Southern Advance in new May 2025 timetable

[charley_17/7]

Can anyone explain why Southern no longer seem to be offering Advance(s) on many routes from the new timetable change please?

I've tried various options starting from both London Victoria, and Clapham Junction, to various destinations on the South Coast, to no avail. Neither Bognor Regis, Hove, Brighton either via Hove/Lewes, Eastbourne or Hastings seem to be available!

The portion working at Horsham for the Arun Valley/Bognor doesn't appear to show correctly either, or am I missing something?

Is the timetable still to be confirmed, as I understood Advances should no be at least available 12 weeks prior, or is the fares data wrong?

Thanks

 

[paul1609]

Dont know about the advances but the Southern portion working always seems to be problematic at timetable changes. its almost a given that the PIS on SWR run stations will show the Portsmouth to Victoria service as going to Horsham for about 2 days following a new timtable. Id guess that the services need to be input manually and that this takes a couple of days to do. Another anomly is that coastway service to/from Brighton that reverse at littlehampton will be announced initally as "Please stand back from Platform X the approaching train is not scheduled to stop at this station" Once the train stops at the Platform the train will be announced correctly. Again this goes on for a couple of days every timetable change.

 

[gray1404]

I've had a look at the advance booking horizons for Southern for you. They are currently

• Saturday service: 17 May
• Sunday service: 11 May
• Monday to Friday service: 16 May

 

[Pieman007]

I asked this question a few days back in the forum.......I last bought an Advance for 13th May on 20/02/2025......since then there has been no movement on them......
I have a dialogue with the (struggling) CS at tthe moment at why their system offers different prices when moving tickets as opposed to buying a new one and I have (this morning) thrown in the question about Advance tickets and the lack of movement of the Advance ticket availability / a post of what's happening.........IF I get a response I will post here

 

[gray1404]

I suspect they are waiting to finalise the new timetable and have it inputed in all the relevant systems and at that point they will be able to release the advance ticket quota.

I think the best thing to do would be to keep an eye on the advance ticket horizons page on National Rail. I highly doubt there is anything customer relations can do to help.

 

[lux7]

I asked this question a few days back in the forum.......I last bought an Advance for 13th May on 20/02/2025......since then there has been no movement on them......
I have a dialogue with the (struggling) CS at tthe moment at why their system offers different prices when moving tickets as opposed to buying a new one and I have (this morning) thrown in the question about Advance tickets and the lack of movement of the Advance ticket availability / a post of what's happening.........IF I get a response I will post here

Yep, same here, i am keeping an eye on any updates as, this week, the mobile app had an update, which could mean Southern is updating their system which could be affecting the advance tickets availability

 

[gray1404]

I've had a look at the advance booking horizons for Southern for you. They are currently

• Saturday service: 17 May
• Sunday service: 11 May
• Monday to Friday service: 16 May

Keep an eye on this page. The dates are still as above. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/travel-information/advance-booking-dates/

 

[charley_17/7]

Thanks for all the replies! I've also been trying to book a South Coast to Yorkshire advance but it appears despite LNER being open until June, GTR are only until May, so I can't avail myself a LNER+Connections ticket.

We are told to "book in advance" to secure the "cheapest tickets" yet the companies are reliant on each other to make it happen? So the worst (GTR) drag down the best (LNER).

The joys of privatisation even with supposed "re-nationalisation"!

 

[gray1404]

A solution needs to be found whereby it is still possible for regional operators to offer their own advances. However if intercity reservations are open and regional connections aren't that it is still possible for customers to book their through advances for the intercity element without being penalized. Moreover it's not like they can get a real seat reservation on the regional connection.

 

[OscarH]

Or an even nicer solution would be getting back to a consistent 12 week booking horizon across all TOCs!

