London Bridge fares rip-off
A couple was heading from Headcorn to London on a weekday morning, wishing to arrive for around 10am – the arrival time that most out-boundary off peak day travelcards become valid. However, on close inspection, the 10am rule applies to the time that the train is scheduled to arrive at “London Terminals” – normally this is very straightforward. But in the case of through trains calling at London Bridge, these call at two or three London terminals – so which one does the 10am rule apply to? We put this to the test and according to Thetrainline, the 0859 from Headcorn to London Bridge (arr 0957) gave a price for a peak travelcard of £32.30, while specifying London Charing Cross (arr 1007) gave a price of an off-peak travelcard at only £18.50!
As the couple were heading to a suburb of London, they had been advised to change at London Bridge, therefore quoted the higher fare. When they asked at stations and by telephone, they were given differing answers, and even told they would “have to check when they got there”! This is unacceptable and confusing for passengers, as one of them remarked “I thought they said on the news they were making tickets simpler? No one seems to understand them including the railway!” In reality they purchased the cheaper fare and encountered no problems. I wonder if RPIs ask passengers if they are alighting at London Bridge in order to determine validity? If passengers say they are continuing to Charing Cross, then RPIs will have to accept the tickets. I wonder how many unsuspecting people are caught out by over-zealous RPIs on trains through London Bridge?
Train companies make a simple journey very complicated
A resident of Royston contacted us recently about a journey to have a weekend in Manchester, out on Friday and returning on Sunday. He searched for a through ticket – as surely, this should be the simplest option – from Royston to Manchester, however the return journey on Sunday gave him this ridiculous itinerary:
Code: Select all
Station Arr Dep Service Provider
MANCHESTER PICC 16:07 Train NORTHERN RAIL
SHEFFIELD 17:32 18:02 Train NORTHERN RAIL
RETFORD 18:43 19:37 Train HULL TRAINS
GRANTHAM 19:56 20:58 Train NATIONAL EXPRESS EAST COAST
PETERBOROUGH 21:19 21:45 Train FIRST CAPITAL CONNECT
HITCHIN 22:28 22:47 Train FIRST CAPITAL CONNECT
ROYSTON 23:04The reasons for this ticket becoming more restrictive than previously are complex, and well beyond the comprehension of a regular passenger, but the end result is simply unacceptable and ATOC are, ultimately, to blame for allowing each TOC to do it’s own thing with no regard for passengers using services using their trains but on tickets priced by other operators.
Ultimately, our friend from Royston was able to get a far better deal by splitting tickets at Doncaster. This gave him an excellent TPE advance fare between Manchester and Doncaster, and NXEC advance fares from Doncaster to Royston, via Stevenage. Departing Manchester over an hour later, at 17:15, he actually passes Retford non-stop at around 19:25 – certainly beating waiting at Retford from 1843 to 1937 seeing this train fly past – and finally arrives at Royston at 2042, a mere 2 hours 22 minutes earlier than Thetrainline wanted him to arrive.
So the lesson here is that the TOCs do not care about you if you are using a route that it not directly served by them, and it can be cheaper and quicker to split tickets at one or more stations en-route.
NXEC guard wrong, says ATOC
On Saturday, I was travelling on the 16:10 National Express HST service out of Edinburgh. The Dundee to London Kings Cross service was, for this weekend, diverted via Carlisle due to engineering works between Edinburgh and Newcastle. Eventually, I noticed that the guard was taking an extremely long time checking tickets, and only got to us (in Coach E) approaching Gretna. I was about to find out why his checks take so long....
On showing him the tickets, routed 'Carlisle#, he astonished me by stating that “We do not accept tickets routed via Carlisle”, the fact that the train went via Carlisle was ignored. He further shocked me by stating “This is a Cross-Country ticket”, I showed him a reservation for the 17:55 NXEC service. “We don’t have a 17:55, that must be a CrossCountry service. You should really be on that train. But, as you are on an Off Peak ticket, you can use an earlier train, but it must be operated by CrossCountry” I could hardly believe what I was hearing! He finally agreed to “let [us] off”, with a warning not to do it again. I most certainly will be doing it again.
For the record, the “Route Carlisle” tickets, are most certainly not TOC-specific, and indeed cannot be used on CrossCountry between Carlisle and Edinburgh as CrossCountry have not operated via Carlisle for many months now!
ATOC were contacted about this issue, and confirmed that these tickets are valid on NXEC. Not only that, but they also confirmed that Preston to Edinburgh 'Route Carlisle' tickets are valid via York, Newcastle and Carlisle – although only on direct services between Newcastle and Edinburgh that run via Carlisle. The reason is that Preston to York is permitted via Newcastle. A 'Route Carlisle' is valid for permitted routes that travel through Carlisle, which these trains do during engineering works.
I should point out that the vast majority of NXEC guards are sound, and accept Carlisle tickets as they should, without question. It is only a small minority who treat their customers like dirt.