Is this a record?

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

Better in what way?

For fares enquiries only I use http://www.brfares.com/#home

 Doesn't crash, doesn't throw up silly fares like NRE^‡(resolve) often does, just put in your origin and destination et voila, all fares between those points.

And if you want to check split fares there's no better resource than asking me https://www.trainsplit.com

[Robin Summerhill]

Better in what way?

For fares enquiries only I use http://www.brfares.com/#home

 Doesn't crash, doesn't throw up silly fares like NRE^‡(resolve) often does, just put in your origin and destination et voila, all fares between those points.

And if you want to check split fares there's no better resource than asking me https://www.trainsplit.com

I looked at the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) fares site last night and initially thought it was a little confusing. Then I looked again this morning and got on better with it, concluding that last night's visit must have been clouded by too much barley water and grape juice - if you get my drift...

By the time of my second visit I had remembered an incident from some years ago when I wanted to book to Stonehouse, and the NRE site didn't give the option of an off-peak return and showed an anytime fare only, I ended up booking to Gloucester on that occasions because it appeared to be cheaper. So when I entered that combination this morning the results showed that there is an off peak fare, but it is actually more expensive than the anytime return!

http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=cpm&dest=SHU&rlc=SRN

I understand that you shouldn't look for logic behind the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) railway fare structure, but this seems to me utterly barmy. How can it happen?

[JayMac]

http://www.brfares.com/#fares?orig=CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains)&dest=SHU

In that case the Anytime fare is a Day Return. The Off Peak fare is valid for return within one calendar month.

It's actually not that unusual to see such Off Peak Returns being more expensive than Anytime Day Returns.