to a future journey.

I travelled to Nottingham last year. Upon arrival at the station you have to pick a Via Banbury ticket (£86.50 - a couple of routes inc. Birmingham and Derby) or Via London ticket (£91.30) (current prices). Given that the price difference is so small (relative to the total cost of the ticket) and travel times \ frequency nigh on identical it's a bit of a coin toss decision. I picked wrong, and my XC train was cancelled about 10 mins after I bought the via Banbury ticket - next train was 45 mins I think. On asking station staff, I was told the only option if I wanted to travel via London was to buy a new ticket. Given what I know now, should I not have been able to get a refund (minus the £10 admin fee), or even just excess the ticket?

As for my next trip:

For travel on Sat, return on Sun (am departs, no pref on route, Forces railcard), can it be done cheaper than:

Sat
£10 Win-Lon (winter sale day return SWT)
£12.55 Lon-Not (1115-1255 ECT)

Sun
£14.50 Not-Lon (1040-1337 ECT)
£10 Lon-Win (winter sale day return SWT)

Total £47.05 - 1st Class travel (advances) on ECT is about an extra £10 return.

As much as SWT advertise these Winter sale returns however, I can't get them to show on the website booking forms.

TIA!

 

[LexyBoy]

That's pretty terrible advice you had there. You were entitled to a full refund had you chosen not to travel due to the cancellation, or an excess to allow travel via London if you wished to do that. What did you actually do?

I would complain to SWT; additionally if you chose to travel on the next XC service you will probably be entitled to Delay Repay.

 

[cjohnson]

As much as SWT advertise these Winter sale returns however, I can't get them to show on the website booking forms.!

Works for me - you need to book via SWT's website and make sure you specify a return journey for each day for the £10 fare to show (otherwise it just shows the single fare)

 

[afyutr]

LexyBoy thanks - I thought as much. It was early last year and it's only through reading this forum I've realised I probably had many other options. I took the usual "crack on and just get there" approach; I seem to recall going Winchester-Basingstoke-Reading-Birmingham-Derby-Nottingham in the end. 5 different trains... Still, gave me chance to get a head start on the stag do I was attending by raiding the trolley on each train for a swift Stella.

Found it now on the SWT site - just being thick!

Thanks.

 

[bb21]

Too late to do anything now but it is always useful to have the knowledge in case something similar happens again.

As for pricing up your future journey, what date are you travelling, or is this a general question?

 

[afyutr]

Sorry yes it's for travel this weekend. Bit of a late decision but might get lucky with the advances and winter sales.

 

[bb21]

You know these trains you have quoted are not East Coast, do you? They are for travel on EMT services.

If you book a through ticket Winchester - Nottingham on the 1115 from St Pancake, which is the 0918 from Winchester on www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk, you can have the through ticket for £17.80.

For the return journey, I can't see a cheaper option via London. There is however a through Nottingham - Winchester Advance fare for £17.95 travelling on XC via Birmingham on the 1310, 1410 and the 1510, although they all involve a replacement bus between Oxford and Didcot due to engineering works. (That said, not many XC services go via Didcot, even rarer to call there, so it is a good opportunity to do something unusual if that is what you are interested in.)

 

[afyutr]

I am being a bit slow today - just went to the East Coast website in a moment of confusion...

Thanks for those options, think I might stick with London to avoid the bus!

 

[davetheguard]

You know these trains you have quoted are not East Coast, do you? They are for travel on EMT services.

If you book a through ticket Winchester - Nottingham on the 1115 from St Pancake, which is the 0918 from Winchester on www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk, you can have the through ticket for £17.80.

For the return journey, I can't see a cheaper option via London. There is however a through Nottingham - Winchester Advance fare for £17.95 travelling on XC via Birmingham on the 1310, 1410 and the 1510, although they all involve a replacement bus between Oxford and Didcot due to engineering works. (That said, not many XC services go via Didcot, even rarer to call there, so it is a good opportunity to do something unusual if that is what you are interested in.)

Actually, a lot of XC trains go via Didcot -admittedly via the East Curve rather than the platforms- every 30 minutes, in fact.

But you're spot on when you say it's unusual for them to stop. Back in B.R. days a handful stopped at Didcot every day: I even caught a through train to Hull on one occasion; but that particular through working only lasted for one timetable.

Then Virgin arrived on the scene, promising all sorts of goodies, including direct trains to Birmingham via Swindon every two hours, but in the end they pulled out completely instead. Portsmouth; Brighton; Poole; Liverpool all suffered the same fate.

 

[bb21]

Actually, a lot of XC trains go via Didcot -admittedly via the East Curve rather than the platforms- every 30 minutes, in fact.

Aye, but they don't go past the station, apart from a selected few on Sunday I think, which is what I was getting at.

 

[LexyBoy]

They go through the station occasionally in the week, I think on an ad-hoc basis for overtaking or if there's signalling issues. I've taken XC from Reading to Didcot on a weekday when an extra stop was added due to line closure between Pad and Reading, so I'm glad it's possible!