CBG-WVH Cross Country Advance not showing up on various ticketing sites

[HughT]

I'd be interested to hear from those of you with rather more expertise in these matters than me (which is most of you, perhaps...).

At the weekend I was looking to purchase the cheapest possible single from Cambridge to Wolverhampton. On a specific day, and with an "arrive by" time in mind. My usual ticketing site is VTEC (the mainline operator I use most). But I also checked ATW (as I was continuing into Wales from WVH), and National Rail. All agreed the cheapest single ticket (an Advance, naturally) was price X. Just out of interest - since it can sometimes be cheaper to split at Leicester, or even Birmingham - I checked TrainSplit. And lo, it returned a fare that was roughly 20% less than X. But this wasn't any sort of "split" saving. The ticket - confirmed, now that I've picked it up from CBG ticket machines - is a regular Cross Country Advance, made up of a single ticket. The ticket restriction code is "XV".

So TrainSplit has access to a ticket (or ticket type?) that isn't available to other ticketing services, and which also doesn't show up on the NR Journey Planner. Is this "normal"???

And a PS. I've just checked the same journey, looking specifically at the trains on which I'm booked (Mon 18 Jun; 0901 CBG-BHM; 1157 BHM-WVH). And the regular ticketing sites don't have any Advance tickets on offer for this journey. But TrainSplit still seems to be offering the same XC Advance ticket that I booked at the weekend (obviously I didn't follow the booking process to the very end - since I don't want another ticket! - but TrainSplit claims the availability was last checked just 10 mins ago).

This is less to do with simplification of the fares structure (a subject of much discussion today) and more to do with ensuring a level playing field so that you're offered the same ticket (other than genuine "Special Offers") no matter which service you use.

Am I simply being naive?

Edited to add: I forgot to say that I also checked XC's own ticketing service, and the fare didn't come up there either.

Apologies if this is longer than most people seem to post. I'm learning!

 

[Joe Paxton]

... (Mon 18 Jun; 0901 CBG-BHM; 1157 BHM-WVH) ...

I can replicate this - the Cambridge to Wolverhampton Advance at £24.70 only seems to show up on Trainsplit.

However Trainsplit also shows this message in red:

Warning - We're having trouble accessing the National Rail reservation system.
Some advance purchase fares may be missing. You may wish to try again later.

Perhaps Trainsplit is using old, cached data? If so I'd expect the transaction to fail at the purchasing stage.

OP, did you successfully buy a ticket from Trainsplit? Your post isn't clear.

 

[jaffa]

This appears to be because Trainsplit is showing an itinerary using Crosscountry trains only, so is showing an XC only fare which is cheaper.

Most booking sites will show the first connecting train after allowing the minimum connecting time. In this case from Birmingham it is the 1153 VTWC service, but this isn't valid on an XC only fare.

If you use the Mixing deck eg on http://tickets.gwr.com then it is possible to buy the XC only fare. Choose "show slower routes" and Crosscountry trains only. This will show you the same fare as Trainsplit.

I would like to know how to do this on other sites however!

 

[Romilly]

The minimum interchange time at Birmingham New Street is 12 minutes. The 0901 from Cambridge arrives at Birmingham New Street at 1138. The journey planners are trying to put you on the 1153 Virgin Trains service to Wolverhampton, whereas to get the through Advance you need to find a journey planner that will put you on the 1157 Cross Country service to Wolverhampton.

I tried on Virgin Trains East Coast using the filters option to select Cross Country, but that only gave me Cross Country as far as Birmingham and then the 1153.

Using tickets.c2c-online.co.uk, and selecting "Show slower routes" once I got my search results, I was able by specifying "Cross Country only" to get the through Advance on the 0901 and 1157.

 

[HughT]

Thanks to jaffa and Romilly for the explanation. I have occasionally checked "Slow slower routes" to force cheaper (but slower) journeys from CBG to the West Midlands, but never thought the BHM-WVH leg would also justify this approach. I've learned quite a lot from this!

And in reply to Joe Paxton: yes, I did buy my ticket from TrainSplit. Even with a £1 service charge it saved a few pounds (although I now realise I could have saved that £1 as well).

Interesting that TrainSplit offers that cheaper journey by default, whereas in all the other systems I tried you have to "force" things for the fare to come up. I'm especially gobsmacked that XC doesn't try to persuade you to use its services (and save money) by offering the Advance as the default cheapest.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I did buy my ticket from TrainSplit. Even with a £1 service charge it saved a few pounds (although I now realise I could have saved that £1 as well).

TrainSplit does not charge any fee or service charge if there is no split ticketing saving, so I think you must be mistaken here. The price charged should only be £24.70.

 

[HughT]

TrainSplit does not charge any fee or service charge if there is no split ticketing saving, so I think you must be mistaken here. The price charged should only be £24.70.

To be honest, it's far from clear which site I used (although my memory says it was TrainSplit), based on the booking confirmation. The email address in the confirmation for any enquiries is [email protected]. The confirmation came from [email protected]. I did add a WVH-PTM to the order (but as a separate journey, not part of any split ticket deal from the site), plus there were two tickets for each leg, all using Senior Railcards. There was definitely a £1 booking fee added to the final total, but I don't begrudge them that in the circumstances!