Mirfield and Batley to Derby - big price increase for less distance

A colleague and I are going to Coventry for a couple of days in July. He lives in Mirfield and I'm in Batley. I've determined that splitting at Derby is sensible and we want flexible tickets. We can travel off peak.
Just looking at the home to Derby leg, the MIR-DBY off peak return, route Via Sheffield (and changing at Leeds) is £37.20. Exactly the same BTL-DBY ticket is £51.70 despite this being on the same train, just joining 3 stops later. How can the same journey, on the same trains, travelling a few miles less, cost £14.50 more? Or I have I misunderstood/typed something?

• MIR: https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=MIR&dest=DBY&rte=79&tkt=SVR&period=20250518
• BTL: https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=BTL&dest=DBY&rte=79&tkt=SVR&period=20250518

Is there anything in the restrictions for a off peak return that precludes me starting and ending short on a MIR-DBY ticket?
Cheers!

pdq said:

A colleague and I are going to Coventry for a couple of days in July. He lives in Mirfield and I'm in Batley. I've determined that splitting at Derby is sensible and we want flexible tickets. We can travel off peak.
Just looking at the home to Derby leg, the MIR-DBY off peak return, route Via Sheffield (and changing at Leeds) is £37.20. Exactly the same BTL-DBY ticket is £51.70 despite this being on the same train, just joining 3 stops later. How can the same journey, on the same trains, travelling a few miles less, cost £14.50 more? Or I have I misunderstood/typed something?

• MIR: https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=MIR&dest=DBY&rte=79&tkt=SVR&period=20250518
• BTL: https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=BTL&dest=DBY&rte=79&tkt=SVR&period=20250518

Is there anything in the restrictions for a off peak return that precludes me starting and ending short on a MIR-DBY ticket?
Cheers!

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There's nothing to prevent you from starting late or finishing short on that ticket; these are considered types of break of journey (BoJ), which is permitted for an Off-Peak Return unless the restriction code bars it. The restriction code here is CrossCountry's familiar 2V (not before 09:30), which imposes no BoJ restrictions.

Really what you're seeing here is Mirfield being part of the Huddersfield 'cluster', and Huddersfield to Derby appears to be priced on the assumption you'll travel to Sheffield via Penistone, hence it's cheaper. Meanwhile Batley is part of the Dewsbury cluster and there the expectation is that you'll travel via Leeds, with accordingly higher prices.

The 'loophole' is that Huddersfield to Derby is still permitted via Leeds, but frankly this seems entirely reasonable and indeed for stations like Mirfield it is quickest as it avoids an unnecessary change. You'd have to redefine the clusters to truly 'fix' this (though that won't stop the industry from messing with permitted routes as a bodge-fix).

Excellent. Thanks for the quick response.

Watershed said:

You'd have to redefine the clusters to truly 'fix' this

Click to expand...

Which would almost certainly create a different anomaly.