Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi All, Trying to fit another holiday in and the Credit crunch is beginning to bite. Would like to travel back from Gatwick Airport on 16th Sepetember. Going to Gatwick its ^13.50 each on the Monday travelling at 17.55 ( Great Value have had this many times). Coming back its ^24.50 each on the 17.03 from Gatwick via Reading.

If time is not a problem would still like to arrive in Cardiff about 22.00 does anybody know a cheaper route,
have found Gatwick to Bath Spa to Cardiff via Reading at ^19.00 each.

Tried Gatwick via Cosham although Cosham to Cardiff is cheap Gatwick to Cosham is expensive.

Look foreward to some weird routes

Thanks

You will not get any advance purchase on Cosham to Gatwick Airport as this is a Southern priced route, and Southern generally don't offer advance purchase to Gatwick.

Your cheapest bet is almost certainly via Swindon and Reading.

Hi

Avoid arrive/departing Reading during their peak.... look at leaving GTW on the 18:50, which gets in to CDF 22:25, and there is still the ^13.50 advertised..  This will allow you to escape the airport in comfort rather than having to dash.

HTH

Credit crunch is obviously not biting that hard.
Do you only use this forum to get advice on fares? Maybe do some research online yourself? 

Oops, have I done something wrong on this forum. I did do my research before I asked.

Thanks for the suggestion about Swindon. It does show the irony of the fare system that you have to do
all this to travel.

You don't have to.

You've done nothing at all wrong, bassett44 - your questions are more than welcome, since for every person who dares ask something which might potentially be thought silly by experts, there's probably several more "lurkers" out there sighing and thinking "I'm so glad he asked that! I've been wondering much the same thing!"

By all means keep your queries coming. At least they're railway related - you should see some of the flak that gets fired when somebody strays into subjects which some perceive to have no place around here!

I hope you enjoy your holiday.

This topic links in with swlines post under random fare fact of the day that there are 4163 restrictions in the fare manual.

I would say that 4160 too many. It confuses passengers and staff, how can they anyone be expected to know that if it's Shrove Tuesday and the moon is full and there is spring high tide at Dawlish a different fare applies. 

Therefore, sharing knowledge on this forum as to how to buy the cheapest fare for a particular journey is extremely useful.

We also ought to be contesting the ^2 handling charge internet ticket sellers make. When travel agents sold rail tickets they sold them at booking office prices and the agency got a commission. It should be same on line if the TOCs want us to buy tickets online then they  should  pay the commission after all they are saving on their wages bill by not employing booking office staff.

Then there is problem with connections, if you buy an advanced ticket you are usually booked on a certain train for the greater part of the journey, but what happens if you have to travel by one TOC to get that train and the first train is late and you miss the connection. Do you get surcharged by the train manager for missing the connection? It has happened and it makes the papers. Another thing to put people off travelling by train.

To most people a train is a train is a train they don't care who runs it what colour it's painted so long as it runs roughly to time (they make any connections) and they can get a seat.

Connections are what makes rail a  Network and it's the rail Network that is valuable not individual lines or stations. The problem is the "bean counters" have never been able to quantify the value of a Network as a whole. They know how much it costs to run a train to Penzance and to Wick but what they can't work out is how much more valuable it is having both stations is to the Network. It's the fact that you can travel from most stations  in England, Wales and Scotland to most other stations in a day that makes the value of the network more valuable than the value of individual lines and stations.

Here's one for all you Bradshaw addicts what's the longest journey you can make in a day starting at start of service and finishing on the last train. Excluding sleepers as most start the day before.

There is another interesting thread on this board regarding people arranging their home and work around particualr rail services and how disrupting it is if those services are changed. I chose to live in Taplow because of the proximity of the station (10 minutes walk). Although I don't commute daily anymore I still use the station, particularly with one change at Reading I can get to an aweful lot of places.

So what we all ought to be saying loud and clear to ATOC that the current fare system is totally stupid and actively puts people off travelling by train. Nobody likes being ripped off and if they find they paid ^100 for a journey when if they'd booked via Melksham it would only have cost ^50 they are going to think twice about travelling again.

 

There was a recent ATOC ruling which allowed companies to make additional charges on top of tickets. Indeed, thetrainline basically have hidden charges for everything. Ticket on Departure is sadly a small surcharge for every transaction and when only a 5% commission is made on a ticket, the ToD charge can be more than the actual commission!

If the first train is late, and you are on the booked connecting train as shown on the printout, then you are automatically fine and dandy for your through journey. Some guards or TMs may argue with it but it is fruitless as those are ze rules!

Also the fear of missing the last advertised connection, should not worry you, ie 18:03 Paddington to Barnstaple, PAD-BNP.   If it's late in to St Davids, Go to Customer Services for a taxi.  FGW are more aware of their responsibility in such cases, but believe me it's taken a while - I used to do that leg every week for 18 months

Also, if they don't want to provide you a taxi - they have to provide you a hotel and ticket for onward travel the next day.

Demand 5 star!  ;D

Hi All,

Just to say that after further research and to help future travellers going back to Cardiff it would appear that you could do this which I understand is okay under the fare restrictions.

At the present moment if I book Gatwick Airport to Cardiff on 16/09/08 at 17.03 via Reading its is 24.50
per person.

At the same time I could book Gatwick Airport to Swindon on 16/09/08 at 17.03 via Reading at 13.00 per person and Swindon to Cardiff on 16/09/08 at 19.15 same train has the one from Reading for 5.00 per person.

Lots of issues around what would happen if the train arrives late at Reading might just take the risk.

What i think it just shows how stupid fares are has I know that this happens all over the system and I thought this section was the place to discuss.

Thanks

Basset44

You can officially use combinations of tickets as a through journey, as long as it meets the "train calls" rule.

Hi,

Thats what I thought but I agree with eightf48544 how many people know about all these rules.

A customer just wants to travel from a to b at the most resonable fare might not then mourn about seats

whoops again wrong section

Train combinations with changing is allowed however you are on slightly dodgier ground should there be a late train. They should officially provide you with transport, but may not. My advice would be to get a ticket to a slightly further destination on your change. So Gatwick to Didcot, for instance. This will come out at more expensive but it generally covers you better if the change is tight. (I'd say give it 20 minutes if you're splitting on a change to not do that)

You were quite right to raise your question here, basset44 - and I'm glad our members were able to help with practical suggestions!

I, too, have expressed amazement here in the past, that by buying two separate tickets for my journey, rather than one, while sitting on the same train throughout, I can save ^30 or ^40.

It is absolute nonsense.   ??? ::) >:(

There is this ticket you can buy

Gatwick Flyaway up to 4 people can travel together for ^85.00 return from Bath.  Dont know how many of you there are travelling but if 3 or 4 then the benefit is that there are no time restrictions.  Check this link

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/pr7a943fc35ce74101db9503cebaecbe/details.html

Thanks for that further very useful information, super tm - and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum!  :)

And also, very belatedly (for which, my apologies!) welcome to this forum, Feckham!

Chris  ;)

I appreciate it's probably "not the done thing" to add to a topic after such a long period of time, but it's worth reminding people of this ticket. Our family of four used the Gatwick Flyaway yesterday to travel to Gatwick on the 0800 from Bristol TM. Cost - a snip at ^100 return for up to 4 adults (the fact that 2 of ours are children didn't matter, though extra children would cost ^1 return!!).

I'm not sure the ticket is very well advertised. As a seasoned rail traveller used to trying to seek out the best options I only came upon it by chance. Having had a quote of over ^300 for the family (with railcard) on the on-line ticketing services, I was just about to book the car parking. Wonder how many others end up driving?