Biggest bargain in UK rail history?

[me123]

Do an NXEC search for trains from Dalwhinnie to Newtonmore. They are about 10 minutes apart on the Perth-Inverness line. However, because of the service pattern on the line, very few trains call at both stations. So NXEC comes up with the following suggestion for Monday:

Leave Dalwhinnie Southbound (wrong direction!). Change at Perth to an Aberdeen service. Arrive in Aberdeen and go to the Inverness train. Arrive Inverness, change onto a Southbound train for Newtonmore.

This takes a staggering 9 hours and 5 minutes, and is the quickest option available by rail, assuming you depart at 10:30! It costs only £3.90, or £5.70 for First Class and you can reserve seats for the full journey!!!

Sadly, it only seems to be available in this one direction. You also need to be able to get to Dalwhinnie to start with; easier said than done. But I defy you to find a rail journey in the UK and, possibly, the world which is cheaper per mile!

 

[Mojo]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's a valid route. Both stations share common routeing points, Inverness and Perth, meaning that you have to take the shortest route between the two stations. There is an easement for Newtonmore & Dalwhinnie but I don't think it's relavent.

 

[me123]

Not technically a valid route; but they're selling tickets for that route if you have a look. With reservations, IIRC, they cannot deny the ticket.

 

[rail-britain]

I'd do that First Class outward and Standard return!
On arriving at Newtonmore, you can then stay on the train and get back to Dalwhinnie!
That's 9 hours 17 minutes, all for £9.60
Just a shame it's all First ScotRail and not NXEC, between Dalwhinnie and Perth, and Dundee and Aberdeen

 

[me123]

The easement you mentioned, Mojo, is in fact more of a restriction; Aberdeen and Portlethen to Dalwhinnie or Newtonmore is only valid via Inverness. Same for journeys to Kingussie, Aviemore and Carrbridge.

 

[Techniquest]

I am surprised, it does come up! Only one journey comes up, I copy-paste below:

Dalwhinnie

10:30
SR

Blair Atholl
10:51
10:51

Pitlochry
11:00
11:01

Dunkeld
11:13
11:13

Perth
11:35

Train continues to Glasgow Queen Street
Station
Arr
Dep
Facilities

Perth

12:38
SR

Dundee
13:00
13:00

Carnoustie
13:10
13:12

Arbroath
13:17
13:19

Montrose
13:32
13:32

Aberdeen
14:14

Train terminates at Aberdeen
Station
Arr
Dep
Facilities

Aberdeen

15:23
SR

Dyce
15:32
15:32

Inverurie
15:45
15:46

Insch
15:58
15:58

Huntly
16:14
16:14

Keith
16:34
16:35

Elgin
16:55
16:57

Forres
17:10
17:11

Nairn
17:22
17:29

Inverness
17:47

Train continues to Kyle Of Lochalsh
Station
Arr
Dep
Facilities

Inverness

18:27
SR

Carrbridge
18:57
18:57

Aviemore
19:11
19:13

Kingussie
19:30
19:32

Newtonmore
19:35

Train continues to Edinburgh

EDIT: Sorry for the length of this post, not only could I get it to tidy up better than this, I specifically didn't ask for the other stops but it's listed them on the copy-paste anyway.

Sorely tempted to book this one!

 

[glynn80]

If theTrainline or other ATOC licensed agent issues you a ticket with reservations then you are able to use both without paying for any additional excess ticket, regardless of any routeing issues. theTrainline (and the Atos Origin powered NXEC site) both use interpretations on the routeing guide with consultation with ATOC on contentious issues. If you were to be charged the extra or penalty charge you could claim it back very easily but I doubt any guard is going to reject a ticket with valid reservations as well

 

[me123]

Just to confirm, thetrainline does not sell this ticket, implying therefore that it's an error in the NXEC system. Typical Atos Origin

 

[mrcheek]

frankly, if a lot of people start booking this, then they will eventually change it and block it. but if you have a ticket in the meantime, they will have to accept it. so book while you can!!

