Blackpool North to Scunthorpe return query

[Whistler40145]

Please could someone advise on the best fares for the following journey on Friday 19th August and returning anytime on the Monday

I’ve taken into account that services are limited and starting later following strike action the previous day

I have a Disabled Persons Railcard

I am unsure whether a return fare would be cheaper than singles

Are there any route restrictions e.g. travelling via Hebden Bridge and Leeds to Doncaster versus via Manchester Piccadilly, Sheffield and Doncaster?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Target price to beat is £40.10 for an Off Peak return (SVR) with railcard discount applied. Travel at or after 0900. Routeing is "Any Permitted".

 

[Whistler40145]

Target price to beat is £40.10 for an Off Peak return (SVR) with railcard discount applied. Travel at or after 0900. Routeing is "Any Permitted".

Much appreciated

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Would imagine that there may be marginal savings to be made if you were willing to commit to time specific advance tickets for all or part of your journey, and/or being tied to specific routeings. The £40.10 SVR fare is reasonably flexible, though, which may better suit your particular travel requirements.

 

[Watershed]

Please could someone advise on the best fares for the following journey on Friday 19th August and returning anytime on the Monday

I’ve taken into account that services are limited and starting later following strike action the previous day

I have a Disabled Persons Railcard

I am unsure whether a return fare would be cheaper than singles

Are there any route restrictions e.g. travelling via Hebden Bridge and Leeds to Doncaster versus via Manchester Piccadilly, Sheffield and Doncaster?

Walk-up through fares are routed Any Permitted. They're valid via either of the routes you suggest, as well as several others (e.g. via Wigan). A single (£38.10) costs just £2 less than an Off-Peak Return (£40.10) so there's little point in buying two singles.

Advance tickets are cheaper if you're happy to tie yourself to a specific train, e.g. if you travel via Leeds and Doncaster there are journeys available from around £30 return, involving a split at Bradford (the second part being a walk-up return).

If you're happy to use the Northern replacement bus service from Scunthorpe (unfortunately they withdrew all their trains to Scunthorpe back in January, and there is no sign of them returning), you can get Northern only Advances for your entire journey. You would change at Leeds and Doncaster as above, but avoid LNER obviously. Splitting at Leeds, prices start at just £22.70 return.

 

[Whistler40145]

If tickets shown on Trainline say Sold Out, is that for Advance Purchase tickets rather than a walk on fare?

 

[XAM2175]

If tickets shown on Trainline say Sold Out, is that for Advance Purchase tickets rather than a walk on fare?

It will mean that one or more trains in that itinerary are set to compulsory reservation and that no reservations are available - either because they've all been issued, or none have been made available by the operator. Because of the compulsory reservation setting, a journey planner will not sell walk-up fares that would otherwise be valid for the train if it cannot issue a reservation alongside them.

In actual use you will almost certainly be allowed to board the train without a reservation, which makes it all a bit stupid. The workaround is to either trick the journey planner into issuing valid walk-up fares against an itinerary with reservations available (even though you don't intend to use them), or to buy the walk-up fare from a ticket office or some other non-planner vendor.

 

[Whistler40145]

Thank you for your information

 

[lyndhurst25]

Target price to beat is £40.10 for an Off Peak return (SVR) with railcard discount applied. Travel at or after 0900. Routeing is "Any Permitted".

Blackpool North to Brigg is £38.50 for a similarly restricted Off Peak Return, using which you could legitimately stop short at Scunthorpe. However, as there are no trains running to Brigg on those days, you will have trouble buying the ticket online, or from a Ticket Vending Machine that uses a journey planner. Maybe a friendly station booking office would be able to help you out and issue it?

 

[Whistler40145]

Does anyone think this is okay?

 

[plugwash]

The routing point calculator says the routing points for Blackpool To Scunthorpe are Kirkam and Wesham and Doncaster.

Map combinations are

DB - Covers travel via Bolton, Manchester, and Wakefield
DP - Covers travel via Blackburn, Acrington, Halifax, Huddersfield or Leeds and Wakefield.
DP+DO - Doesn't seem to add anyting much over DP alone.
KM+DW - Covers travel to Manchester via Bolton or Wigan, then the hope valley to Doncaster.
KW+DW - Also seems to cover the Manchester/Hope valley route, not sure why there are two different map combinations covering essentiall the same thing.

 

[Watershed]

Does anyone think this is okay?

Yes in principle, but The Trainline charge a booking fee which other retailers don't...

 

[Whistler40145]

Yes in principle, but The Trainline charge a booking fee which other retailers don't...

That screenshot was off the Transpennine Express app

 

[Watershed]

That screenshot was off the Transpennine Express app

Apologies, it looked like Trainline to me.

As stated previously, there are cheaper ways of making the journey using Advances. But the through Off-Peak Return is fairly decent value for money I'd have thought, especially given the flexibility in routes it offers.