Completely changed train fare structure. How does it affect you?

bezzer · 28 May 2008 at 9:02PM

Hi, This is my first post so I hope I get it right! I need to book a train to travel from Coventry to Euston in August. I was hoping to do this 12 weeks before to take advantage of the advance tickets. But the price I've been quoted seems a lot more than what previous similar searches brought back. Cheapest way at the moment seems to be through Virgin Trains directly. Should I wait and see what happens or do it now?

dzug1 · 28 May 2008 at 9:18PM

bezzer wrote: »

Hi, This is my first post so I hope I get it right! I need to book a train to travel from Coventry to Euston in August. I was hoping to do this 12 weeks before to take advantage of the advance tickets. But the price I've been quoted seems a lot more than what previous similar searches brought back. Cheapest way at the moment seems to be through Virgin Trains directly. Should I wait and see what happens or do it now?

12 weeks is a myth - wait and there will be cheaper fares released. Virgin haven't released beyond 25 July yet. Weekends are even worse. If you do it now you will pay full fare as if booking on the day.

It may be worth looking at travelling via Leamington and High Wycombe to Marylebone. If the times are right you can do it for £17 return on a walk on ticket. (Valid on trains scheduled to arrive into London after 1345hrs and leaving London after 1100hrs (except between 1559-1959hrs Mondays to Fridays). Return journey can be made the same day or within a month.)

It is a bit slower though

digitaltoast · 28 May 2008 at 9:52PM

£10.50 each way sound OK? eg: out aug 7 return aug 8th, total £21. Most of the day available at that price. Is that the sort of price you were expecting?

Edit: I strongly recommend http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/ as a booking site - not only is it incredibly easy, intuitive and quick with no booking or postage fees, but it also has a "cheapest fares" button on the left, and on the right, it tells you when you can book up to. eg, today it says:

Now booking up to & including Thursday 21 August 2008

I don't agree with "wait and then tickets will be cheaper", the cheapest tickets are available earliest, it's on an airline-style "first come, cheapest served" basis mostly.

If you want to travel after 21st Aug, just keep an eye on that box.

Garetha · 29 May 2008 at 7:16PM

I was checking www.trainline.co.uk last night for train fares on 2 Aug from Exeter to London returning 8 Aug.
I was able to get 2 adult tickets for both ways (taking singles rather than returns) for a total of £48 last night.
It's coming up more than twice that today on the same trains :eek:

Any ideas anyone - please?

dzug1 · 29 May 2008 at 7:47PM

digitaltoast wrote: »

I don't agree with "wait and then tickets will be cheaper", the cheapest tickets are available earliest, it's on an airline-style "first come, cheapest served" basis mostly.

.

The earliest tickets to become available are full fare walk on tickets, not the cheapest ones. At a variable interval later, the cheap tickets get released.

If they haven't been released there is no point in panicking and buying the full fare tickets which will NOT sell out, ever. You might as well wait. You cannot be worse off.

Once they are released - then yes, buy quickly if you want the cheapest.

dzug1 · 29 May 2008 at 7:50PM

Garetha -

Try somewhere other than the trainline - it will be cheaper anyway (no booking fees)

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/

is as good as any.

Either the cheapest tickets have sold, or you have inadvertently or through a glitch in the website asked for twice as many tickets. (There does seem to be a problem of this sort at the moment - many sites are not handling cookies correctly)

Garetha · 29 May 2008 at 8:33PM

dzug1 wrote: »

Garetha -

Try somewhere other than the trainline - it will be cheaper anyway (no booking fees)

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/

is as good as any....

Thanks
The cheaper tickets are there! great relief!

I was going to use Megabus - but they don't do August yet

digitaltoast · 13 June 2008 at 11:29PM

UPDATE: I received a letter dated June 10th with the following:

Thank you for your further letter about the re-structure of our tickets.

I am sorry for the confusion we may have caused in our previous communications with you. Following your original phone calls and letters to us we had discovered some anomalies in our fare structure. This affected a few fares where connecting train operators were involved.

As a result, we have had twenty incidents of customers being charged incorrect fares.
These fares have now been corrected and if the customers contact us we will reimburse them. Regrettably as these purchases were made at stations we do not have the customers details to contact directly. We have also made the Telegraph aware of these fare anomalies and our efforts to correct the fault.

If you have purchased an incorrectly priced ticket please send it to us in customer relations and we will reimburse you for the difference in fares.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to address this matter once again.

Yours sincerely

VIC SAVILLE
Team Leader

TWENTY incidents?!? I spoke to ten people on trains myself! Don't tell me only 20 people went from the south to Wales (or any other combination of XC > non-XC) on advance tickets in that time! I particularly like:

Following your original phone calls and letters to us we had discovered some anomalies in our fare structure

Er, no...following my recording your lies, getting the press involved, then CC-ing the whole lot to Passenger Focus, ATOC and Mr Ruth Kelly, you had to stop lying. I TOLD them about the incorrect fares before the 18th May! The nerve of some of these companies....

And in spite of the line,

We have also made the Telegraph aware of these fare anomalies and our efforts to correct the fault

there's nothing on the Cross Country Trains or ATOC press release site, and nothing I can find in the Telegraph. There's a mention of the Passenger Focus statement, though:

Passenger Focus is lobbying Virgin Trains, Cross Country and National Express following changes in ticket use restrictions in some parts of the country.

(click link above to read the rest).

Anyway, I've updated the blog. But there you have it - time to get claiming!

mihalisk · 21 July 2008 at 2:46PM

gner_ex wrote: »

You'd be surprised how cheap a season ticket is. To London Terminals only (Euston or Marylebone):
7 Days 1 Month 3 Months 6 Months 12 Months £178.50 £645.60 £1,936.60 £3,873.10 £6,724.00
London Midland trains only (to Euston):
7 Days 1 Month 3 Months 6 Months 12 Months £114.10 £438.20 £1,314.50 £2,628.90 £4,564.00
Depending where in London you head, you can get a travelcard (zones 1 to 6) priced as follows (this is valid from Coventry to London (any operator any route) and for any Underground/train/bus within zones 1-6):

7 Days 1 Month 3 Months 6 Months 12 Months £186.50 £676.30 ? ? £7,044
You can then use a season ticket for any journey that is within your permitted routes, for example you could do Coventry to Rugby, Coventry to High Wycombe... etc etc.

Could you please explain how exactly you find these prices?

Besides, those are the prices for any train operator, if I only want to use Virgin, do they get any cheaper?

Thanks in advance!

gner_ex · 22 July 2008 at 8:24AM

Mihalisk, there is a Season Ticket Calculator online at http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/pj/sts

Note that some of those tickets are LONDON MIDLAND only - there are no seasons that are VIRGIN only because they are the main operator.

Completely changed train fare structure. How does it affect you?

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