No off peak fares between FGW-land and west of Cardiff

[whole diary]

[Trowres]

There appear to be no off-peak fares available between:-
Stations Bath-Portsmouth Harbour inclusive
 * and *
Stations west of Cardiff
(There are off-peak fares from Portsmouth valid via Reading, but they are undercut by the Anytime via Salisbury fare).
Outside Bath-Portsmouth, the results are a bit more variable. See the examples below.

Fares Saturday 24th September
Salisbury-Bridgend ^39.90 anytime return ^29.50 anytime single
Tisbury-Bridgend ^45.10 "off-peak" return (^35.20 anytime single)

Romsey-Bridgend ^45.29 anytime return

Chichester-Bridgend ^59.80 off-peak return rte SAL (paradoxically valid by any train)
Bedhampton-Bridgend ^54.30 off-peak return rte SAL (valid by any train)
Porthsmouth Harbour or Cosham-Bridgend ^56.70 anytime return rte SAL

Howver if you put Barry Is as the destination instead of Bridgend, all the above come up as anytimes except Tisbury-Barry.

I presume this is a relic of the break up of Wales & West into Wessex/Wales & Borders, and then into the current arrangement. Anybody care to comment?

[super tm]

I believe this is to do with the fares simplification a few years ago when the Anytime / Off-Peak replaced the open / Saver ticket types.  Historically many saver tickets were actually valid anytime - such as the Salisbury to Bridgend.  So for those savers valid at anytime they were renamed anytime.  Saver tickets which had a restriction on them as to time of travel were renamed off peak.

[paul7575]

However as usual this wasn't done consistently across all TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company).

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) have'offpeak' fares for their longer distance services (eg from south of Bristol/Reading to north of Derby) that have a restriction of 'any train after 0500', with a corresponding 'Anytime' fare for people to accidentally buy although there isn't any apparent need for it.

Paul

 

[jdw.wor]

Another similar issue has happened this month. My son is at Cardiff university and last year always travelled to and from Worcester via Bristol parkway (generally quicker)
This term we cannot get a return fare out of journey planner. It says no returns are available. I have asked fgw if this is correct but have not received an answer. Anybody know.

[JayMac]

Another similar issue has happened this month. My son is at Cardiff university and last year always travelled to and from Worcester via Bristol parkway (generally quicker)
This term we cannot get a return fare out of journey planner. It says no returns are available. I have asked fgw if this is correct but have not received an answer. Anybody know.

Using A WebTIS booking engine (east coast, redspottedhanky.com) I've no problem getting Off Peak Returns from Cardiff-Worcester Stations via Bristol Parkway to show. FGWs^▸ (First Great Western) booking engine doesn't appear to show them though. It is a permitted route to travel via Bristol (Parkway or Temple Meads) so just buy the tickets from whoever will sell them online or, at the station.

It's not uncommon for different booking engines/journey planners to interpret permitted routes differently.

[ChrisB]

Can we split off this side discussiin on Groupsave please?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Done. 

Chris.

[jdw.wor]

Hi all

I'm back on the issue why you cannot buy Cardiff to Worcester via Bristol Parkway returns on Journey planner or FGW^▸ (First Great Western) site.
I sent query to FGW at Plymouth and after three  responses which did not answer the question they have now told me it is not a valid route! This does not appear to make sense as you can buy a single to cover this route and because BNM says it is!!! and I think, after a couple of years following this forum, I can trust him!!
I must confess I was disappointed by the lack of "reading of the question" and lack of subject knowledge that Plymouth displayed.
They provided the ultimate "get out" by saying that they do not know when the routing was changed and if I wanted to take it any further I should take it up with Xcountry.
Here is a customer, who wants to use their services (and provide them with at least a portion of the fare, which i don't think is the case via the other routes) and they really don't want to bother.

[paul7575]

Can you buy a single?  Although pseudo 'single fares' are displayed on the National Rail site, if you look down the page you'll see they are a combination of two singles, and the 'multiple tickets required' warning is displayed.

Paul

[Brucey]

I just checked the routeing on Cardiff to Worcester.  It is valid by maps BD+CE or just CE.

Attached is map CE, on which you can clearly travel from Cardiff to Worcester, via Bristol Parkway without doubling back.

Therefore the route is valid.

[paul7575]

Must be a fault with the journey planners then - so what do you do next?

Paul

[ChrisB]

Who sets the fare?

[Brucey]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))

[paul7575]

A Webtis site, such as SN's, appear to offer offpeak returns fare for a route via Bristol Parkway - the plot thickens...

Paul

[ChrisB]

Tjen you'd have to persyade them to correct the Journeyplanners.

Which they won't do in a hurry as they'll be giving FGW^▸ (First Great Western) a share of revenue. Not big enough to encourage FGW to get shirty with XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) though