When is T-12 NOT T-12? When it suits the rail industry!!

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Passenger groups have reacted angrily to news that hundreds of train timetables are likely to be published later than usual. Rail users are normally told about new timetables 12 weeks in advance, enabling them to book cheap tickets.

But the Rail Delivery Group (RDG^▸ (Rail Delivery Group, or Reading station, depending on context)) has announced that over the next six months passengers may get as little as four weeks' notice of new train times.

It blamed a huge number of timetable changes coming up in May.

<rant>It's T-12 when it's convenient to the rail industry to say "too late" when a request is made, but T-4 when it's convenient for them.   Have to love dual standards!!</rant> ... oh, never mind ... just blooming frustrating to see a service scheduled to sail none-stop through a station that's being bustituted and then wait 15 minutes for the timetable to catch up!  "But request was made less that 12 weeks before ..."

[rogerw]

T12 for weekend services went out of the window a long time ago.  Advanced fares from Paddington on 8 April only became available yesterday (T6.3?)

[Fourbee]

Not even 4 weeks' notice on SWR^» (South Western Railway - about):
https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/planned-improvements/march-works

Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 March
Timetables for this weekend have not yet been updated in on-line journey planners.
PDF timetables for these routes will be published here no later than five days in advance.

Though an improvement on January where you were lucky to find out times the day before and previously advertised trains on the OJP^▸ (Online Journey Planner) disappeared due to engineering works.

[Fourbee]

Also I would be interested how efficiently the refund process referred to in the article will work given people will be out of pocket for a time:

The RDG^▸ (Rail Delivery Group, or Reading station, depending on context) said the problems would
only affect passengers "in a small
number of instances". Normally only
2% of passengers book more than six
weeks in advance.
It is advising rail users to book their
tickets as usual, and then claim a
refund if a cheaper fare is
subsequently available.
Those whose train service is
cancelled will be eligible for a full
refund.

[ChrisB]

Buy a cheaper Advance when they do come on sale, and put the original in for a (free, no charge) refund is the way it'll work. Means laying out twice if you want to save money & wait for the refund. Those cash-strapped'll love this....

[Timmer]

Buy a cheaper Advance when they do come on sale, and put the original in for a (free, no charge) refund is the way it'll work. Means laying out twice if you want to save money & wait for the refund. Those cash-strapped'll love this....

Joke isn’t it. How many buy a more expensive ticket than they need to buy and never claim? Makes you wonder.

[old original]

...but as far as I know, until the reservation system allows booking of advance tickets it doesn't allow any reservations to be made, so why buy a full price ticket without a seat in advance anyway? You might as well wait to see what, if any, cheaper fares become available nearer the time of travel, then book.

[ChrisB]

Quite