Web site with corect train fares

[whole diary]

[infoman]

I know that there are various sites showing fares for rail journies.

I find it very difficult to get my head round those sites.

Is their a site that gives fares like at mainline railway stations ticket machines?

So if you walked up to the machines at Reading,

it would give you all the options to buy tickets from Reading.

Thanks in advance.

[grahame]

I know that there are various sites showing fares for rail journies.

I find it very difficult to get my head round those sites.

Is their a site that gives fares like at mainline railway stations ticket machines?

So if you walked up to the machines at Reading,

it would give you all the options to buy tickets from Reading.

Thanks in advance.

There's a massive number of tickets available ... 2563 stations to 2562 others gives a potential 6.5 million different journeys, and then for each of those you'll have at least two fares (single and return) and usually many many many many more - add in season tickets, 1st and standard class, day and period return, alternative route, peak, off peak and sometimes superoffpeak and weekend off-peak. Then you have advance tickets and operator specific tickets.    Taking an example I've used before - Melksham to Paddington ... there are no longer just 125 fares offered as I once counted - there are now 136. Now - most of those fares are available in Adult, Railcard discounted, Child and Priv flavours.   Bit of multiplying gives me 3,572,124,864 combinations.   That's an over the top number - there probably aren't quite so many, but certainly over a billion!

The nightmare is to know which fares and options to offer, and when, on machines.  And machines can vary too.  There are instances where machines 'headline' popular fares which are not necessarily the best value for many customers, and machines at stations can restrict their headlines to fares on trains departing in the next hour or so, which online systems at home cannot do as people buy tickets ahead.

I've been trying to come up with a nice easy answer ... but for the reasons just above, I have failed.   Personally I use brfares to see what's available .... not like the station ticket machines, but it does give a thorough list of all the fares from "A" to "B".

Of course ... I haven't even mentioned Freedoms, Rangers, Rovers, BritRail, Interrail, Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) ...