• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Misleading advice by Which? magazine

Status
Not open for further replies.

MarlowDonkey

Member
Joined
4 Apr 2013
Messages
1,094
The consumer magazine Which? has some material on TOCs and train fares in the February 2018 issue. It concentrates on leisure travel and ranks TOCs. Translink NI came top followed by Grand Central, Heathrow Express and Merseyrail.

It gives advice on tickets, but some of it seems incorrect or misleading.

Under the heading "Split your ticket", it says "You just need to make sure you go via the stations named on the tickets". Isn't it still necessary for the train to stop at these stations?

Under the heading "Travel Off-Peak" it claims " travelling off-peak or super off peak can save money". That's correct of course. It goes on to falsely claim that "Booking these fares in advance will almost always be cheaper - reservations typically open 12 weeks ahead of travel". Booking early should give you a better choice of seats, but it's never cheaper unless you accept a restricted "Advance" ticket valid only on one train.


Under the heading "Save on a Weekend Break", it has a sub-heading "Ticket Splitting". The example it gives "Using a ticket-splitting site (raileasy.co.uk) we got a £ 45 fare if we travelled on a specific Virgin East Coast train. It was the same price for advance fares at National Rail". That isn't ticket splitting though, it's buying a cheaper ticket restricted to one train.

A slip of the pen perhaps, but in a table headed "Airport Trains Compared", they use the heading "Advanced return fare". I'm assuming they mean Advance fares, which to be pedantic are sold as two Singles to make a return journey. Actually looking again, it may have been a special deal. They are for Southern to Gatwick and Great Anglia to Stansted. Fares of £ 18.20 and £ 28 respectively.

I would have thought the rule of thumb for leisure travel would be that if you restrict yourself to a pre determined train, it's usually cheaper. If you want or need a choice, then it's Super Off Peak (quite restricted) or Off Peak.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Status
Not open for further replies.

Top