London to Cardiff Route ‘Warminster-Salisbury’

[_toommm_]

Whilst comparing advance tickets, I came across this ticket on BRFares:

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

It doesn’t seem like a promo fare, but trying to get a journey planner to come up with this fare is pretty hard, as it doesn’t accept via points of Warminster or Salisbury.

How would one use the ticket, or buy it please?

 

[JonathanH]

Whilst comparing advance tickets, I came across this ticket on BRFares:

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

It doesn’t seem like a promo fare, but trying to get a journey planner to come up with this fare is pretty hard, as it doesn’t accept via points of Warminster or Salisbury.

How would one use the ticket, or buy it please?

If you use a mixing deck website such as https://tickets.gwr.com/, then first put in London Waterloo to Cardiff - it will come up with fares from Paddington. Then go to 'show slower routes' on the left hand side - select routes via Warminster and Salisbury. It should then show valid schedules.

 

[_toommm_]

If you use a mixing deck website such as https://tickets.gwr.com/, then first put in London Waterloo to Cardiff - it will come up with fares from Paddington. Then go to 'show slower routes on the left hand side' - select routes via Warminster and Salisbury. It should then show valid schedules.

Thanks! I forgot about that mixing deck ability

 

[1D53]

They're certainly not a promo fare, I did London to Bath on a Warminster/Salisbury ticket in 2012.

 

[Watershed]

It's a relic of the old Wales & West service that used to run this way.

 

[yorkie]

Whilst comparing advance tickets, I came across this ticket on BRFares:

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

It doesn’t seem like a promo fare, but trying to get a journey planner to come up with this fare is pretty hard, as it doesn’t accept via points of Warminster or Salisbury.

How would one use the ticket, or buy it please?

I simply typed from Waterloo to Cardiff into Trainsplit, selected value mode and was offered 'via Warminster and Salisbury' fares, without having to input any via points.

And for about £10 cheaper than the fare you found!

It doesn’t seem like a promo fare, but trying to get a journey planner to come up with this fare is pretty hard, as it doesn’t accept via points of Warminster or Salisbury.

Which journey planner(s) would not accept via points of Warminster or Salisbury?

 

[NLC1072]

I'm sure there is some sort of rover that may even make this cheaper i.e. a return to Salisbury then the rover. I can't remember the rover name, but I've done it in the past!

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I'm sure there is some sort of rover that may even make this cheaper i.e. a return to Salisbury then the rover. I can't remember the rover name, but I've done it in the past!

If you mean the Freedom of Severn and Solent 3 in 7 Day Rover, which covers (Portsmouth-) Salisbury-Bristol-Cardiff, it will cost you £63.
There doesn't appear to be a Day Ranger that works on that route.
National Rail Enquiries - Freedom of Severn & Solent 3 in 7 Day Rover

 

[pdeaves]

Which journey planner(s) would not accept via points of Warminster or Salisbury?

At a guess (as I haven't tested it), none if the planner doesn't try to force Paddington. That appeared to be the problem: London Paddington-Cardiff via Salisbury doesn't make sense but if you can 'trick' it to be London Waterloo-Cardiff it's fine.

 

[kieron]

At a guess (as I haven't tested it), none if the planner doesn't try to force Paddington. That appeared to be the problem: London Paddington-Cardiff via Salisbury doesn't make sense but if you can 'trick' it to be London Waterloo-Cardiff it's fine.

London Paddington-Salisbury-Cardiff is fine (as is Warminster). You'd go to Reading, and then either go via Newbury or via Basingstoke. nre.co.uk (for one) finds both routes (link*).

NRE lists the "any permitted" anytime return at the top of those results, but I think this is because it doesn't recognise the "OR2" ticket code the "Warmster-Salsbry" version has. The SWR site sells both (and they probably aren't the only ones), so you can buy the cheaper one on-line if you need to.

* You may need to delete any nationalrail.co.uk cookies you have for this link to open correctly.

 

[swt_passenger]

London Paddington-Salisbury-Cardiff is fine (as is Warminster). You'd go to Reading, and then either go via Newbury or via Basingstoke. nre.co.uk (for one) finds both routes (link*).

NRE lists the "any permitted" anytime return at the top of those results, but I think this is because it doesn't recognise the "OR2" ticket code the "Warmster-Salsbry" version has. The SWR site sells both (and they probably aren't the only ones), so you can buy the cheaper one on-line if you need to.

* You may need to delete any nationalrail.co.uk cookies you have for this link to open correctly.

How do you meet the via Salisbury requirement via Newbury though?

 

[30907]

How do you meet the via Salisbury requirement via Newbury though?

It - surprisingly - appears to allow the double-back from Westbury via Warminster and Salisbury.

 

[swt_passenger]

It - surprisingly - appears to allow the double-back from Westbury via Warminster and Salisbury.

As you say, surprisingly. I doubt that’s intentional…

 

[Watershed]

It - surprisingly - appears to allow the double-back from Westbury via Warminster and Salisbury.

It's not particularly surprising when you think about it - tickets with specific 'via' points are valid to double back in lots of circumstances. The obvious example would be 'via London' tickets, if travelling to stations like Luton, Watford Junction, Clapham Junction etc. that fast trains don't necessarily call at.

Now, obviously in this case it would make no sense at all to travel from Paddington to Bristol via Westbury, and then double back between Westbury and Salisbury on your way to Bristol/Cardiff. But the rule is generic and doesn't depend on the calling patterns. Effectively the 'via Warminster-Salisbury' ticket is two different tickets - London-Warminster/Salisbury and Warminster/Salisbury-Bristol - in one.

 

[JB_B]

As you say, surprisingly. I doubt that’s intentional…

Presumably the route offered by NRE ( Paddington, Newbury, Westbury, Warminster, Salisbury, Warminster, Westbury ... Cardiff) is a side-effect of permuting the alternate via points for this route ( Warminster and/or Salisbury * ).

Each leg is evaluated separately - the "no passing through the same station twice when tracing a route on a map" rule is applied only within each leg.

(1) Paddington, Westbury, Warminster (map WE)

(2) Warminster-Salisbury (shortest route/direct)

(3) Salisbury-Cardiff (map SN/shortest route/direct)



* The public-facing descriptions of route 00800 "Warminster-Salisbury" don't make it clear that these are alternate via points - ie "include at least one of" location records in the data. The usual convention for the public-facing description is to use a "/" between alternate points.

 

[adrock1976]

Regarding the Westbury - Salisbury doubleback, I anticipate this being "fixed" on Friday morning now that it was publicly mentioned upthread being as various pricing managers have eyes like a hawk for this section of the forum.

 

[yorkie]

I expect some forbidden locations to be added to the electronic data in due course.

 

[Envoy]

Regarding the Westbury - Salisbury doubleback, I anticipate this being "fixed" on Friday morning now that it was publicly mentioned upthread being as various pricing managers have eyes like a hawk for this section of the forum.

So, if we find a cheaper way of doing a trip - Don't mention it here!

 

[30907]

So, if we find a cheaper way of doing a trip - Don't mention it here!

Yes in general, but this particular fare is publicly available via the obvious routes not involving a random doubleback, so will continue to exist.

 

[Haywain]

Yes in general, but this particular fare is publicly available via the obvious routes not involving a random doubleback, so will continue to exist.

Quite, anybody using the ticket as intended will be unaffected by any change.

 

[swt_passenger]

This “via Newbury” thing seems to have been fixed according to @kieron, posting in his latest routeing guide update?