Fare not available on some booking sites [POO - BRI]

I'm looking at prices from Poole (POO) to Bristol TM (BRI) via Salisbury (SAL) and should get a fare of £28.45 for an off-peak day rtn. (the 09:07 out of Poole or later I believe).
On Trainline and CrossCountry (I usually use CC) I'm seeing a price of £53.65 for (I believe) a Super off-peak fare!!

On GWR, SWR and the National Rail Enquirers site they give the option of the £28.45.

I assume the Trainline and CC use the same booking engine and it's basically 'screwed up!

This is for a weekday journey with a Senior Railcard by the way.


Out of interest, If I put in Bournemouth to Bristol ( a slightly shorter journey) it comes up with £28.45 so it must be something to do with booking from Poole that is the issue?

.... Or is it me?!!

For what it's worth, the £28.45 fare is an off-peak return (SVR) with one month validity rather than a day return. The £53.65 super off-peak return is routed NOT VIA LONDON (and presumably involves going via Reading).

I don't know why the VIA SALISBURY fare isn't showing up on some sites, but as it's a walk-up fare, why not just buy it at the booking office at Poole?

When I look for Poole-Bristol journeys on the Trainline, and check the details of the journeys via Southampton and Salisbury, it seems that the calling points for the Southampton-Bristol leg have not been loaded. Maybe because of that their planner cannot tell that those trains go via Salisbury and therefore does not offer the £28.45 fare (which is in their system as can be seen if you click on the fares for slower routes option).

island said:

For what it's worth, the £28.45 fare is an off-peak return (SVR) with one month validity rather than a day return. The £53.65 super off-peak return is routed NOT VIA LONDON (and presumably involves going via Reading).

I don't know why the VIA SALISBURY fare isn't showing up on some sites, but as it's a walk-up fare, why not just buy it at the booking office at Poole?

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That's what I'll be doing, but I was just looking to confirm the early morning times for the cheaper tickets and it wasn't shown.

I normally use CrossCountry as they offer e-tickets (as opposed to m-tickets) that can be printed and shown as pdf files if needed.

Thanks for the reply.

Romilly said:

When I look for Poole-Bristol journeys on the Trainline, and check the details of the journeys via Southampton and Salisbury, it seems that the calling points for the Southampton-Bristol leg have not been loaded. Maybe because of that their planner cannot tell that those trains go via Salisbury and therefore does not offer the £28.45 fare (which is in their system as can be seen if you click on the fares for slower routes option).

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Thanks for taking the time to look at this - I assumed that there was a system problem, as a few weeks ago the lower price was shown, but since the weekend it wasn't. Ho hum, I'll be going a bit earlier to allow time for the ticket office... (I always seem get someone buying a load of complicated split-tickets or a railcard in front of me)

For info, this fare is still not being shown on CrossCountry or Trainline. I have submitted an 'incident ticket' to Trainline. It'll be interesting to see if they do anything about it.

Rebus said:

For info, this fare is still not being shown on CrossCountry or Trainline. I have submitted an 'incident ticket' to Trainline. It'll be interesting to see if they do anything about it.

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Go via Dorchester for £22.50 with Senior Railcard as an alternative
Trains are limited but an itinerary is 10.37 out arrive 13.35; back at 16.46 arrive 19.39. I appreciate this might not suit when you need to travel.

alistairlees said:

Go via Dorchester for £22.50 with Senior Railcard as an alternative
Trains are limited but an itinerary is 10.37 out arrive 13.35; back at 16.46 arrive 19.39. I appreciate this might not suit when you need to travel.

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Thanks for the info alistairlees, I have already traveled and bought a 'real' ticket from the nice gentleman in the ticket office at Poole and hopefully helped preserved a job

I live near Poole and to get to Dorchester will take more time, as you point out, "Trains are limited" on this line (one every 2 hours for most of the day).

My main point is not to rely on the online sites for accurate info. A lot of people might have paid the £56 odd pounds for the 'not via London' ticket that is shown (presumably valid via Reading?) but I knew the £28.45 was available, hence the query here.

