London to Manchester via Warrington

[deltic]

I need to travel to Manchester on Tuesday morning and National Rail suggests the 7.30 ex-Euston via Warrington as by far the cheapest ticket at that time in the morning but when you try to book the ticket it comes up with an error message in passing you through to Virgin's website. If you go to Virgin's website direct it doesnt offer that train option at all.

Any reason for this?

Obviously I can book the Warrington train and then from Warrington to Manchester but interested to know why Virgin dont offer the option when National Rail does.

 

[reb0118]

Does this journey require two or more tickets? If so booking engines can struggle to do this - you may need to book separately but you can put both into your basket for a single check out.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I need to travel to Manchester on Tuesday morning and National Rail suggests the 7.30 ex-Euston via Warrington as by far the cheapest ticket at that time in the morning but when you try to book the ticket it comes up with an error message in passing you through to Virgin's website. If you go to Virgin's website direct it doesnt offer that train option at all.

Any reason for this?

Obviously I can book the Warrington train and then from Warrington to Manchester but interested to know why Virgin dont offer the option when National Rail does.

When you get the results on NRES, click on "other tickets" underneath the "Buy Now" option for the journey. This will expand the view to show how many tickets are required. If two (or more) are required, you will need to do a new search, for each ticket, on the Virgin website. In all likelihood the tickets are one to Warrington, and one from Warrington to Manchester.

 

[deltic]

Does this journey require two or more tickets? If so booking engines can struggle to do this - you may need to book separately but you can put both into your basket for a single check out.

It seems to - when you enter via Warrington in the Virgin website it rarely gives the option to travel on this route - maybe Virgin uses a different minimum connection time to that used by National Rail?

 

[Hadders]

You need two tickets for this journey.

Euston-Warrington Bank Quay Advance currently £65.50 (be quick if you want this)
Warrington Bank Quay-Manchester Piccadilly Anytime Day Single £7.70

Note that whilst it meets the minimum connection at WBQ there is only a 5 minute connection which could be tight if you are delayed and you have to be in Manchester by a certain time.

You may wish to consider travelling on the 0616 direct train from Euston, arriving Manchester Piccadilly 0828 using the following tickets:

Euston-Milton Keynes Anytime Day Single (Virgin Trains Only) £18.50
Milton Keynes Central-Manchester Piccadilly Advance £47.00
Total £65.60

The 0616 from Euston calls at Milton Keynes at 0646.

 

[Hadders]

That shouldn't be. Manchester to London via Warrington should be a permitted route. All of the walk-up fares were the same in 1994, and the regulated walk-up fares still are in 2014. Manchester to London via Warrington was a permitted route as recently as last year. I recommend that the OP contact the Department for Transport to ask when and why this change was made.

Warrington to London tickets still are (quite correctly) valid via Manchester, so the removal of Manchester to London via Warrington would appear to be a mistake. All the more reason to contact the Department for Transport!

This isn't about permitted routes.

The OP is travelling from London to Manchester at a time when the Anytime fare would be payable. NRE (of all places) offered a route via Warrington for £77 but it needed two tickets, an Advance from EUS-WBQ and then an SDS from WBQ to MAN.

The OP clicked to but the tickets which directed him to Virgin's website but they can't handle a sitation where two tickets are required hence the query.

 

[Hadders]

London-Manchester via Warrington is a permitted route. I've checked East Coast's website and it'll happily sell you a walk on ticket travelling via Warrington.

Perhaps the quota for VWC&Connections had sold out, the OP is travelling on Tuesday so it's highly likely.

 

[Merseysider]

If London to Manchester via Warrington was a permitted route, the OP would be able to purchase a 'VT & Connections' Advance ticket, negating the need to purchase two separate tickets.

Not necessarily true, map combination MA+NR permits travel EUS-WAC-MAN.

 

[All Line Rover]

Not necessarily true, map combination MA+NR permits travel EUS-WAC-MAN.

You're right! It must be an error with the booking engine, then. Not much of a surprise with thetrainline.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Is the connection with TPE or Nothern? That could affect the availability of '& Connections' fares.

 

[Merseysider]

You're right! It must be an error with the booking engine, then. Not much of a surprise with thetrainline.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Is the connection with TPE or Nothern? That could affect the availability of '& Connections' fares.

Connecting TOC from Warrington depends on time of day and day of week. Playing around with NRE a bit, it defaults on to ATW connections which pass through Newton-le-Willows, which it won't offer on a single ticket.

Routeing the request via Birchwood avoids this problem and gives an itinerary.

Yet checking several dates over the next 3 months yields no advance fares either way.

 

[All Line Rover]

ATW have been very stubborn with availability of '& Connections' tickets on their services, although I have not yet encountered a service on which they have been completely withdrawn. See here for further information: http://www.caspa.org.uk/the-high-cost-of-advanced-fares/.

 

[yorkie]

via Warrington has been a permitted route for as long as I can remember, indeed I recall a forum member having an Advance routed that way (I believe the last direct train had already departed on the day in question, though I could be mistaken) only a year or so ago.

 

[bb21]

via Warrington has been a permitted route for as long as I can remember, indeed I recall a forum member having an Advance routed that way (I believe the last direct train had already departed on the day in question, though I could be mistaken) only a year or so ago.

Yes, and on a quite interesting ticket too.

 

[kieron]

Connecting TOC from Warrington depends on time of day and day of week. Playing around with NRE a bit, it defaults on to ATW connections which pass through Newton-le-Willows, which it won't offer on a single ticket.

Routeing the request via Birchwood avoids this problem and gives an itinerary.

Yet checking several dates over the next 3 months yields no advance fares either way.

How odd. When I put it into NRE, it shows lots of advance fares. (As ever with NRE, you may need to delete cookies to get the link to give the expected results.)

I do think the key to this thread is the distinction between trains via Newton-le-Willows and ones via Birchwood. Both routes via Warrington were absolutely fine on the old map combination MA+GM, but this had been replaced by MA+MR by 9/10/13, and the only routes this allows via Warrington are the ones through Birchwood. Both routes are available for the likes of London-Guide Bridge, though.

It's not immediately obvious to me why they would do this.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

It's not immediately obvious to me why they would do this.

There is only the hourly ATW option from Bank Quay.
Otherwise it's a trudge in the rain to Central, but at least there are more trains.

Euston-Birmingham-Warrington BQ-Manchester was of course the first ever through route (L&B, GJ, L&M).