Hello, I was booking a trip from Chester to Crewe and noticed it came to a whopping 20 pound for a return ticket and that is just absurd for a 20 minute shuttle journey. Is there any reason this is so expensive? You can get tickets from Crewe to London for cheaper then that (LNWR is a good example of this)
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Chester-Crewe price
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Class800
Established Member
On BR Fares, I'm seeing £15 anytime day return and £19.90 for off-peak return (valid for one month). You could look to see if there's any journeys that go through Crewe from Chester that would be cheaper than the Crewe fare, but I've not found any yet
Mcr Warrior
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As @Class800 has pointed out, it can be done cheaper if there and back the same day, as it's £19.90 for an Off Peak (up to one month's period) Return and £15.00 for an Anytime Day Return.
The mileage (each way) between Crewe and Chester is just over 21 miles.
Wonder whether it's expensive as TfW are the fare setters?
P.S. Fares are broadly similar between Crewe and Stafford.
The mileage (each way) between Crewe and Chester is just over 21 miles.
Wonder whether it's expensive as TfW are the fare setters?
P.S. Fares are broadly similar between Crewe and Stafford.
This fare is certainly rather expensive. By way of comparison, fares from Chester to Manchester are only slightly higher despite this being around twice the distance; the service is also a little more frequent (3tph via different routes vs 1-2tph).
I imagine one reason why the fare is so high is that the train is quicker than driving - approx 20 mins vs 45 mins (possibly more with traffic) - since the road connections between Crewe and Chester aren't particularly fast, whereas the railway takes a fairly direct path and is mostly 90mph.
I imagine TfW's predecessor, Arriva Trains Wales, are the 'guilty party' since around the time of BR's privatisation (September 1996) the fares were £5.30 for an Off-Peak Day Return (CDR) or £6.20 for an Anytime Day Return (SDR). Adjusted for inflation that would be £10.43 or £12.20 respectively. Whilst rail fares have generally increased a little above the rate of inflation, that doesn't fully account for the increase; it will no doubt have been increased above inflation of the 'fares basket'/'flex' policy that train companies were permitted to use in the earlier years of privatisation (see this House of Commons briefing paper).
Fares from Chester to Alsager - which is 6 miles further - are in fact cheaper, at £14 for a CDR and £14.30 for an SDR. These are set by East Midlands Railway, whose predecessors have tended to adopt a more reasonable pricing policy to these kinds of fares. If making a day trip at times when that restriction code AW permits (NB this has evening restrictions too), a ticket from Chester to Shrewsbury is also cheaper as there is a £12.70 CDR; this is valid via Crewe.
I imagine one reason why the fare is so high is that the train is quicker than driving - approx 20 mins vs 45 mins (possibly more with traffic) - since the road connections between Crewe and Chester aren't particularly fast, whereas the railway takes a fairly direct path and is mostly 90mph.
I imagine TfW's predecessor, Arriva Trains Wales, are the 'guilty party' since around the time of BR's privatisation (September 1996) the fares were £5.30 for an Off-Peak Day Return (CDR) or £6.20 for an Anytime Day Return (SDR). Adjusted for inflation that would be £10.43 or £12.20 respectively. Whilst rail fares have generally increased a little above the rate of inflation, that doesn't fully account for the increase; it will no doubt have been increased above inflation of the 'fares basket'/'flex' policy that train companies were permitted to use in the earlier years of privatisation (see this House of Commons briefing paper).
Fares from Chester to Alsager - which is 6 miles further - are in fact cheaper, at £14 for a CDR and £14.30 for an SDR. These are set by East Midlands Railway, whose predecessors have tended to adopt a more reasonable pricing policy to these kinds of fares. If making a day trip at times when that restriction code AW permits (NB this has evening restrictions too), a ticket from Chester to Shrewsbury is also cheaper as there is a £12.70 CDR; this is valid via Crewe.
Gonna be travelling to Crewe on the Friday and back from Crewe on the Saturday so a one month return is important. I did look at Shrewsbury but last time I bought a Shrewsbury ticket I got told off by the inspector saying it was only valid going straight from Chester and not via Crewe which left me scratching my head, but I didn't get a penalty fare rather just a verbal warning so all good there.
Chester to Shrewsbury “any permitted” tickets are valid via Crewe.
