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SWT & VTWC+ Connection Advances

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Kite159

Kite159

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When searching for some trips in the future to either Liverpool, Wigan or Manchester I used to get some good advance fares to include the trip into London, across to Euston and up to my destination (either £18 or £24 each way), normally using the 05:12 from Salisbury to Waterloo.

However I'm searching tonight and it appears the advance fare button for the outward leg has been greyed out and the only ticket from Grateley to say Liverpool are the standard singles, even when advance fares are possible from Euston to Liverpool. Coming back the only option being highlighted as available is the last train of the day (23:40 from Waterloo).

So has SWT stopped giving an advance allocation on their services (apart from what appears to be Basingstoke - Waterloo stoppers)?
 

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Kite159

Kite159

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swt_passenger

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Kite159 said:
Seems a bit of an oddity, so by the time they eventually catch up with Virgin all the lower priced tickets for the Virgin service will have gone. Finalising the new timetable before releasing the quota?
Click to expand...

Don't know really, but a glance around the page suggests they are not the only TOC with only a short period available. Combination of new timetable and engineering work perhaps?
 
iantherev

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There's engineering work between Basingstoke and Southampton on the 9th which might have knock on effects on WoE services in terms of more people using them from Basingstoke.
 
Starmill

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There's usually 1 train all day to Grateley that isn't reservable, the 2335 from Waterloo.
 
crehld

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Kite159 said:
Evening

When searching for some trips in the future to either Liverpool, Wigan or Manchester I used to get some good advance fares to include the trip into London, across to Euston and up to my destination (either £18 or £24 each way), normally using the 05:12 from Salisbury to Waterloo.

However I'm searching tonight and it appears the advance fare button for the outward leg has been greyed out and the only ticket from Grateley to say Liverpool are the standard singles, even when advance fares are possible from Euston to Liverpool. Coming back the only option being highlighted as available is the last train of the day (23:40 from Waterloo).

So has SWT stopped giving an advance allocation on their services (apart from what appears to be Basingstoke - Waterloo stoppers)?
Click to expand...

I'm also having this problem with my semi-regular Crewe to Portsmouth journeys. I have struggled to book an advance using Waterloo to Portsmouth (via Guildford) for at least four months now (so I don't buy the "technical issues with our reservation system" excuse, unless their system is totally rubbish), so I assume either SWT have just put a block on advance fares on their trains, or have a very small quota for Portsmouth to Waterloo trains.

Putting in one of the smaller stations (such as Rowlands Castle) as a "Calling at" point gets round the problem, I guess as the the stopping services are non-reservable so there's no need to check the quota.
 
ASharpe

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crehld said:
I assume either SWT have just put a block on advance fares on their trains, or have a very small quota for Portsmouth to Waterloo trains.

Putting in one of the smaller stations (such as Rowlands Castle) as a "Calling at" point gets round the problem, I guess as the the stopping services are non-reservable so there's no need to check the quota.
Click to expand...

I think it's a bit sneaky what SWT are doing. I noticed a while ago that it wasn't possible to get a Guildford-Leeds Advance ticket for journeys starting during the morning peak.

My understanding is that the advance ticket quotas for that journey are only set by East Coast. But because SWT make the fast Portsmouth trains reservable for counted place purposes and have no allocation during the peak it's not possible to buy a ticket. I'd always use either Avoid Woking or similar to get around it but still travel on the train I originally wanted as they are not reservable according to the eNRT or the SWT timetables.
 
crehld

crehld

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asharpe said:
I think it's a bit sneaky what SWT are doing. I noticed a while ago that it wasn't possible to get a Guildford-Leeds Advance ticket for journeys starting during the morning peak.

My understanding is that the advance ticket quotas for that journey are only set by East Coast. But because SWT make the fast Portsmouth trains reservable for counted place purposes and have no allocation during the peak it's not possible to buy a ticket. I'd always use either Avoid Woking or similar to get around it but still travel on the train I originally wanted as they are not reservable according to the eNRT or the SWT timetables.
Click to expand...

My experience is it's not just the peak train which have a block put on them!
 
Kite159

Kite159

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Looks like the timetable has been put together as advances are available again.

Although it seems the first 2 services of the day [5:27 & 5:59 from GRT] seem not to have anything available, the first services APs are available for is the 6:59 (and the 6:38 Semi-fast from Andover), which makes no sense as those 2 early morning services are normally dead!

At least that is better than nothing :)
 
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