Trains at xmas

Jolsa

Anyone else having a problem finding the cheaper tickets for train travel around Christmas time?
The cheapest price for my rtn journey home is over twice what I can usually get it for, at £71.

Any idea when the cheap tickets start getting put onto the system?

blackcateddie

i book each year for my in-laws to visit and they are coming at the end of this month as well. To visit us in November it has cost £18 for both tickets and for Xmas the current quote from GNER is £136!!!!!!

The Xmas tickets for GNER went on sale on 5th Oct so actually i booked then. Try bookng separate tickets and maybe break your journey on the return leg if it's after Xmas. A lot of people travelling want to go direct so usually there may be cheaper fairs for those with more than one stop.

Good luck

isasmurf

Jolsa wrote:

Any idea when the cheap tickets start getting put onto the system?

Under the train operators franchise agreements, at least 9 weeks before travel.

From Transport Select Committee Report

117. Train operators are required through their franchise contracts to publish information about train services and to open reservations nine weeks ahead of the date of travel. This is the so-called 'T-9' obligation.[124] In order to fulfil this obligation, train operators depend on Network Rail to comply with its contractual obligation to release confirmed timetables to them at least twelve weeks before any particular departure - the 'Informed Traveller Requirement', also known as 'T-12'

Jolsa

Hmm, well they haven't released them yet. Spoke to National Railway Enquiries, then rang First Great Western and they said that the cheap tickets should be able to be reserved online by the end of the week. We'll see...

If it's anything like last xmas, they'll pass the blame and wait until the last minute to publish the cheap tickets for reservation onto the system, thereby making a nice bit of cash out of those who have panicked and bought the higher priced ticket earlier for peace of mind.

Or am I just being cynical? ;-)

A_Nice_Englishman

Christmas is one of the busiest times of year on the railways.The train companies can sell most if not all their tickets at the full price so they don't need to discount them.

dazbyd

A_Nice_Englishman wrote:

Christmas is one of the busiest times of year on the railways.The train companies can sell most if not all their tickets at the full price so they don't need to discount them.

.... and Christmas is also one of the busiest times of the year for planned maintenance/engineering work ... so TOC's won't be able to release 'cheap' tickets until they are guaranteed that the pathing will be made available/released by Network Rail etc

A_Nice_Englishman

dazbyd wrote:

.... and Christmas is also one of the busiest times of the year for planned maintenance/engineering work ... so TOC's won't be able to release 'cheap' tickets until they are guaranteed that the pathing will be made available/released by Network Rail etc

Although according to isasmurf's post above the timetable should have been finalised 12 weeks before Christmas - around the end of September / beginning of October.

dazbyd

A_Nice_Englishman wrote:

Although according to isasmurf's post above the timetable should have been finalised 12 weeks before Christmas - around the end of September / beginning of October.

.... and in the real world this would be correct .... but unfortuantely things don't always go according to plan .... for various different reasons .... and engineering works can over-run, which results in pathing not being released ...