National Rail web based ticketing site: december '23 update.

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

(The site's being updated in stages, the latest is possibly 'Recent' rather than 'December', but the refreshed look now continues through the ticket transaction rather than reverting to the previous interface halfway through.)

It'd be good to hear how people are getting on with it. A big positive is that it's now easier to set a 'Via'. On the negative side, it's possible that for many it's a bit more complicated to find prices for return tickets - reflecting perhaps that the railways would like travellers to buy singles. They *are* there though.

Mark

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

[Trowres]

 

Failed at first attempt.

Tried a journey from Trowbridge to Slaithwaite.

Shows up as

14:08 Cancelled...unable to purchase this journey

But it's not the 14:08 that's cancelled, its one of the later stages of the journey. I haven't found out which one yet, as the JP doesn't let you see the later journey details if anything is cancelled.

[TaplowGreen]

(The site's being updated in stages, the latest is possibly 'Recent' rather than 'December', but the refreshed look now continues through the ticket transaction rather than reverting to the previous interface halfway through.)

It'd be good to hear how people are getting on with it. A big positive is that it's now easier to set a 'Via'. On the negative side, it's possible that for many it's a bit more complicated to find prices for return tickets - reflecting perhaps that the railways would like travellers to buy singles. They *are* there though.

Mark

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

I find it by far the most straightforward and reliable site to use, for planning, up to date information on disruption etc - always seems to be ahead of the others.

[Phil]

It doesn't let me buy a weekday ticket from Melksham that gets me to work in Westbury on time. In theory I start work at 09:30. My usual train leaves Melksham at 09.10 and arrives in Westbury at 09.26 [sometimes... it's usually late]. Unfortunately I then have a 20 minute walk from the station in Westbury. So, I make up the 15 minutes or so that I'm late each morning by staying (very!) late. However I'm aware that there is a service that leaves Melksham at 07.21 and, with two changes (at Chippenham and Bath Spa), gets me into Westbury at 09:05 - a longer journey, and more expensive; but it does at least get me to work on time. The National Rail site referred to here however responds with "no fares available. Please choose another journey." The RailEasy site lets me buy it - admittedly at seven times the cost of a regular return fare, but surely that should be for me to decide?

[GBM]

Those few comments lead me to the question -
Which site (s) do YOU plan/purchase your journey tickets from?

[JayMac]

Those few comments lead me to the question -
Which site (s) do YOU plan/purchase your journey tickets from?

TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) most often. Then Templecombe ticket office. Then Virgin Trains Ticketing.

For longer distance journeys, I'll do my own research on prices, validity, routeing and split ticketing.

[Phil]

Those few comments lead me to the question -
Which site (s) do YOU plan/purchase your journey tickets from?

Everyday use, I tend to go to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), mainly because it's a lottery whether or not my train from/to Melksham is going to run, so I may as well stop there and buy tickets if there's anything running or at least only delayed and not cancelled.

https://book.splitmyfare.co.uk/ seems to come up with the best options for more complex journeys I find.

[JayMac]

For complex journeys I will sometimes use a split ticket website (usually https://tickets.railforums.co.uk/) to confirm my own searching of BRFares, but then buy them from another source to avoid the "finder's fee".

[Richard Fairhurst]

The new site has broken everyone’s live departure board bookmarks. Not clever.

(I use the TrainSplit app for buying tickets - simple, fast, independent, and finds useful savings.)

[grahame]

The new site has broken everyone’s live departure board bookmarks. Not clever.

I panicked for a moment there - changes to APIs and sites that are scraped are the bane of the life of live web site operations. However, I don't think think this breaks the Coffee Shop in a major way.  Links at the top of the pages here still work.  It does, though, give a problem on one of the links from pages like this for TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains)...bridge http://new.passenger.chat/better/map.html?stn=TRO - and I also need to sort out a couple of other links there!!

[Mark A]

New year impending, new travel plans. From Bath, checking a couple of 'Via Salisbury' return journeys on the National Rail site.

With the site updated, it's now difficult to tell what sort of ticket that's on offer, especially for anything via London.

It's tricky to pick up, from a list of trains around a particular time, when the transitions are between peak and off peak, that being obscured by the site offering a mix of unrestricted and advance tickets.

The brfares.com site is a useful companion as it reveals the range of fares available, but that's hardly an approach that the majority of rail travellers will consider. Since many advance tickets are offering only a trivial discount over less restricted ones, the site could do with an option to exclude advance fares.

The Bristol / Bath to London day return fare, it's been withdrawn, yes?

Mark

[grahame]

The Bristol / Bath to London day return fare, it's been withdrawn, yes?

There are still two off peak day return fares Bath Spa to London via Salisbury and Warminster there - first class and standard class - according to BRfares. Still there from 2nd January too. Price is £66.20 (adult, no railcard)

If you want something a bit different, try an anytime day return from Portway Park and Ride to London via Warminster and Salisbury at £43.40 - it's restricted in that you may not arrive into Waterloo before 10:00, but there are no restrictions on the return time.

[Trowres]

From the Rail Delivery Group's Routeing Guide frontpage:

PLEASE NOTE this guide is of necessity a complex document and the Journey
Planner should be used to validate any intended route (including relevant ‘via’ points)
to ensure that it can be used with your ticket. This is especially necessary if using
this guide to identify whether an indirect or unusual route is valid for use.

My question:

Is the new incarnation of the National Rail Journey Planner fit for the above purpose?

[grahame]

From the Rail Delivery Group's Routeing Guide frontpage:

PLEASE NOTE this guide is of necessity a complex document and the Journey
Planner should be used to validate any intended route (including relevant ‘via’ points)
to ensure that it can be used with your ticket. This is especially necessary if using
this guide to identify whether an indirect or unusual route is valid for use.

My question:

Is the new incarnation of the National Rail Journey Planner fit for the above purpose?

Good question.

Is it possible for any piece of software to implement the Routing Guide as it is currently written, and on that basis is the routing guide itself fit for purpose? 

Is there a better way to describe those magic words "any permitted" which hide a veritable galaxy of wonders and wobblies?   

Could we restart with "Any reasonable" and come up with something based on previous discussions here at the Coffee Shop?

[plymothian]

If you plan a journey using a via point and a change is required, see journey details doesn't break the journey down to show the separate trains.