Best way to find cheapwr routes on trainsplit

[infobleep]

I have been looking up a journey from Guildford to Penrith using TrainSplit.

However, I am finding some journey combinations don't show up. For example, if I start from a later station closer to London I find a cheaper price and I know it woulds be possible to reach the other station from Guildford and have an overall cheaper price of over £16 vers what TrainSplit initially suggested.

So how does the system work and how do I get it to route me to this cheaper train? I must add I'm using fixed trains and cheapest setting in all cases.

Is the issue due to waiting at station allowances? I do appreciate programming this stuff is complicated.

Also for one journey, it suggested changing at Clapham Junction and Milton Keynes. However, if I put in a change at Clapham Junction or Milton Keynes, it finds faster journeys and the slower one, where you change at Clapham Junction and Milton Keynes doesn't show up.

Is it a case of specifying longer wait times at set stations to force it to show up? I only want a longer wait where needed of course.

i have spent over an byour on this because I enjoy the fun of finding cheaper fare combinations.

I do appreciate I could be pushing the system to it's limits and I do think it's great because it found the cheaper combination from the later station. So it's doing work for me.

 

[yorkie]

What is the itinerary you are after exactly?

 

[infobleep]

What is the itinerary you are after exactly?

Sorry I forgot to include that.

Monday 13 September. Travelling around 9am or earlier if it helps.

I have an annual gold card. It gave a price of just over £86 on the 9:19. Just over £85 if I get the slower 8:46.

However from Subtion I can get a fare for just over £51 on the 9:11.

From Guildford I could get a train to met the 9:11 and it wouldn't cost more than the differmece.

The 8:22 from Guildford would get into Surbiton at 8:56 so would connect as connection time is over 6 minutes between trains.

I just add all prices stated include share of split saving.

I'm going to book the ticket combination I've found but interested in how it works.

 

[sonic2009]

Sorry I forgot to include that.

Monday 13 September. Travelling around 9am or earlier if it helps.

I have an annual gold card. It gave a price of just over £86 on the 9:19. Just over £85 if I get the slower 8:46.

However from Subtion I can get a fare for just over £51 on the 9:11.

From Guildford I could get a train to met the 9:11 and it wouldn't cost more than the differmece.

The 8:22 from Guildford would get into Surbiton at 8:56 so would connect as connection time is over 6 minutes between trains.

I just add all prices stated include share of split saving.

I'm going to book the ticket combination I've found but interested in how it works.

Are you returning from Penrith?

 

[infobleep]

Are you returning from Penrith?

No from Barrowdale hut I'm being driven back by a friend, who is already up north elsewhere.

So we are kind of meeting up

 

[paul1609]

I find that Trainsplit rarely finds the cheapest solutions for cross London Journeys from Kent. I nearly always end up splitting in London and Crewe for the WCMl and Newark for the ECML.

 

[Starmill]

I find that Trainsplit rarely finds the cheapest solutions for cross London Journeys from Kent. I nearly always end up splitting in London and Crewe for the WCMl and Newark for the ECML.

I think that the problem is for some very long journeys you need to tolerate a lot of extra time to find the cheapest ticket - several hours, or more than a 100% increase. Especially if you are going to want to travel into and cross London, use LNR services between London and Crewe and then continue beyond Crewe to somewhere else.

It's a shame that Hastings, Eastbourne, Uckfield, Worthing, Horhsam etc to Crewe and Liverpool don't have +Southern & West Midlands Trains fares in place.

 

[paul1609]

I think that the problem is for some very long journeys you need to tolerate a lot of extra time to find the cheapest ticket - several hours, or more than a 100% increase. Especially if you are going to want to travel into and cross London, use LNR services between London and Crewe and then continue beyond Crewe to somewhere else.

It's a shame that Hastings, Eastbourne, Uckfield, Worthing, Horhsam etc to Crewe and Liverpool don't have +Southern & West Midlands Trains fares in place.

To some extent I agree but the issue is that is that the fares system is just too complicated for the algorithms used. Where the Inter City operators are running 2 or 3 tph frequencies if I can save £30 by dropping back a service I will for the sake of 20 or 30 mins and that with the various quotas for the level advances is often the case.
The LNR services are an added complication in that the Trent Valley services aren't actually that much slower if you have a connection in from South of London that favours them. Coming in from Ashford on HS1 that's often the case. Pre-covid the xx 46 LNRs weren't overtaken by a Pendolino until around the Atherstone stop. Conversely for me on a pm return journey theres often bargain AWC advances on near empty Chester or Liverpool services so I rarely use LNR southbound.

 

[infobleep]

The train from Surbiton, where my combination of tickets to Penrith starts, starts from Guildford. Thus I don't know why a route from Guildford including an additional split at Surbiton didn't show up in my searches on TrainSplit. Not do I know how I'd force it to show up. There is no long gaos between the trains where I change.

The route is via the west London line with a change at Clapham Junction and then one on the line from Euston. I forget which station off hand. There is a change at Crewe snd a Warrington Bank Quay split staying on the same train.