Christmas/New Year Services

[Walter Whigham]

For some weeks I have been trying to book, via the LNER website, for services running after 20 December 2022 via the ECML. So far bookings are available up to and including 20 December but no further, apparently because the timetables have not been finalised. This problem is not confined to LNER as a bit of detective work has revealed the same situation with others companies using the whole or parts of the ECML.

I can remember when timetables were available and bookings could be made up to 12 weeks in advance, but not these days.

Does anyone know where the problem lies? I suspect Network Rail, but could be wrong. More importantly from my viewpoint does anyone know when bookings for the Christmas/New Year period are likely to come on-stream?

 

[The Planner]

For some weeks I have been trying to book, via the LNER website, for services running after 20 December 2022 via the ECML. So far bookings are available up to and including 20 December but no further, apparently because the timetables have not been finalised. This problem is not confined to LNER as a bit of detective work has revealed the same situation with others companies using the whole or parts of the ECML.

I can remember when timetables were available and bookings could be made up to 12 weeks in advance, but not these days.

Does anyone know where the problem lies? I suspect Network Rail, but could be wrong. More importantly from my viewpoint does anyone know when bookings for the Christmas/New Year period are likely to come on-stream?

12 weeks is dead, that is never coming back after COVID. It is an industry problem, not on the door of NR alone.

 

[duesselmartin]

I have contacted LNER. Booking will Open 27. Nov.

 

[Bald Rick]

Does anyone know where the problem lies?

The problem is that the country is broke. Therefore there is little stability in the train service (as we don’t know whether it can be afforded), and consequently there is a need to be prepared to change it at short notice.

as @The Planner says, T-12 has gone forever (sort of), but in the medium term expect to be able to book train further out than T-8 with the caveat that the train times might change.

 

[Walter Whigham]

I have contacted LNER. Booking will Open 27. Nov.

Many thanks for that.

 

[SammyJ]

Im not sure if it’s a daft question, but what time are advanced tickets usually released. As the LNER twitter has suggested advance Christmas tickets are released tomorrow, I’d just like to gauge when to have a look/book

 

[800001]

Bookings for 21st December onwards open for sale tomorrow!

Please note we will be releasing reservations tomorrow Tuesday 8th November 2022 for the following dates:



Wednesday 21st December 2022 – Friday 6thJanuary 2023.

 

[Walter Whigham]

Bookings for 21st December onwards open for sale tomorrow!

Please note we will be releasing reservations tomorrow Tuesday 8th November 2022 for the following dates:



Wednesday 21st December 2022 – Friday 6thJanuary 2023.

Very grateful to you for that information. I have just been able to book my LNER tickets for 21 and 28 December ahead of others (the ticket alert email has yet to be received).

Thanks again!

 

[800001]

Very grateful to you for that information. I have just been able to book my LNER tickets for 21 and 28 December ahead of others (the ticket alert email has yet to be received).

Thanks again!

No problem, glad you are sorted.

 

[BenS123]

Just taken a look at the SWR services from Waterloo, and worryingly almost every service has been marked as cancelled between the 26th and 30th December, is there any reason for this or is it just likely an error? The SWR website itself says services should run to a Saturday timetable

Here is an RTT link: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...2-12-28/0000-2359?stp=WVSC&show=all&order=wtt

Edit: What is confusing is that I had bought a ticket for one of these services, so I'm not really sure how this happened?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Just taken a look at the SWR services from Waterloo, and worryingly almost every service has been marked as cancelled between the 26th and 30th December, is there any reason for this or is it just likely an error? The SWR website itself says services should run to a Saturday timetable

Here is an RTT link: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...2-12-28/0000-2359?stp=WVSC&show=all&order=wtt

Edit: What is confusing is that I had bought a ticket for one of these services, so I'm not really sure how this happened?

Probably to block sales until the correct timetable has been loaded. They don't have compulsory reservations set so they can't block it by not releasing a quota.

 

[BenS123]

It's just a bit odd as the tickets for those dates have been on sale for a few weeks now, but I expect that is the most likely reason

 

[Watershed]

Just taken a look at the SWR services from Waterloo, and worryingly almost every service has been marked as cancelled between the 26th and 30th December, is there any reason for this or is it just likely an error? The SWR website itself says services should run to a Saturday timetable

Here is an RTT link: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...2-12-28/0000-2359?stp=WVSC&show=all&order=wtt

Edit: What is confusing is that I had bought a ticket for one of these services, so I'm not really sure how this happened?

It looks like they are still in the middle of processing the changes for those dates.

When, as in this case, an operator wants to run a completely different timetable to normal, it's often the case that all trains are cancelled and then "new" trains are added to reflect what the operator actually intends to run.

Until this has all been processed, it's perfectly possible to buy tickets for a train that is later cancelled. The only way to prevent this in the current system is for operators to mark their trains as reservations compulsory, and to not release reservations.

However, this has many other unintended side effects - such as passengers being told that trains are sold out (as that has historically been the meaning of no reservations being released), rather than that reservations just aren't released yet. Therefore, most operators have correctly (in my view) decided not to do this.

As soon as the base timetable is published, which generally happens in August or September for the December timetable change, you can buy tickets for any service that isn't marked as "reservations compulsory", if your booking site of choice lets you select a date that far in advance.