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Bamber Bridge to Heysham - NRE showing Rover fare due to lack of period return

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mirodo

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The link you have posted clearly shows 2 x Off-Peak Singles @ £12.50 each. Total cost £25.

twPbNDU_d.jpg
 
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alistairlees

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The £99.10 fare, which I assume is what you are referring to, is a ‘rover’ ticket allowing unlimited travel for a number of days. This is because there are no return tickets from Bamber Bridge to Heysham that have a validity longer than one day. As you have planned a journey going out on one day and back on the next, this rover ticket is shown as the return option. Not intuitive I’ll grant, but not deserving of the Daily Mail-esque headline for the thread that you have posted. Just get the two singles.
 

yorkie

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https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/BMB/HHB/tomorrow/0900/dep/tomorrow/1845/dep

How?

My sister recently retired to Heysham to take over the Heysham Tea Rooms. Come up and see me soon she said. But £100 quid, no way I'm going by train. How can rail companies be allowed to charge this much?

I'm flabbergasted!
The link offers two options: return, priced at £99.10, or 2 x singles for a total of £25.

Anyone who clicks on the return option is then redirected to a site that offers two singles.

The 'return' ticket is actually a North Country Rover: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/pr45a3aec35ce74100df5de86cc66b24.aspx
 

Karl

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Crikey folks. I'm sorry. I was just curious as to how a 30 mile return journey could cost nearly £100.

When I was thirteen, 1972, my friend and I would walk from Lostock Hall to Preston and buy a Half Cheap-Day Return ticket to York to see the Deltics. £0.90 for the day! £100 just blows my head away.
 

yorkie

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Crikey folks. I'm sorry. I was just curious as to how a 30 mile return journey could cost nearly £100.

When I was thirteen, 1972, my friend and I would walk from Lostock Hall to Preston and buy a Half Cheap-Day Return ticket to York to see the Deltics. £0.90 for the day! £100 just blows my head away.
There is nothing to stop anyone purchasing a Rover and only using it for a short journey if they were really keen to save paper ;)

But in practice you'd really have to go out of your way to buy it as all retailers will direct you towards 2 x singles.
 

alistairlees

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There is no £100 fare (or £99.10 fare) from Bamber Bridge to Heysham.
 
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yorkie

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There is no £100 fare (or £99.10 fare) from Bamber Bridge to Heysham.
It's from any station in the 'north country' to any station in the 'north country' but when redirected to a booking site, it won't actually be sold and it will be the same result as clicking the 2 x singles option.
 

Merseysider

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Just buy a return from Blackburn to Heysham - £18.70 for the Anytime Short Return.

You're allowed to get on at Bamber Bridge having never been to Blackburn in the first place - no need to go anywhere near Blackburn if you don't want to.
 
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On my side of the island NRE has offered me an Anglia Plus 3 in 7 rover at ~£40 when doing a Cambridge - Ely return over two days - when two singles would cost less than a sixth of that :D Seems to be a phenomenon when no period return exists, but a multiple-day rover does, I suppose.
 

lyndhurst25

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NRE is rubbish at giving fares for journeys that require multiple tickets and will suggest the use of a Rover, where one is available, to cover the journey, over multiple non-rover tickets. Ask it for a single from Waterloo Merseyside to Parbold via Southport: at peak times it says that there fare is £11.85 using split Anytime Day Single tickets, whereas travelling off-peak it suggests that you buy a £24.50 Lancashire Day Ranger.
 

Karl

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Apologies for the quality, my 'print screen' doesn't seem to be working, but here a photo of the £99.10 ticket...

Heysham.jpg
 

yorkie

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But it will revert back to the 2 X singles price if you try to buy it
 

lyndhurst25

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But it will revert back to the 2 X singles price if you try to buy it

But many people, seeing the ridiculous £99.10 price, would give up at that stage and make alternative travel arrangements, including not actually travelling.
 

alistairlees

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Apologies for the quality, my 'print screen' doesn't seem to be working, but here a photo of the £99.10 ticket...

View attachment 66773
That’s not a ticket from Bamber Bridge to Heysham Port though. It’s a North Country Rover, which is a ticket that’s valid from Bamber Bridge to Heysham Port but that is also valid for many other journeys across the north of England on Northern, Virgin Trains, LNER, TPE and CrossCountry.

Here’s a map of the area of validity. As you can see it covers a large area - perhaps 650 route miles. Bamber Bridge to Heysham Port is a very small part of this.

Not only that but it’s valid for unlimited travel on any 4 days out of 8. Or less than £25 a day. So it seems to represent pretty good value to me.

In any case this rover ticket is never intended to be used as a ticket just to make a journey such as Bamber Bridge to Heysham Port, and it’s misleading to suggest that that is the return fare between the two stations and that this is outrageous. It isn’t the return fare, and nothing is outrageous. I am sure everyone would agree that it could be handled better by the nre website though. But NRE has unfortunately had no serious investment for years.

As others have suggested, you should buy the two singles or a period return from Blackburn to Heysham Port, as that’s even cheaper.
 

yorkie

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But many people, seeing the ridiculous £99.10 price, would give up at that stage and make alternative travel arrangements, including not actually travelling.
I doubt many would.

The default option is 2 X singles for £25 (12.59 each way); alongside this is the option (perhaps erroneously) titled 'return' for nearly four times the price.

So anyone clicking that link will know that the cost of two singles is £25.
 

ainsworth74

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Apologies for the quality, my 'print screen' doesn't seem to be working, but here a photo of the £99.10 ticket...

But as has already been explained that isn't a return ticket it's a Rover valid for four days in eight over a vast area of the North. The correct price for this journey is £25 made up for two singles and indeed both Northern's and Transpennine's website offer this price (and that combination of tickets) for that journey opportunity.

I can only emphasise that the National Rail website is perhaps the worst possible choice for journey planning and checking the price of fares. You are nearly always going to be far better served using a train operating company website for this sort of thing.
 

infobleep

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But as has already been explained that isn't a return ticket it's a Rover valid for four days in eight over a vast area of the North. The correct price for this journey is £25 made up for two singles and indeed both Northern's and Transpennine's website offer this price (and that combination of tickets) for that journey opportunity.

I can only emphasise that the National Rail website is perhaps the worst possible choice for journey planning and checking the price of fares. You are nearly always going to be far better served using a train operating company website for this sort of thing.
But let's not forget the National Rail Enquiries is the official site when it comes to checking valid rail journey. :grin: haha.
 
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