Offering the cheapest rail ticket - any rules?

sghughes42

I have a vague memory that a while back there was a committment by ATOC that it's members now had to offer the cheapest ticket for any rail journey. Is that the case, and if so, does it apply to rover / day ranger tickets?

I was travelling Stockport to Coventry recently. The direct fare was quite high so I'd tried splitting the ticket. I'd managed to get one website to offer me a West Midlands Day Ranger for the Stoke to Coventry bit, but I couldn't get it to offer a sensible ticket for Stockport to Stoke. It was getting late on the night before and with an early start I just wanted to get something booked, so I used the East Midlands Trains site (for the cashback) and just booked the separate tickets.

I put in a complaint about this as if I'd been able to buy the Day Ranger ticket it would have saved me around £30. Their reply was that they are only obliged to offer point-to-point tickets, even if a Ranger is valid for the journey and is cheaper.

Is this allowable?

Also, the info about the ranger was quite well hidden - as I wasn't actually changing trains at Stoke I thought I wouldn't be able to get one but it appears they are available on-train so I could have just bought one on the day.

EMT are refusing to take this any further, assuming there is a case to answer, who else can I appeal to?

The moral of the story of course is to always check relevant rover and ranger tickets as they can offer savings as well as other tricks such as splitting the journey.

Owain_Moneysaver

sghughes42 wrote: »

I have a vague memory that a while back there was a committment by ATOC that it's members now had to offer the cheapest ticket for any rail journey. Is that the case, and if so, does it apply to rover / day ranger tickets?

If you ask for a Stoke-Coventry ticket and the Day Ranger is cheaper than the single or return ticket then yes, you should be offered the Ranger.

However if you ask for a Stockport-Coventry ticket the clerk is not required to split the fare, even if a rover is involved; it would be impossible for a clerk to calculate all possible variations of fare split across all routes.

However, LondonMidland say the West Midlands Day Ranger is only available from staffed stations, not online.

sghughes42

This was done online, not at a station, and I was looking at options to split the journey.

EMT do say that the WM Ranger is only available off-line, however I was offered one online, although not by them. I wish I'd thought to book the tickets sooner, the obvious thing would have been to book the ranger on one site and the other tickets on another but I wasn't thinking straight that late at night.

Would it be fair to say that if you ask for a journey and there is a cheaper ticket available, even if it can't be bought online, that you should be made aware of it and how it can be bought? Or is it acceptable for the retailer to just offer the cheapest ticket they can sell and not tell you about possible savings?

I've just noticed something interesting here... I went on Nationalrail.com to verify the fares and it is now offering me the WM Ranger for this route. However, when you click to buy whatever retailer you choose doesn't seem to offer it. Very misleading I feel. It also wasn't offering this when I booked originally and unless you navigate specifically to the Rangers and Rovers section of the website, nothing tells you it isn't available online.

Anyway, the savings are substantial. The WM Ranger costs £21.60. Even a single is £32. I wouldn't have saved quite as much as I also needed to buy a single from Stoke onwards - can't remember what I'd worked out, but the departure from Stoke was just before the 9am start time of the ranger, but even still the saving was over £30.

Owain_Moneysaver

You might want to check various train company websites. There are inconsistencies in the way the various ticket pricing systems (primarily Trainline and WebTIS) handle fare calculation.

sghughes42

I've just realised I've probably not made one point clear.

I've already made this journey and I'm trying to seek compensation from EMT (who I bought the tickets off) for being overcharged.

They are saying that they didn't have to tell me about the Ranger, only offer me the cheapest point-to-point tickets. I don't agree but I don't know how to refute that claim and how I can progress my complaint.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Go here https://www.railforums.co.uk for a definitive answer.

As I see it, if EMT say they dont sell the rangers online then they dont sell them online full stop.

sghughes42

I see the point there, it's more whether they have a duty to make you aware there is a cheaper ticket that they can't sell. I'll look on that forum, thanks.

Wail

Try Passenger Focus for an appeal.

macliam

Overall, train booking online is about as non-transparent as any other part of the UK Transport fiasco.

It seems many now charge a "booking fee" - National Express, the Trainline, etc. -with the Trainline going one better by charging you a for using a CC too (a la Ryanair).

Red Spotted Hanky don't charge a booking fee - but beware, they don't necessarily give the best fares either. I just booked a return direct with Greater Anglia for £10. RSH said the cheapest deal for this journey would be £23. The Trainline had the £10 deal, but would actually have charged me £14.50 for the same ticket!

Caveat Emptor!!:(

yangptangkipperbang

I presume the OP would be quite happy to stand for hours in a queue while the clerk calculated all the splitting combinations for a return ticket from Penzance to Aberdeen for the person in front of him !

wealdroam

macliam wrote: »

Overall, train booking online is about as non-transparent as any other part of the UK Transport fiasco.

It seems many now charge a "booking fee" - National Express, the Trainline, etc. -with the Trainline going one better by charging you a for using a CC too (a la Ryanair).

Red Spotted Hanky don't charge a booking fee - but beware, they don't necessarily give the best fares either. I just booked a return direct with Greater Anglia for £10. RSH said the cheapest deal for this journey would be £23. The Trainline had the £10 deal, but would actually have charged me £14.50 for the same ticket!

Caveat Emptor!!:(

Thanks Macliam.

Everything you say is well documented in MSE's Cheap Train Tickets article.
See 'Easy Tricks 6 - Use the top UK train booking sites'.

I find it difficult to believe that RSH's price for exacly the same ticket was over twice as much, but as you haven't given any details it is impossible to comment further.