Advance Ticket Availability

[Cawtey1970]

Hello Fellow Forum Members

Since I have started going back to the office in London from Portsmouth a couple of days a week, I have been taking advantage of buying Advance tickets and maximising savings against either a season ticket or Anytime tickets. When planning my next trip for Dec 15th, only Off-Peak or Anytime tickets are available. Looking at the SWR website, they show a list of dates on which Advance tickets are not available as follows

• 12-18 & 25-26 December
• 2-8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 & 29 January
• 5 & 11-17 February

Some of the dates I can understand but others I cannot
Thanks in advance
Cawtey1970

 

[alxndr]

12-18 December and 2-8 January will be Network Rail strikes

25-26 December is Christmas

 

[akm]

• 14-15 Jan there are no trains through Woking
• 21-22 AND 28-29 Jan no trains between Haslemere and Hilsea
• 5 Feb no trains on the island at all
• 11-17 Feb no trains between Guildford and Petersfield

all due to engineering works, info from https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/currentAndFuture.aspx

The first three bullet points are weekends so wouldn't affect most commuters. The last does include weekday days.

I imagine they just don't want to sell cheap Advances on days when the Portsmouth Direct is closed and everyone has to go the long way round.

 

[Haywain]

planning my next trip for Dec 15th,

There are strikes on the 14th and 16th which will impact on the service that can be operated on December 15th, so tickets are unlikely to be on sale until services are finalised. This could be another week or more.

 

[Bayum]

There are strikes on the 14th and 16th which will impact on the service that can be operated on December 15th, so tickets are unlikely to be on sale until services are finalised. This could be another week or more.

I would assume the same is true for LNER? Got a hospital appointment in London on the 15th and at the moment I can only find any tickets for Grand Central services from York. Nothing at all for LNER.

 

[Haywain]

I would assume the same is true for LNER? Got a hospital appointment in London on the 15th and at the moment I can only find any tickets for Grand Central services from York. Nothing at all for LNER.

Yes, all currently closed on LNER until timetables are confirmed. It’s a bit easier for Grand Central as they have few trains to worry about.

 

[Bayum]

Spoke to someone with LNER. The timetable they’ve been given is for ticket releases 7-4 days the week before.

 

[Snow1964]

With the rail strikes ended (for now) seems to be ridiculous inconsistency on booking tickets

From various operators websites :
Avanti, virtually nothing after 2nd March
EMR allowing bookings to 8th April
GWR, book on selected routes upto 6th April (on front page, but no indication of which routes are selected)
LNER offering fares to 13th April
SWR, says save upto 50% buying upto 12 weeks in advance
Transpennine, have divided it into North, Scottish and South, with North Mon-Fri to 10th Feb, but South Mon-Fri to 19th May
Transport for Wales, upto 14th April

I know there was Covid 3 years ago, and some recruitment and training got delayed, but is it really acceptable to have so many variations in Spring 2023, when there is no scheduled national timetable change until May.

I don't accept the excuse that Network rail is slow announcing work if it only affects selected operators, it seems to be some Operators just can't be bothered, or am I getting wrong perception when viewed from an ordinary member of public wanting to buy a ticket who is not interested in internal reasons.

 

[Haywain]

LNER offering fares to 13th April

This is wrong. LNER are currently open to April 28th.

 

[Benjwri]

GWR, book on selected routes upto 6th April (on front page, but no indication of which routes are selected)

If you click on the text that says that it takes you to the page with the info:

Service	Available up to
Weekdays	Thursday 6 April
Saturdays	Saturday 1 April
Sundays	Sunday 2 April

GWR used to be 24 weeks, but is currently around 12 weeks in advance (Was always 12 for weekends), I assume it's also down to the uncertainty of strikes, which are highly likely to reappear fairly soon.

I believe the 'selected routes' is referring to the availability of advances only on selected routes at any time, rather than them being released at different times on different routes

 

[Haywain]

I don't accept the excuse that Network rail is slow announcing work if it only affects selected operators, it seems to be some Operators just can't be bothered,

Whilst CoVid has played a part in this, the strikes over recent months have also had a major impact. Every strike causes an increase in workload for all of the relevant teams, because timetables have to be rewritten, pushing the normal work to one side and then the strike day causes those staff to be called on to assist in providing the skeleton service on the day itself.