Trains: Start and finish of peak times

tattyhead

Hi

I have been tasked with reducing travel costs at the company I work for.

I would like to understand when off peak and peak travel times stop and start, for various routes and operators. I hoped that I'd find it collated somewhere.

If I search each route and journey, I can see which train is peak and off peak but I need more of a live, quick look ref to say that Liverpool to London trains are off peak from x time, Leeds to London from x time up to y time, London to Glasgow is x time.

I can locate a link from Virgin (not inc east coast) detailing 2014's times but the forum wont let me post it. I cannot find anything for 2015.

The towns I am looking for to start with, are below,

To and from London:

Aberdeen

Birmingham

Bristol

Edinburgh

Glasgow

Leeds

Manchester

Newcastle

Nottingham

Sheffield

Teesside

Can anyone point me in the right direction please? Does a live table exist somwhere with all of this info to hand?

Much appreciated


Tattyhead :-)

System

Even on a single route peak times can vary depending on the TOC so not that straightforward

tattyhead

Virgin covered it with their info from 2014

If you put the essential Ws in front of the below, this is sort of what I am looking for but a central souce for all operators. I thought National Rail may have it but sadly not....

virgintrains.co.uk/assets/pdf/announcements/offpeak-and-superoffpeak-restrictions-2014.pdf
thanks

T x

Jeff_Bridges_hair

As !!!!!! has said it varies by TOC to TOC and it is the ticket that defines what time(s) it is valid and not the train itself.


However try BRFares http://www.brfares.com/ to find the journeys you want as both off peak and super off peak ticke6ts on there will show you the restrictions.

yorkie2

tattyhead wrote: »

Hi

I have been tasked with reducing travel costs at the company I work for.

I would like to understand when off peak and peak travel times stop and start, for various routes and operators. I hoped that I'd find it collated somewhere.

Hmm... put in your origin/destination into brfares.com and it will give you the restrictions for any particular ticket you want. I hope you have a lot of spare time to do this!

Trying to work out the cheapest way to do any journey manually can be a very time consuming process.

For example a day return passenger from York to Derby departing around 0830 will be shocked to see the fare has been hiked by the private operators to an unbelievable £95.70, but trying to work out how to get around that manually by looking at all the intermediate fares and off peak times could be very time consuming.

A much quicker way to reduce costs would be to simply book through trainsplit.com. Using my example above, Trainsplit will quickly be able to inform you that a day return to Sheffield is only £20.90, and then Sheffield to Derby is only £11.30. The site only charges a fee if it saves you money, and then it's only 10% of the saving, so in my example it only charges you £38.55 for a journey that the ticket office would charge a ludicrous £95.70!

tattyhead

Thanks for all of your input however, it is not ticket definitions I am looking at as I know there are different restrictions on different types of ticket but I am looking for the actual start and finish of peak times. I am looking for a live link listing start and finish times on key routes that would change if the operators changed the timetables.

The virgin link I tried to paste was helpful as it listed when peak times start and finish but it was for 2014. (the forum still wont let me paste it but put all the Ws in front of the below and paste into your browser)

virgintrains.co.uk/assets/pdf/announcements/offpeak-and-superoffpeak-restrictions-2014.pdf

I am sure that collated info would be helpful to all travellers. Planning meetings or personal trips would just need a quick glance to see what times to travel to save money, instead of having to research the trip each time.

'Jo, the first off peak train from Manchester to London is at 9.35, so I'll see you at 12.00' Just by glancing at a table whilst on the phone, not having to research and liaise and reconfirm after researching the trip. Saves time and effort not to mention money for all.

Does anyone have a contact at National Rail or another organisation I can approach to advise?

thanks

Tattyhead

yorkie2

This already exists using most booking engines, selecting the relevant ticket e.g. in this case 'Off Peak Single' (or whatever) and it shows you the trains you can catch, so for London to Manchester it shows the 0940, 1000, 1020 and so on.

I would put a screenshot but I can't as this forum does not allow attachments.

If you want the precise details of any restriction code you need to use brfares.com but it sounds like you just want to see valid itineraries and that facility already exists.

Tobster86

I realise the exercise is to save money, but consider the ramifications of "I'll see you at 12.00 because I need to wait to catch a cheaper, off-peak train" from the perspective of how people will view your company. It doesn't take a great stretch of imagination to see how it could be a false economy.

tattyhead

Hi


Thanks for all of your answers but I am looking for a table of info not a booking search engine. I don't want to check each ticket every time, which is why I am looking for a one stop shop for the info. One place, such as the virgin link I pasted, that shows you when peak travel starts and stops on each route. It would be used as a gauge, not a bible, for business and personal bookings.


If I manage to get the info from the rail companies without having to trawl through each ticket for restrictions on the routes I want, I will share. They have the info but I don't have the clout to get it. If someone from the site can help, I would be grateful.
thanks
T x

yorkie2

I don't get it.

If you want to simply save money, use trainsplit.com

If you want to know off peak times, use brfares.com (or a booking engine if you want to see itineraries)

Can you post an example of data in the format you want? (make up the data if you don't have it)

agrinnall

tattyhead wrote: »

If I manage to get the info from the rail companies without having to trawl through each ticket for restrictions on the routes I want, I will share. They have the info but I don't have the clout to get it. If someone from the site can help, I would be grateful.
thanks
T x

I would imagine that the problem you will face is that even if the TOCs will provide you with the information you need it will be subject to change, and unless you ask them every day you won't know whether what you have is still valid.