Weird pricing! Price jumps massively one station up the line?!

[Kite159]

Kidsgrove to Rugeley Trent Valley Anytime Day Return £15.10. Kidsgrove to Rugeley Town Anytime Day Return £37.20. The Trent Valley is only valid direct from Stafford. The 'Town' fare is either 'via Wolverhampton' or 'any Permitted' (via Birmingham), both same price (there is no lower priced via 'Trent Valley' fare to Rugeley Town from Kidsgrove). But why would you want to do unless you also wanted to visit Wolverhampton/Birmingham/any other station en route same day?

Most likely a leftover from the days when the section of line between Rugeley Trent Valley & Rugeley Town was freight only so the only way to do that journey was going via Walsall

 

[paddy1]

Most likely a leftover from the days when the section of line between Rugeley Trent Valley & Rugeley Town was freight only so the only way to do that journey was going via Walsall

Yes, appears fare options not updated in line with new, shorter route options. The only sensible way to do it if you want to go to Rugeley town and pay for the long way round is by split tickets at 'Trent Valley' or Stafford.

 

[roversfan2001]

Can we not turn this thread into a collection of anomalous fares please?

 

[Bread & cheese]

Going towards London, there is often a steep jump in the price of anytime day returns between two adjacent stations.

Wokingham to Slough, via Reading, Anytime Day Return £15.10
Wokingham to Langley, via Reading, Anytime Day Return £25.60
Wokingham to Slough is 24 miles 24 chains.
Slough to Langley is 2 miles 18 chains.

Wokingham to Longcross, Anytime Day Return £7.50
Wokingham to Virginia Water, Anytime Day Return £14.70
Wokingham to Longcross is 11 miles 40 chains.
Longcross to Virginia Water is 1 mile 76 chains.

 

[Tetchytyke]

So what you are saying is that even though the train that passes through Feltham, passed through Ashford 3 minutes earlier, don't catch that train from Ashford?

Pay the extra £3.50 or get the bus?

I'm unfamiliar with Kent, so I'll use an example I am familiar with.

Northern provide advances Leeds-Harrogate, but do not provide advances for Burley Park-Harrogate. For a specific train this means the longer journey is likely to be cheaper.

Burley Park is the first stop from Leeds towards Harrogate. It is not permitted to buy a Leeds-Harrogate advance and start/finish short at Burley Park.

There are plenty of examples of this, especially on LNWR where there are advances sold from places like Milton Keynes but not from stations closer to London.

 

[Capvermell]

There are a lot of these anomalies (I know of one from my local station where its its cheaper to go from there to a destination 50 miles away than to get a train there from a station 2 stops down the line that is only 43 miles from the same destination) but my fear is that if we list them individually here and they are all investigated by those in charge of these matters then fares will be raised in the anomalous cases where fares are lower than logic suggests they should be rather than the apparently unfairly higher fares being reduced to a level comparable per mile with that of the station that is closer to the final destination with a lower per mile fare.

And the worst possible outcome is that a set cost per mile is introduced for each train company as that would undoubtedly be the extortionate rate per mile generally charged for most shorter distance journeys and not the much cheaper rate per mile rates generally charged for most longer distance ones.

Also I think a constant rate per mile is far too crude and that the speed of the journey per mile should also come in to it with journeys that are very slow (due to either a train that makes many stops and/or due to a complicated route with three or four different changes of train and/or with long intervals for the next train) costing a lot less per mile than journeys that get from A to B at a pretty high average speed.

But currently neither of those things apply and it is completely unclear why some fares on some routes are so much better value than others, although some matters are clear such as fares on most of Chiltern Railways and especially their lack of significant discount on return journeys being far poorer value than many other comparable journeys in the South East of England with other train operators. By contrast journeys with Southern that start outside Greater London and go to destinations in the South West via Barnham all seem to offer particularly good value for money.

Many other anomalies apply such as a journey from A to B starting in London return costing more than a journey between the same two stations from B to A outside London. The logic seeming to be that Londoners don't travel long distance nearly as frequently as those who live outside London who regularly commute in to the Capital and/or go up there a lot on leisure trips.......

But I believe similar anomalies in rate per mile between different routes can also be found throughout the airline industry too.................

 

[Capvermell]

so I'll use an example I am familiar with.

Northern provide advances Leeds-Harrogate, but do not provide advances for Burley Park-Harrogate. For a specific train this means the longer journey is likely to be cheaper.

That is also another frequent explanation for anomalies travelling with Southern.

So for instance a Super Off Peak return ticket from Ockley is available in to London Victoria but is not available in to London Bridge resulting in the return fares to London Bridge being higher (as only Off Peak tickets are available to that destination from Ockley 7 days a week). However a Travelcard from Ockley to London Zones 1 to 6 (which can be discounted by one third with railcards after 9.30am) will cost you the same money to reach both Victoria or London Bridge and travel onwards with TfL from Ockley.

Yet Super Off Peak day return tickets are available in to London Bridge from Horsham station only two stops or 7 miles down the line from Ockley and that seems to be because Horsham is also served by Thameslink, who seem to wish to encourage travel in to London Bridge unlike Southern (who seem to want you to mainly go to London Victoria, apparently because that is the only station trains run in to directly from Ockley). All pretty hard to understand though given that both Southern and Thameslink are owned by the same company.

Also no opportunity to discuss why in respect of any of these strange and anomalous variations since Southern apparently permanently did away with their Meet The Manager Sessions in April 2020 using the cunning excuse of the great COVID emergeny. They could of course have moved these Meet The Manager sessions online instead (making it easier than before for everyone to attend regardless of where they live) but didn't do so as they seem to much prefer the general public not ever having the opportunity to meet any of their senior management.

 

[30907]

That is also another frequent explanation for anomalies travelling with Southern.

So for instance a Super Off Peak return ticket from Ockley is available in to London Victoria but is not available in to London Bridge

More to the point, not available to Waterloo on SWR. As Southern aren't allowed to set a "GTR ONLY" fare from Ockley, LONDON VICTORIA is their way of keeping all the revenue.

Yet Super Off Peak day return tickets are available in to London Bridge from Horsham station only two stops or 7 miles down the line from Ockley

Not according to BBRFares.comwhich only shows that fare to VIC - have you seen it issued to LONDON TERMINALS?