Maps
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They were wrong; tickets from Chester to Shrewsbury are valid via Crewe and always have been. They would have had absolutely no right to impose any sort of penalty or to charge you a new fare.
Cannot believe they tried to warn me for it. They've always been really dodgy for some reason at Crewe, always with an attitude too!
Spaceship323
Member
Chester is only £24 off peak Day Return from Nuneaton!
I'm afraid that echoes my experience too. Never been allowed through the barriers there with a rejected ticket without it being closely inspected.
Llandudno
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Perhaps use
There is a barrier and usually no staff, you have to wave your ticket at a camera to be let out (or in!) if your ticket doesn’t open the barrier.
Perhaps use the car park exit at Crewe station. This is handy if you want a Greggs, Subway, Starbucks, Tesco Extra or McDonalds rather than the expensive rubbish sold at the station.
There is a barrier and usually no staff, you have to wave your ticket at a camera to be let out (or in!) if your ticket doesn’t open the barrier.
I'd be surprised if certain staff at Crewe weren't making things up, with their reputation.
There are big issues at Crewe station. Unfortunately for Avanti they are, on occasions, picking on solicitors who know their rights. It's costing Avanti a fair bit of money! And yet they still can't control their staff at Crewe (or Euston....)
Maybe one day someone in the company will be able to get their staff to act correctly, but I'm not holding my breath....
Yes, but it's not just Crewe, we have another thread with Coventry staff making up complete rubbish, and another thread with Chorley booking office staff making up nonsense about advance tickets, both in the last couple of days.
It's something which is very common these days - presumably staff aren't trained properly but this doesn't excuse them making things up when they don't know, presumably to accord with their view of how things ought to be rather than how they really are.
I don't personally understand it, I spent a lot of my career not knowing things and I didn't make things up when I didn't know. There is something in the rail industry which encourages this behaviour, I surmise.
EDIT I should add that Wilmslow staff have been the exception to this - if they don't know they say so and, more often than not, are happy to accept what I say as true. Or, at least, act as if they're happy to go and find out.
It's something which is very common these days - presumably staff aren't trained properly but this doesn't excuse them making things up when they don't know, presumably to accord with their view of how things ought to be rather than how they really are.
I don't personally understand it, I spent a lot of my career not knowing things and I didn't make things up when I didn't know. There is something in the rail industry which encourages this behaviour, I surmise.
EDIT I should add that Wilmslow staff have been the exception to this - if they don't know they say so and, more often than not, are happy to accept what I say as true. Or, at least, act as if they're happy to go and find out.
I’ve noticed it’s most Avanti managed stations with these major faults. You’ll never catch a Merseyrail or EMR station with staff so incompetent it’s embarrassing for Avanti to be so poor at this. You’d think managing such a busy main line with fares costing an arm and a leg they’d have the funds and the desire to serve good customer service but that really is asking for the world from them.
I’ve had similar treatment at Stockport too telling me my Cheshire day ranger isn’t valid for Stockport because I alighted from an Avanti train and I promptly had to shut them down and show them otherwise until they admitted their mistake in a more than backhanded tone and an attitude I’d never have on the payroll.
Llandudno
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Why do Avanti provide barriers and barrier staff at Crewe but don’t bother at Wigan NW, Warrington BQ, Preston, Lancaster, Penrith and Liverpool Lime Street?
Especially as I would have thought all the above mentioned stations (bar Penrith) have more passengers entering and exiting the station than Crewe?
Especially as I would have thought all the above mentioned stations (bar Penrith) have more passengers entering and exiting the station than Crewe?
All Line Rover
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Didn't Warrington BQ have ticket barriers for a while? At least under Virgin?
Not sure if they had barriers but staff would stand at the exit and scan your ticket, with an attitude too.
mangyiscute
Established Member
I can't speak for EMR, but there are a lot of complaints about merseyrail where because they don't have ticket machines at most stations, you have to go to the ticket office to buy a ticket, and the staff there have been known to just refuse to issue perfectly valid tickets, even going as far as to say the only ticket they can sell is a return to liverpool and that's it.
I do however agree that there are a lot of complaints about avanti gateline staff when compared to most other tocs, and obviously euston is notorious.
Merseyrail ticket offices are aren't the best with their knowledge and best bet is just to use them for domestic (Merseyrail) tickets rather anything else, big one is when I asked for a saveaway on a Metro Card and I get given a day saver on a paper ticket and I have to buy it again..
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