Virgin trains Loaded against Northerners

tyler4402_2

It might be pointed out that using the “ Virgin Trainsfarefinder “ who’s link is on this site is of little use for people from the North West of England if you want to travel North into Scotland.
The Virgin site is geared only for journeys to London as using the Virgin sites drop down menu’s no other destination is offered if you enter a starting point of, Preston. Lancaster, Manchester, or Bank Key, and many other North Western towns.
You just cannot get information from Virgin if you want to go North in the opposite direction to London, although trains can be found that do go North on the Trainline.com site and on the British rail Enquiries site.

gner_ex

Don't use virgin or trainline websites. About the best site for trains (nationally) is http://www.gner.co.uk - easy to search the options.

bunking_off

? You've got me there. Use https://www.buytickets.virgintrains.co.uk/journeyrequest.aspx and you can type in any destinations. Might help if you spell it as Warrington Bank Quay

KeithP

Yes, that is true if you use http://www.farefinder.virgintrains.co.uk/

But the blurb on that page does say...
Our Best Fare Finder allows you to see our best value fares for some of our top routes.

And then goes on to say...
If your journey is not one of our most popular routes, simply go to the buy tickets section.

Seems fair enough to me.

tyler4402_2

Hi Guys,
Sorry about the spelling !! not my best subject, I take your point Keith I now see it does point to the " Buy Tickets " section.

So it would seem that Virgin Trains Farefinder do not class Preston to Glasgow or Edinborough a top enough route to give best value fares on.

We just don't seem to get the offers in the NW that the Midlands and South get, I know its nothing to do with Virgin but the Scots, north and south Yorkshire and I think Humberside also the Welsh all get consesionary rail fares for over 60's all we get is the bus pass and this lot are trying to take that back !!! LOL.
I have noted the links you have all kindly sent and will give them a good looking at later, many thanks.

Bowling_4_Gold

Hope you don't feel too bad - Reading isn't on the 'importance' list, despite being on the mainline between Wales and London, and being the largest station in England outside London.

bunking_off

I'm no defender of Virgin...have been stuck on their trains often enough, but...


- Is Reading on the Virgin trains network anymore? I didn't think so since they lost the cross-country franchise. It's a little unfair to expect them to offer their best value fares from a station they don't even serve anymore...

- What it actually says is that the page in question gives the best value fares for their most popular routes. It doesn't say that these routes are the only ones offering the best value fares. If I go on the page I linked above, and look at tickets from Preston-Glasgow on 25th August (random date), there's options available from £11.50.

robt_2

tyler4402 wrote: »

Hi Guys,
Sorry about the spelling !! not my best subject, I take your point Keith I now see it does point to the " Buy Tickets " section.

So it would seem that Virgin Trains Farefinder do not class Preston to Glasgow or Edinborough a top enough route to give best value fares on.

We just don't seem to get the offers in the NW that the Midlands and South get, I know its nothing to do with Virgin but the Scots, north and south Yorkshire and I think Humberside also the Welsh all get consesionary rail fares for over 60's all we get is the bus pass and this lot are trying to take that back !!! LOL.
I have noted the links you have all kindly sent and will give them a good looking at later, many thanks.

I don't think you understand what the fare finder does. It finds cheap fares on selected popular routes. It does not mean that cheap fares are not available on other routes

gner_ex

Bowling_4_Gold wrote: »

Hope you don't feel too bad - Reading isn't on the 'importance' list, despite being on the mainline between Wales and London, and being the largest station in England outside London.

Largest station measured on what basis? It certainly isn't on number of platforms, and I'd be surprised if numbers of trains/passengers per hour or per day/per year was that large.

Bowling_4_Gold

bunking_off wrote: »

- Is Reading on the Virgin trains network anymore? I didn't think so since they lost the cross-country franchise. It's a little unfair to expect them to offer their best value fares from a station they don't even serve anymore...

Good point! A bit surprised they havn't removed the littl Virgin branding remaining from the X-Country trains

King_Weasel

gner_ex wrote: »

Largest station measured on what basis? It certainly isn't on number of platforms, and I'd be surprised if numbers of trains/passengers per hour or per day/per year was that large.

My guess would be that Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest (passengers and trains) station in the UK outside London, but could be wrong and haven't counted the platforms or checked its area.

Reading would be well down the list, though it's on more routes than Paddington-Wales and is a junction and interchange point.