 

[Pieman007]

I asked this question a few days back in the forum.......I last bought an Advance for 13th May on 20/02/2025......since then there has been no movement on them......
I have a dialogue with the (struggling) CS at tthe moment at why their system offers different prices when moving tickets as opposed to buying a new one and I have (this morning) thrown in the question about Advance tickets and the lack of movement of the Advance ticket availability / a post of what's happening.........IF I get a response I will post here

I know it's not good forum etiquette replying to my own post but I asked the following question to Southern CS on 21/03/2025

"Whilst I have you - I note that I last bought an Advance ticket (for 13th May) on 20th February.......I have checked today and you still have not opened up the Advance Tickets after that week......so I believe it's now less than 8 weeks.........is there a problem????"

5 minutes ago (1 week to reply) I received the following response:

"I hope my email finds you well and thanks for taking the time to get back in touch.

There are only a limited number of Advance tickets which are published 12 weeks in advance. It is a first come first serve basis and once they’re gone, you would need to buy the next best ticket for your journey.

For more information on Advance Single tickets, please visit our website at https://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-payment-methods/advance

Thanks for your time and patience, I hope this helps and you get the best ticket for your journey.

Kind regards "


So as predicted - CS just quote policy and don't actually read the question...........

 

[lux7]

I know it's not good forum etiquette replying to my own post but I asked the following question to Southern CS on 21/03/2025

"Whilst I have you - I note that I last bought an Advance ticket (for 13th May) on 20th February.......I have checked today and you still have not opened up the Advance Tickets after that week......so I believe it's now less than 8 weeks.........is there a problem????"

5 minutes ago (1 week to reply) I received the following response:

"I hope my email finds you well and thanks for taking the time to get back in touch.

There are only a limited number of Advance tickets which are published 12 weeks in advance. It is a first come first serve basis and once they’re gone, you would need to buy the next best ticket for your journey.

For more information on Advance Single tickets, please visit our website at https://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-payment-methods/advance

Thanks for your time and patience, I hope this helps and you get the best ticket for your journey.

Kind regards "


So as predicted - CS just quote policy and don't actually read the question...........

Thank you for the update on this. Like many more, i too rely on Advance tickets fares to get to work, so it would be nice if a train operator could be straightforward and maintain an honest communication with its customers.. not sure why they cannot openly tell the situation.
At least people can take informed decision.

 

[Deerfold]

I know it's not good forum etiquette replying to my own post but I asked the following question to Southern CS on 21/03/2025

"Whilst I have you - I note that I last bought an Advance ticket (for 13th May) on 20th February.......I have checked today and you still have not opened up the Advance Tickets after that week......so I believe it's now less than 8 weeks.........is there a problem????"

5 minutes ago (1 week to reply) I received the following response:

"I hope my email finds you well and thanks for taking the time to get back in touch.

There are only a limited number of Advance tickets which are published 12 weeks in advance. It is a first come first serve basis and once they’re gone, you would need to buy the next best ticket for your journey.

For more information on Advance Single tickets, please visit our website at https://www.southernrailway.com/tickets-and-payment-methods/advance

Thanks for your time and patience, I hope this helps and you get the best ticket for your journey.

Kind regards "


So as predicted - CS just quote policy and don't actually read the question...........

It's annoying when they misunderstand you immediately, never mind after taking a week to reply.

 

[alistairlees]

Or an even nicer solution would be getting back to a consistent 12 week booking horizon across all TOCs!

But that’s just too obvious! Every TOC should have a different booking horizon, with a few (different) gaps in for engineering works, and also inconsistent booking horizons for different routes within the same TOCs - now that’s what customers really want…

 

[Sonic1234]

never mind after taking a week to reply.

Positively speedy for a TOC customer relations department. GWR at one point were taking a month to reply.

Maybe we can get the bored ticket office staff to do some work for customer relations.

 

[Joe Paxton]

[...]
So as predicted - CS just quote policy and don't actually read the question...........

Might as well save some money and get AI to write the non-answers to CS questions...

 

[Pieman007]

Update from Southern CS..............

-- start of response --
I hope my email finds you well and thanks for taking the time to get back in touch.

I can confirm that Advance tickets aren’t available for later May 2025 as of yet due to the upcoming change to the timetable. These will be available when the new timetable comes into place.

