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Plymouth - Glasgow 1st class

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mralexn

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Im looking sometime in the next few months, to bash the 1223 PLY - GLC
Crosscountry HST,
I would like to do this in 1st class, (as im a total snob ;) )

But, no matter how far ahead i search the only AP fare for 1st class is £427!

I am travelling with a Y/P Railcard,

I will be travelling on a weekday,

Can anyone do any better than that price for the whole journey? as its massively steep! :)
 
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Urban Gateline

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PLY-GLC Off-Peak Return is £128.20 with YP discount but that's Standard Class, the 1st equivalent is £325.05 :|

According to the Advance prices, there should be singles for £63.35 in 1st Class, but assuming it's the same price back, double it to £126.70 for the total cost.
 

mralexn

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Its just a single i want :P

Basically just planning a big trip, and i would like to bash this HST from beginning to end :P
 

yorkie

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But, no matter how far ahead i search the only AP fare for 1st class is £427!
What do you mean by AP?

AP is one of the abbreviations/terms that I would avoid using because it causes confusion. It either means "Any Permitted" (not in this case, unless your ticket is actually for a different journey) or "Advance Purchase" indicating a ticket of type Advance. The £427 ticket you quote is neither Any Permitted (it is via Bristol), nor is it Advance (it is Anytime). Perhaps you had something else in mind.
 

mralexn

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What do you mean by AP?

AP is one of the abbreviations/terms that I would avoid using because it causes confusion. It either means "Any Permitted" (not in this case, unless your ticket is actually for a different journey) or "Advance Purchase" indicating a ticket of type Advance. The £427 ticket you quote is neither Any Permitted (it is via Bristol), nor is it Advance (it is Anytime). Perhaps you had something else in mind.

Advance Purchase :)
 

yorkie

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Have you considered "splitting"? ie, using a combination of tickets? A simple split at Birmingham got the fare down to £170, with the cost to Birmingham just over £50 and the cost from Birmingham just under £120. Further splits may be possible.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Advance Purchase :)
Then you have misread the booking site, as that fare is not Advance. It is Anytime. There are no Advance fares available for the through journey on a random search I did, but Advance fares are available by breaking the journey down, also known as splitting, into a combination of tickets.
 
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Try 3 different advance singles splitting at York and Edinburgh Waverley. A lot of competition from EC and Scotrail on those flows so may offer a good price. The 1223 leaves York at 1833 and Edinburgh at 2114.
 

yorkie

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(For a random date in May):

Plymouth-Birmingham is reasonable at around £50, but don't book to Tamworth as that shoots up to £118!

York-Glasgow is reasonable at £33, but don't book from Leeds as the price shoots up to £78!

However the middle bit, Birmingham-York is expensive and I can't find a way to bring that down.

If you're that rich that you can travel 1st class, you can pay us to research this for you ;)
 

mralexn

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(For a random date in May):

Plymouth-Birmingham is reasonable at around £50, but don't book to Tamworth as that shoots up to £118!

York-Glasgow is reasonable at £33, but don't book from Leeds as the price shoots up to £78!

However the middle bit, Birmingham-York is expensive and I can't find a way to bring that down.

If you're that rich that you can travel 1st class, you can pay us to research this for you ;)



I wish i was that rich! :P

It seems XC have gotten very expensive, i was looking at doing this trip last year, and it was about £70 in first class (booked a few months in advance)

Even Inverness To London on the Chieftain is costing me £57 :P and thats with a "proper" first class :P
 

Woody

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Im looking sometime in the next few months, to bash the 1223 PLY - GLC
Crosscountry HST,
I would like to do this in 1st class, (as im a total snob ;) )

But, no matter how far ahead i search the only AP fare for 1st class is £427!

I am travelling with a Y/P Railcard,

I will be travelling on a weekday,

Can anyone do any better than that price for the whole journey? as its massively steep! :)
Booking 2 seperate tickets-Plymouth to Totnes and Totnes to Glasgow rather than directly from Plymouth is the answer here.As you say Plymouth to Glasgow on the 1223 departure is a massive £427 single anytime Ist class less your third Y/P Railcard discount = £284 but Totnes to Glasgow Ist class single is only £180 + Plymouth to Totnes Ist class single is £9.90 = £189.90 less your third Y/P Railcard discount = £126.60.Enormous difference considering Totnes is only 25 minutes/one stop from Plymouth.
 

yorkie

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Bear in mind that 16-25 ('Y-P') Railcard discounts do not apply to 1st class Anytime tickets, but do apply to 1st class Advance tickets.

So the £427 ticket cannot be discounted with this Railcard. That means the savings are in fact immense.

