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Barnhill or Paisley Gil St to Whitley Bay

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adrock1976

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What's it called? It's called Cumbernauld
Both myself and my partner will be going to Whitley Bay 14 to 18 May 2018. My partner holds the Disabled Railcard.

According to BRFares website, Barnhill to H665 (the code for Metro Tyne & Wear All Zones) is showing First Class Advance for £18.90 each (lowest tier). This is confirmed on the GWR website departing BNL on the 11:23 on 14 May.

However, using the VTEC website, H665 does not exist, but Newcastle Metro (code NCZ) is one of the options. This brings up the lowest tier for the 11:23 ex Barnhill with a price of £17.15 each (First Class).

Is there any difference between H665 and NCZ, or are these totally different products?
 
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Romilly

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In my experience, implementation of integrated fares including travel on Tyne & Wear Metro and National Rail is haphazard and generally not brilliant. The old VTEC website (switched off Summer 2017) was one of the better attempts, although even it only offered the add-ons from a limited range of stations in NE England, if I recall correctly.

As I understand it, there are three add ons. Inclusion of Newcastle metro centre zone (i.e. Central Station, Haymarket Station, Monument Station and St James Station): I think that is what used to be covered by NCZ. Inclusion of Newcastle Airport. Inclusion of one single (or one return) journey to any station on the T&W Metro. So far as I can see, the fares being offered on the current VTEC site for travel to Newcastle (Metro) are for National Rail travel only plus a free walk from Newcastle national rail station to Newcastle Central metro station: they are the fares quoted by BRFares for a simple National Rail journey to Newcastle.

I therefore wouldn't buy the fares to NCZ on the VTEC website and then expect to be allowed to travel on the metro.
 
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adrock1976

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What's it called? It's called Cumbernauld
I have now managed to get the desired seats by first using the VTEC website for a flexible fare to Newcastle (NCL) on the 12:23 ex Barnhill, so as to check if the desired seating was available. As this was available, I then switched to the GWR website to book Barnhill - H665 flexible fares inputting the maximum 9 passengers 7 times so as eliminate Coach M (the desired seats in that coach were unavailable there, but were available in Coach L).

While keeping an eye on the seat numbers, on the 8th attempt, I decided to try the Advance fare and for 2 passengers. Lo and behold, it assigned me the desired seats of 31 and 33 in Coach L. I deleted all of the previous reservations and went ahead and booked the fare. The reason why I had desired the centre of the First Class coach is because that is where the 1+1 seating is as the aisle is wide, and that we will be travelling with a medium size dog (Border Collie).

I got there eventually, even though it was a bit cumbersome and required a bit of patience. I feel it would be helpful if the VTEC website (and the Trainline based sites such as Scotrail) has the H665 added to the origin/destination options.
 
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island

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It might be easiest to book this type of ticket in person at your local staffed station.
 
Haywain

Haywain

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Wallsendmag said:
We can't include Metro add ons at present, NCZ is the Central Station Metro station not an area ticket
Click to expand...
You shouldn't really be offering that as it doesn't have any benefit and can, as above, be misleading.
 
Haywain

Haywain

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It shouldn't be available for journey planning though.
 
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Nick66

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Possibly because it used to be a British Rail station until the mid 1970s. Remember it well!
 
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