Advance ticket restrictions on Cumbrian Coastal Line

[donald2007]

I just collected my tickets for a Glasgow to Workington journey. Unusually, and this is the first time I've seen this having done this journey 1-2 a week for a number of years, I was issued with a seat coupon for the 18:14 train in First Class. Putting aside the 1st Class matter this is the first time I've seen a restriction on those tickets. They were previously any train.

 

[telstarbox]

What is the price on your ticket?

 

[30907]

Train is shown as reservable in NRTT till October. But First Class on a 156?

 

[gray1404]

Is Northern the TOC running the service? If so, that is strange. If it is TPE under the new timetable then that makes sense.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I think that train is reservable because it starts in Newcastle, and Northern offer advance fares between various stations on the Newcastle to Carlisle line. They really should have a change en-route so that reservations are not offered after Carlisle though; maybe somebody could ask them.

 

[First class]

It will be a Virgin Trains + Connections 1st Advance.

It is a limitation of the printing software that the class displayed on the reservation ticket is always the same class as the travel ticket, even if 1st class is not available on all of the reserved legs.

So you will have 1st Class on the VT leg, but even though you have a 1st Class reservation coupon onwards, it's meaningless.

Even if it's not an Advance 1st ticket, the same would still apply to First Anytime Single/Return tickets, if a reservation was made.

 

[donald2007]

Yes, Advance 1st.

After doing this journey over 100+ its the first time ever it spat out a coupon for the connecting Northern service which made me wonder if these tickets will become specific to a Northern service vs the current any train arrangement. The conductor had never seen one ever before either!

 

[First class]

Yes, Advance 1st.

After doing this journey over 100+ its the first time ever it spat out a coupon for the connecting Northern service which made me wonder if these tickets will become specific to a Northern service vs the current any train arrangement. The conductor had never seen one ever before either!

The Reservation will have Coach * Seat ** though. It just ties you to a specific train, rather than a seat.

Northern have Advance tickets on certain routes, which means that those trains become "reservable", but only in the sense that you reserve a trip on that specific train ONLY, not a specific seat.

 

[donald2007]

The Reservation will have Coach * Seat ** though. It just ties you to a specific train, rather than a seat.

Northern have Advance tickets on certain routes, which means that those trains become "reservable", but only in the sense that you reserve a trip on that specific train ONLY, not a specific seat.

Yes I know, M-F only such as NCL-CAR. But it must now mean the Cumbrian Coast line is involved in that and it is obviously a recent change as the conductor hadn't seen one.

 

[Paul Kelly]

But it must now mean the Cumbrian Coast line is involved in that

As I said above, it's that one specific train that starts in Newcastle that is affected; all others start in Carlisle and don't have reservations available - see here: http://www.brtimes.com/#!board?stn=CAR&filt=WKG&date=20150519 The 1814 train is the only one shown all day with the diamond symbol for reservations. And even this is unnecessary if Northern only wish to offer advance fares between NCL-CAR; the reservations should really not be available beyond Carlisle.