York to Whitby £13.30 CDR?

[CaptainHaddock]

I've been planning a York Whitby day trip for later in the summer and the excellent brfares site has found me a fare of £13.30, routed "Not via Darlington".

http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=YRK&dest=WTB&rlc= &rte=99&ldn=0&tkt=CDR

Unfortunately whatever booking site I use, the fare shows up but is greyed out and described as "not valid on any of the listed services". Instead I get offered a CDR fare of £29.00.

I then thought the £13.30 might only apply on the York-Whitby direct bus but when you select Whitby Bus as your destination, it brings up a Bus Return fare of £8.50 (cheaper I know, but I don't want to go by bus!).

Two things perplex me; the obvious route is to change at Middlesbrough, which does of course avoid Darlington, and secondly the fare is set by TPE, which of course runs the York-Middlesborugh service. So why on earth is the £13.30 fare impossible to book?

 

[LexyBoy]

What date are you looking at? Both NRE and WebTIS show the Not Via Darlington fare for me.

 

[cuccir]

Which site are you using? The fare is displaying fine for me on the East Coast website.

Although the obvious route might be to take a TPE train York-Middlesbrough, it is often faster to change at Darlington, due to the higher frequency of trains Middlesbrough-Darlington and York-Darlington, than York-Middlesbrough.

At times where the route via Darlo is faster, a search via Yarm will give you times for the TPE trains.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Which site are you using? The fare is displaying fine for me on the East Coast website.

Although the obvious route might be to take a TPE train York-Middlesbrough, it is often faster to change at Darlington, due to the higher frequency of trains Middlesbrough-Darlington and York-Darlington, than York-Middlesbrough.

At times where the route via Darlo is faster, a search via Yarm will give you times for the TPE trains.

How odd. Tried again on the East Coast website and it lets me book it now; out at 0926, back at 1600. Seems remarkably good value for a scenic journey that takes the best part of 2 and a half hours each way!

Quite bizarrely it's actually more expensive to book a day return from York to Scarborough than to Whitby!

 

[cuccir]

The Esk Valley Line must be just about the cheapest line in the country - presumably because for pretty much any journey, it's slower with a less frequent service than the bus!

 

[Chapeltom]

Its a bargain fare.

Me and my Dad took advantage of it having completed the Coast 2 Coast walk in 2011, split at York and back to Chinley. Whitby to Chinley for 2 people, 1 with a railcard for £55 (probably cheaper back in 2011) shows that not all train travel in Britain is expensive!

 

[yorkie]

It is a good value fare, but...

How odd. Tried again on the East Coast website and it lets me book it now; out at 0926, back at 1600. Seems remarkably good value for a scenic journey that takes the best part of 2 and a half hours each way!

... in general, market-based pricing works on the basis that a slower journey should result in a discount, not a premium, as most regular passengers (ie, not enthusiasts) would want to get there quicker. Tickets are not based on time it takes to get there, distance is going to influence it, along with supply & demand, and other factors, such as any possible need to compete with the (cheaper, more frequent and perhaps even quicker) bus service.

The fare from York is the same from Sherburn-in-Elmet, Cattal and all stations between them and York, making Sherburn-in-Elmet to Whitby one of the best value walk-up tickets in the country.

 

[soil]

The fare from York is the same from Sherburn-in-Elmet, Cattal and all stations between them and York, making Sherburn-in-Elmet to Whitby one of the best value walk-up tickets in the country.

200 miles for £13.30 day return, 6.7p/mile

Southern have some even better value fares, such as Wye - Beaulieu Road, which is £15 day return for 280 miles, or just 5.4p/mile.

Previous thread: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=24979&page=3

 

[maniacmartin]

200 miles for £13.30 day return, 6.7p/mile

But it's only 130 miles for a return trip by road. The fact that you have to take a 200mile trip via rail because of a convoluted route wouldn't be relevant to most passengers - in fact it'd be considered a negative point. So to do a like for like comparison with other transport its more like 10p/mile.

 

[soil]

Well the distance isn't of itself relevant to rail passengers. Time is the key here, and as far as time goes, this route is awful.

Southern's fares along the South Coast are much better value, something like Rye - Southampton is a horrible journey by road, not really much quicker than the railway, and at 266 miles @ 20p/mile, very expensive too.

Main drawback is no trains beyond Hastings after about 9:30pm, but it's still much better value than the Whitby ticket, a journey better conducted via bus to Scarborough.

Unless you can sell a journey as a sightseeing tour, slow infrequent trains aren't worth much to people.

 

[maniacmartin]

We should really compare (distance as crow flies) / (time taken by rail) to get the best value fare

 

[D841 Roebuck]

A bit off-topic, but this thread inspired me to check out certain possibilities for my semi-regular Rochdale to Chathill return journey.

Splitting at Micklefield and Shildon, and walking from South Milford to Sherburn(!) produces a useful saving, and enables a visit to the NRM Annexe enroute...

 

[yorkie]

I've cycled South Milford to Sherburn - not long at all on a bike. But quite a walk! Google maps estimates 34 minutes.

 

[soil]

We should really compare (distance as crow flies) / (time taken by rail) to get the best value fare

I think you have to compare time and distance by road, plus possibly parking/congestion charge with rail time, frequency, connecting transport options (e.g. walk from station to shops, take 2-hourly bus, etc.)