-- end of response --

My thoughts - "but Sir you can buy our range of tickets that don't offer any savings........". It's not that a Timetable change hasn't happened before has it?

 

[MrJeeves]

My thoughts - "but Sir you can buy our range of tickets that don't offer any savings........". It's not that a Timetable change hasn't happened before has it?

The way the reservation system works means that if they did change the timetable after selling advances, ticket availability would probably end up royally broken.

 

[Pieman007]

Looks like I'm going to have a conversation with CS again next week......I've had notification (Wednesday this week) that I'm going in for an op next week and will be off work for probably a couple of weeks......I have 6 Advance tickets in that off period and nowhere to move them to (as I'm booked up until the current end of the Advance window)......hopefully CS can issue some vouchers for them as gesture of good will......

 

[Deerfold]

The way the reservation system works means that if they did change the timetable after selling advances, ticket availability would probably end up royally broken.

In that case they need to explain that the timetable isn't finalised (and perhaps why), not that there's a change.

Other operators are selling tickets beyond May.

 

[Silver Cobra]

Do we have any hints on when advances for Southern/Thameslink beyond 18th May will become available? While I am not looking for advances specifically for Southern/Thameslink, the lack of advances beyond this date is affecting the ability to book advances for other operators where Southern/Thameslink are used for connecting travel (e.g. Biggleswade to York, where Thameslink are used to connect onto LNER at Peterborough).

I understand the reason for them not being available yet is due to the 18th May timetable changes not being finalised, but with only around 5 weeks to go until then, it feels like they're cutting it close to that.

 

[OscarH]

Do we have any hints on when advances for Southern/Thameslink beyond 18th May will become available? While I am not looking for advances specifically for Southern/Thameslink, the lack of advances beyond this date is affecting the ability to book advances for other operators where Southern/Thameslink are used for connecting travel (e.g. Biggleswade to York, where Thameslink are used to connect onto LNER at Peterborough).

I understand the reason for them not being available yet is due to the 18th May timetable changes not being finalised, but with only around 5 weeks to go until then, it feels like they're cutting it close to that.

I'm not aware of any major changes for GTR at this timetable change, so even not finalised releasing no availability seems an overly sledgehammer thing to do

 

[Pieman007]

I spoke to Southern on Thursday as I have 5 advance tickets (bought originally between Nov 2024 (and amended online)and Feb this year) due to a last minute surgery appt I'm on sick leave so can't use them for work. I have at least two journeys a week booked between when I return to work and w/e 16th May so have no where to move these to.

I asked CS due to them still not having Advance tickets available they convert them to vouchers..... they refused that "as it's a lot of tickets". Instead I need to move them to a set date before 16th May as 5 dummy bookings and if by week before go back to them if it's still not open. Would have been a lot easier for me if they just converted to vouchers......

Again I asked any news on dates .....nothing yet!

 

[Hophead]

It seems to have dawned on Southern that not only will trains be running beyond 17 May, but potential passengers might wish to travel for less than sky-high prices.

Which is to say that a query just a moment ago turned up Advance tickets on a date in June. Perhaps you already knew: some are saying just 2 left!

 

[Pieman007]

Morning all.....as Hophead said above......Advance's now available on Southern.......Just spent the last hour moving my "sick" tickets - and booked into mid June until I hit the ticket limit on my account and now locked for 24 hours.....

One observation is that for my "normal" work journey from Havant to ECR, I am not able to get one £7 ticket right into July..........so I do wonder if the quotas have been adjusted downwards on numbers and upwards on price!

 

[Silver Cobra]

Glad to see that advances beyond 17th May are now available on Southern. Now we're just waiting on Thameslink to do the same, which will hopefully be tomorrow (I don't know for certain or anything; just guessing).

The specific journey I'm waiting to book which requires advance availability on Thameslink beyond 17th May is from Hitchin to Barry Island on 18th July. Advances between Paddington and Barry Island are already available for that date, but not from Hitchin. While I could just do a split ticket splitting at London, it would actually cost more than through advances from Hitchin would.