The fare is listed on their site, but no journeys are available. I could be wrong, but I suspect it's possibly because they are not applying an easement and so are unable to validate any fares.

With the via Dorchester ticket, you can double-back between Upwey and Weymouth if you wish, or change at Upwey, or walk between stations at Dorchester.

If you decide to come back via Salisbury, the excess is half the difference (ie. £3) and it's no more expensive to obtain this on the train.

Thanks yorkie, I've already done the trip but since emailing them, have heard back from Trainline and they have given me a number to ring to 'assist me accordingly'. Not sure I can be bothered to spend time & money to sort their problems out I assume it's a legal requirement for them to offer the correct/cheaper prices that are shown on the NRE website?

Rebus said:

Thanks yorkie, I've already done the trip but since emailing them, have heard back from Trainline and they have given me a number to ring to 'assist me accordingly'. Not sure I can be bothered to spend time & money to sort their problems out I assume it's a legal requirement for them to offer the correct/cheaper prices that are shown on the NRE website?

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It is a legal requirement if they are either subject to impartial retailing rules (I'm not sure whether third party retailers like Trainline are?), or if they claim to offer the "cheapest" fare.

ForTheLoveOf:

When I go to book, they list the fares available (from Trainline) and they have a big green button saying "Cheapest", when I can get that journey for almost half the cost... They even show the itinerary going via Southampton and Salisbury (The way I wanted to go). Although technically it is the cheapest of their options on that page.

I'm not going to chase this any further as they now want me to call an 0871 number (at my expense) to speak to someone about this.

Rebus said:

ForTheLoveOf:

When I go to book, they list the fares available (from Trainline) and they have a big green button saying "Cheapest", when I can get that journey for almost half the cost... They even show the itinerary going via Southampton and Salisbury (The way I wanted to go). Although technically it is the cheapest of their options on that page.

I'm not going to chase this any further as they now want me to call an 0871 number (at my expense) to speak to someone about this.

Click to expand...

Can you not find a non-chargeable alternative via sites like Say No To 0870?

If the word used is merely "cheapest" then this is ambiguous as to what they mean - they could mean "the cheapest fare anywhere", they could mean "our cheapest fare". So I don't think there would be a sufficient case on the basis of that alone to say they'd missold. If, however, they have an advert or statement as some sites do, promising that you won't find lower fares anywhere else, then that could be actionable.

For info, here are the details I used for the journey and sent to Trainline for investigation:

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On your website (or app) plan a journey for next Tuesday (for instance) from POOLE [POO] to BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS [BRI] and also add the option to travel via SALISBURY [SAL]. Leaving at 09:00 and returning at 15:00 - I also added a SENIOR RAILCARD to the options, so all my prices are quoted with the railcard added.

On your system it will return the following options:

Super off peak return for £53.65 using the 09:07 from Poole (and other later trains) - Not valid for travel via (changing trains or passing through) London Terminals.

Off peak return for £71.15 using the 09:07 from Poole (and other later trains) - Not valid for travel via (changing trains or passing through) London Terminals.

Anytime return for £167.65 using the 09:07 from Poole (and other later trains) - Not valid for travel via (changing trains or passing through) London Terminals.

It doesn't show any trains going specifically via Salisbury. The 'not via London terminals' would allow you to go via Reading (A much longer journey).

Now use the National Rail Enquiries website (or GWR or SWR) and input the same data. It will return the following option:

Off peak return for £28.45 using the 09:07 from Poole (and other later trains) - VIA SALISBURY - Valid only for travel via (changing trains or passing through) Salisbury.
This is a valid fare and route from any ticket office and from other TOCs not using your systems. If you input this journey from any TOC that uses your systems (CrossCountry, ScotRail, Grand Central etc.) the off peak return for £28.45 is also not shown.
I suspect the problem is possibly being caused by a missing 'easement' for allowing doubling-back between Southampton Central and Redbridge (??)
For info: If you try booking this fare from Bournemouth (a few miles east of Poole) it does return the missing fare option.

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I have now given up with TL



11:09 - EDIT - I see Grand Central now offer the £28.45 off peak return fare! - CrossCountry and TL still do not. Grand Central did not have this option before.