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'Routes your ticket is valid on' - NRE website feature

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najaB

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There's a button on the NRE website that attempts to show valid routes for tickets. It's available when you click on the 'Other fares' link or click to view an itinerary. Is this a new feature, or have I just been blind to it in the past?

It's not great as it only shows three valid routes for a Dundee to London ticket, but if they work on it then it could be useful.
 

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FenMan

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It's been around for a while.

It won't bring up all the valid routes immediately though. Some have to be forced by adding appropriate via points.

Try Wokingham to London and select the Any Permitted ticket. It won't display the valid routes via Guildford or via Chertsey, unless forced.
 

JB_B

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So far I've not found it to be particularly useful.

Just tried York to Brighton now.

Both are routeing points so that's typically valid (very broadly speaking ) ...

Via London: via ECML direct, or via ECML+Cambridge , or via MML; (and then BML) [AY EY KY]

Avoiding London via MML to Birmingham/Coventry Oxford -> Gatwick etc. [XB+BY]

( With, of course, a myriad of of possible routes within these broad descriptions.)


But on NRE you get back maps of four "valid" routes - each of which is identical at the resolution presented ( all ECML direct ->LONDON->BML). If you zoom in and look very carefully the four routes are identical apart from their slightly different routes through South London.

When I first thought took a look at it I concluded that the problem is they're just presenting the first n answers on a depth-first search ( so you get trivially different answers that are clustered around origin or destination.) I guess that could still be true if the planner is splitting the search at London.


There are potentially far too many different useful routes to display in this route-by-route format : the best way to show other valid routes would show the maps instead (consolidated and suitably redacted and annotated for easements/doublebacks.) That's not a straightforward thing to do.

If they're constrained to showing n individual routes then they should have need a measure of difference in the presented results so you at least begin to explore the space in a useful way (rather than showing almost identical answers.)
 
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najaB

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There are potentially far too many different useful routes to display in this route-by-route format : the best way to show other valid routes would show the maps instead (consolidated and suitably redacted and annotated for easements/doublebacks.) That's not a straightforward thing to do.
That's what I found as well. I'm going to play around with via points as suggested by FenMan and see what happens. Try some of the less common routes and see if it freaks out.
 

miami

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This is dangerous, as guards may declare as your route isn't shown on this page, it's not valid.

Either do it right or don't do it.
 

AY1975

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It doesn't seem to offer you the option of adding via points.

I've also noticed that if you simply go to the National Rail homepage, it doesn't give you the 'Routes your ticket is valid on' tool, and it can be hard to find. It's best to go straight to it by clicking on the link: http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/NreOjpWebApp/service/planjourney/search#pr

At first sight the map does not appear to show via points, but it does if you zoom in.
 
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FenMan

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It doesn't seem to offer you the option of adding via points.

I've also noticed that if you simply go to the National Rail homepage, it doesn't give you the 'Routes your ticket is valid on' tool, and it can be hard to find. It's best to go straight to it by clicking on the link: http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/NreOjpWebApp/service/planjourney/search#pr

At first sight the map does not appear to show via points, but it does if you zoom in.

I've found the trick is to enter your preferred via point in the original search. Otherwise it's pot luck whether or not it will be displayed. That's ok for people who know what they're doing, but not for the public at large who don't take an interest in which routes are permitted.
 
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