Yeovil Junction to Crewkerne : £46 return

[PhilipW]

The NationalRail site records a single journey for the one stop between Yeovil and Crewkerne as being £4.40 single, a return at £5.10 if you return the same day but a staggering £46 if you return the next day.

I hope nobody falls for this.

In fact all the return fares between any stations west of Salisbury seem to have the same problem. It is not just a blip, the site has recorded these fares for at least a few weeks.

It makes you wonder how many other fares are listed incorrectly on the site. I can realise that this example is wrong but for parts of the country that I am not familiar with even I could fall for a pricing mistake. Once paid I doubt if anyone could get their money back.

 

[Ianno87]

Is it the case that, because there is no 'Period' return, it is offering a Rover ticket instead?

 

[30907]

It is.

On the NRE site you would have to make an effort to "fall for it," as it defaults to the cheaper fare. You would also have specifically to buy a Rover ticket on the TOC website.

 

[PhilipW]

Is it the case that, because there is no 'Period' return, it is offering a Rover ticket instead?

I think you are correct that it is offering a Rover ticket but that is hardly what the customer may want.

The average customer will not know that a period return may not exist and that he is best to buy two singles. Even I have no idea as to which stations offer period returns and which don't. I thought it was standard across all the SWT network.

If the average customer just wants a return, he asks for a return and hopes the system will give him the best ticket.

This topic came up because my son and partner are travelling down from London to Crewkerne. Rather than buy a London to Crewkerne return, it turns out to be cheaper to buy a London to Yeovil return (with SWT £14 advance offer as that has an arbitary limit at Yeovil) then from Yeovil to Crewkerne. It all gets very complicated buying online with one return to Yeovil plus two singles.

No simplicity here !

 

[Joe Paxton]

Well the SWT £14 ticket offer ends this coming Sunday so that will simplify things back to the more expensive normal situation.

 

[[.n]]

Well the SWT £14 ticket offer ends this coming Sunday so that will simplify things back to the more expensive normal situation.

I would imagine it'll be replaced with a very similar promotion that runs until 20 August!

 

[wibble]

I think you are correct that it is offering a Rover ticket but that is hardly what the customer may want.

The average customer will not know that a period return may not exist and that he is best to buy two singles. Even I have no idea as to which stations offer period returns and which don't. I thought it was standard across all the SWT network.

If the average customer just wants a return, he asks for a return and hopes the system will give him the best ticket.

I would hope that the average customer looking at the NRE site would be of average intelligence and realise that £8.80 is less than £46.45 and therefore buy the singles!

 

[PhilipW]

I would hope that the average customer looking at the NRE site would be of average intelligence and realise that £8.80 is less than £46.45 and therefore buy the singles!

True ... but then even I got tricked a bit. I thought that the website had the wrong prices rather than there not not being a return fare available.

It seems perfectly reasonable that anyone asking for a return from Yeovil to Crewkerne returning the next day (as my son would have done from London either at ticket office or online) would expect to be issued with 2 tickets totalling £8.80. Whether they had the words 'Return' or 'Single' stamped on them would not have concerned him at all.

I dare say that SWT may have good reasons for curtailing their £14 offer at Yeovil Junction though I doubt if many members of the public would know what those reasons are and it does make taking a weekend break to points further west a lot more complicated.