I can find absolutely no logic to XC's pricing structure whatsoever.
 

bb21

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:shock:

Totnes - Glasgow Cen/Qst
Route Via Bristol
Anytime 1st Single
£180.50

Plymouth - Glasgow Cen/Qst
Route Via Bristol
Anytime 1st Single
£427.00

Spot the difference!

This must be the most expensive 23-mile add-on journey in this country. Can XC pricing manager use a calculator? That is over £10 a mile.

I sense a good little earner from this piece of information by supplying it to the Daily Fail. :lol:
 

calc7

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:shock:

Totnes - Glasgow Cen/Qst
Route Via Bristol
Anytime 1st Single
£180.50

Plymouth - Glasgow Cen/Qst
Route Via Bristol
Anytime 1st Single
£427.00

Spot the difference!

This must be the most expensive 23-mile add-on journey in this country. Can XC pricing manager use a calculator? That is over £10 a mile.

I sense a good little earner from this piece of information by supplying it to the Daily Fail. :lol:

The Totnes to Glasgow fare is priced by Virgin! ;)
 

Woody

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Bear in mind that 16-25 ('Y-P') Railcard discounts do not apply to 1st class Anytime tickets, but do apply to 1st class Advance tickets.

So the £427 ticket cannot be discounted with this Railcard. That means the savings are in fact immense.

I can find absolutely no logic to XC's pricing structure whatsoever.
As you rightly point out with no Y/P discount the difference is really staggering.Makes you wonder if XC really want to go as far as Plymouth?Yet another own goal for our disfunctional psuodo privatised railway.
 

Yew

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Bear in mind that 16-25 ('Y-P') Railcard discounts do not apply to 1st class Anytime tickets, but do apply to 1st class Advance tickets.

So the £427 ticket cannot be discounted with this Railcard. That means the savings are in fact immense.

I can find absolutely no logic to XC's pricing structure whatsoever.

I beleive the logic is to try and price people out of traveling XC as they made the mistake of not keeping Loco hauled MK2/3's as part of their fleet when voyagers came around. Meaning we all have to suffer for it.
 

cuccir

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I beleive the logic is to try and price people out of traveling XC as they made the mistake of not keeping Loco hauled MK2/3's as part of their fleet when voyagers came around. Meaning we all have to suffer for it.

Hehe.

I find that XC seem to use some sort of rough 'zoning' policy, whereby tickets within zones can be pretty cheap, but then the cost can increases if you pass through one of the hubs that seem to form borders. That's why the fares that Yorkie pointed out above shoot up dramatically after Birmingham and York respectively. I suspect it's because strategically they view their long distance services as short distance services that happen to be connected. They are pretty much the only intercity operator where significant savings are regularly available by splitting advance purchase tickets on the same train (by contrast, I've only been able to save £10 max doing this on East Coast).
 

old thumper

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if you go via london you will find it is cheaper!

ie Ply to London zone 1=£32.75 advance single (18-25 railcard)

Euston to Glasgow Central =£59.75 advance single (18-25 railcard)

total=£92.50

and with that you can use the first clas lounges at Euston and Paddington stn's

:)
 

mralexn

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The Totnes to Glasgow fare is priced by Virgin! ;)

So Virgin offer a much better First Class service, And go a faster Route, And are Cheaper.. :P

Yes, XC Pricing Structure makes no sense at all!

Plymouth - Birmingham (advance in the mornings) £68

Plymouth - Derby £36

So its half the price, to go an extra 50 odd miles ? :P


But thats a whole other can of worms :P
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
You might aswell fly for that price

Or get a Limo.. :P
 

ainsworth74

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I beleive the logic is to try and price people out of traveling XC as they made the mistake of not keeping Loco hauled MK2/3's as part of their fleet when voyagers came around. Meaning we all have to suffer for it.

Getting rid of the LHCS Mk2/3s wasn't a mistake they were old and clapped out (as were the 47s that hauled them) and replacing them improved reliability and improved journey times. The mistake was specifying the Voyagers to only be four vehicles long, if they'd been six or maybe eight vehicles long (with a better interior specification as well) we'd be having far fewer issues than we do now.

Also worth remembering that it was XC that replaced the LHCS but VXC.
 

Woody

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Getting rid of the LHCS Mk2/3s wasn't a mistake they were old and clapped out (as were the 47s that hauled them) and replacing them improved reliability and improved journey times. The mistake was specifying the Voyagers to only be four vehicles long, if they'd been six or maybe eight vehicles long (with a better interior specification as well) we'd be having far fewer issues than we do now.

Also worth remembering that it was XC that replaced the LHCS but VXC.
I seem to recall reading at the time that when VXC were looking to replace their LHCS Mk2/3s that the business case for new Voyagers could not support no more than the present 4 or 5 car formations.Of course since then demand has outpaced supply hence the use of some additional HSTs I suppose.Lets hope the proposal for additional Pantograph/Transformer cars gets the green light.
 
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