 

[ashworth]

The above journey is real exceptional mistake, but there are far more minor errors that can easily be taken advantage of.

There's one that I regularly make use of from the East Midlands to the North West. I'm not going to be more specific because I don't want the powers that be to, read this, find out and remove it! It's saved me a fortune this year.
The ticket I use can be purchased on the day of travel from the booking office, but I always book in advance online to get a reserved seat, then the ontrain staff are less likely to notice and question me about it.

 

[paul1609]

Has anybody sucessfully booked this ticket?
In the past I've found that whilst the trainline will show bizarre routings very often it will fail when you try to actually book the ticket as it cant actually make the reservations.
This is also true for some routes where the ticket is valid. Getting an on line reservation from the south coast to Scotland using a through saver ticket and the scotrail sleepers always seems to fail at the payment stage even though the First Scotrail site will offer it.
I envariably end up splitting the tickets in London or making the reservations at the station.

 

[rail-britain]

I've got a day off next week, tempted to try it
Follow the sleeper up from Perth, then park the car at Dalwhinnie, and enjoy!

 

[yorkie]

A good mistake was Leeds/York to Bedford, MML and connections, valid on GNER to London, and then MML from London to Bedford The price was lower than the cheapest GNER only fare to London and availability was pretty good, e.g. booking on a train around 1100 from London to Bedford had low demand so high availability and this put you on a peak service to London!

A few of us 'in the know' milked that for a few months until they withdrew it.

 

[djw1981]

Just to confirm, thetrainline does not sell this ticket, implying therefore that it's an error in the NXEC system. Typical Atos Origin

Atos are much better than EDS though..........and Atos healthcare are actually quite nice and useful.....

 

[me123]

My Mum works for Atos Healthcare and hates it; hence my post She works on programmes for school immunisations (HPV and DipTetPolio at the moment I think) and some other similar stuff that comes her way.

The thing's weird is that, despite the fact they have two offices in the central belt one in Dundee area and one in Aberdeen, the main base of NHS Scotland operations is in Crewe hock:

 

[djw1981]

I was referring to their groundlevel staff response etc, not what they are like to work for. I do think though that the GNER / Atos web booking engine was a breath of fresh air and broke the VirginTrainline monopoly and it would be nice to think that we may now have some innovation from Trainline to try and match / beat the Atos offering and also a competition of various search / booking engines as competition in this sphere will drive improvement.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

My Mum works for Atos Healthcare and hates it; hence my post She works on programmes for school immunisations (HPV and DipTetPolio at the moment I think) and some other similar stuff that comes her way.

The thing's weird is that, despite the fact they have two offices in the central belt one in Dundee area and one in Aberdeen, the main base of NHS Scotland operations is in Crewe hock:

As an IT company, does it matter where the base is, as long as there is a CAT 5 line between the two A fair chunk of some NHS Lothain software is developed and supported from the USA, and the ICU software used throughout much of Scotland is developed and supported from near York IIRC.

 

[me123]

It's just odd, really, as that's also where NHS Scotland people go to meet with Atos officials. So we're shipping people to Crewe to meet people in Crewe when work that happens in Scotland effects only people in Scotland...

It just seems like a waste of taxpayer's money (I'm sure we're paying for their First Class seats to Crewe...)

 

[djw1981]

Yes... but a lot of healthcare IT is the same across the country. The targets may be different, but the method of calculating achievement will be different. And such trips are perks and often by including perks ina job you can pay less actual salary.....I would hope the NHS are booking train tickets, or flights, with a reputable agency anyway....

And th NHS(Scotland) budget for taxi's is probably higher than for trains.

 

[yorkie]

As an IT company, does it matter where the base is, as long as there is a CAT 5 line between the two

A Category 5 twisted pair cable all the way from Aberdeen/Dundee to Crewe? Just a little above the maximum length I think

 

[Nick W]

If they could send pulses over cables from uk to india over 100 years ago...