Great Western Coffee Shop

Does anyone remember this press release, which mysteriously failed to mention the withdrawal of off peak fares from evening services from Paddington to the Cotswolds? 

https://www.gwr.com/about-us/media-centre/news/2015/april/10000-seats-at-gbp10-for-north-cotswold-passengers

It read ^10,000 seats at just ^10 for North Cotswold rail passengers^  Turns out the ^10 tickets from  Kingham to Paddington were available for just six months.  Try booking an advance ticket now, and unless you're cleverer than me, the cheapest you will find event three months out is ^18.

Thank you GWR.  ^We're giving the West back its Great Western Railway^ !!

Welcome to the forum, CobboldCamper

There was a discussion on the withdrawal of off peak fares on the busiest (?) evening trains from Paddington at
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15649.0
but to my knowledge no indication of the metrics of advance fare allocation into the future.

Not a line I know much about - I'll leave others to comment further; just wanted to welcome you and add the link in to what's really "the story so far ..."

I've taken a further look ... and noted that the original press release doesn't specify any particular stations as "North Cotswold" - so where is the limit?   Taking 22nd October (random day), I've found plenty of very low advance fares into London from Charlbury ...

Being deeply cynical, I'd assumed that these were semi-mythical fares, readily available on trains that no-one would ever use.

But prompted by Grahame I've looked at the prices, and there are indeed sensible prices available, even on the supposedly-full peak hour trains. So I'm going to look more seriously at this next time I go to London.

But I really don't understand the logic of the pricing. coming back from London on Tuesday October 6 I'm being offered these one-way prices:

    15:52 departure ^6.00
    17:22    ^14.00
    17:49    ^14:00
    18:22    ^14:00
    19:22    ^6.00
    20:22    ^18.00
    21:48    ^26.00

Could someone explain why the 20:22 is more expensive than the 19:22, and why the 21:48 is the most expensive? They're both HSTs. The 21:48 will typically arrive at Shrub Hill with more coaches than passengers.

And the 1552 often departs with more passengers than air space. Can't work out why it is the joint-cheapest.

Thanks for the comments - turns out there was a glitch in the system which meant the fares were initially set at the wrong price.  Good news is  they've offered a full refund and tickets now available for ^6.

Result  ;D  ... with a fare system which has grown up (in my opinion) to be overcomplex, glitches will happen (and it can be darned hard to work out what is and isn't a glitch!

It certainly is when, as you pointed out, seats are available on the 15:52 for ^6 but cost more than four times more on the much quieter 21:48!  I despair sometimes...

Particularly when it's FGW/GWR tinkering with the fares system. There are still some flows where Advance Purchase fares are not being offered at the same price across all GWR outlets, as well as some where AP's are being offered at a higher price that the walk up single valid at the same time.

'Glitch' suggests a system fault. These issues have arisen because of human error though.

I'd love the Customer Panel(s) to get their teeth intonthis problem, but unless you provide clear evidence/examples, we'll simply have to assume you're making this up....

Assume away. I've provided examples in the recent past. However, it isn't my job to help GWR fix things they broke.

And I understand they have been corrected

GWR must expect considerable passenger flows this Saturday on the North Cotswold Line as most trains best fare between Paddington and Worcester is the Off peak single at ^31.20 but on the 08.21, 11.21, 18.21, 21.48 an Advance fare of ^30!!! is available.
Doesn't this bring the whole Advance offering into some disrepute? For ^1.20 more you are not restricted by any of the Advance Conditions.
Is there anything happening in the Cotswolds that would justify this miserly approach? I hope the answer is not the South Africa v Samoa game at Villa park and GWR are making sure they get full return from any passengers thinking it will be cheaper to de-tour via Worcester from London. If they are doing this they are undone by Virgin who offer an Advance fare during Saturday of ^22 to Worcester via New Street!

Along with others I do not believe GWR have come close to what they were suggesting would happen with Advance fares when the recent changes took place.

The clue is in 'Advance'. Up to 12 weeks ahead, not a couple of days. The closer you get to date of travel, the lower the discount....every TOC is the same

From the GWR app just now. Newbury to Swansea 24th September at 0933.

Advance ^59.50
Off Peak Single ^51.00

But seriously, that won't fool anyone. Agree its likely to be an error though

I was helping a family friend with rail tickets the other day. They were about to purchase some GWR APs that were more expensive than the flexible walk up fare. They would have been fooled to the tune of nearly ^20 had I not been on hand.

Chris B. It is not purely to do with nearness to travel, it is to do with the using up of the allocation for Advance tickets that drives the price up. Clearly GWR believe they are going to load heavily with standard price tickets. I just wanted to know what prompted this thinking.

Indeed, but even if they haven't bedn used up, the discount evaporates the closer you get to travel date. As do air fares.

Chris B then why could I buy an advance single (^19) bristol to birmingham for tonights 2200 at 2053. The standard fare is ^53?
And just for information on air fares, my sons girl friend bought an Oslo to london single with SAS for ^20 two days before flying two weeks ago!

Exceptions are always likely/possible. It's a marketing game. I'm talking generally

Whilst the system may generate higher advance fares from its algorithms, a piece of code like this within the "which fares do I offer" loop:


could be provided to ensure they're not offered to the purchaser.   That should make it "impossible" to offer a higher or equal advance fare to walk up fare.