Cross-Glasgow Journeys charged at a premium?

[DanTrain]

Hi,

Is there a reason why journeys across Glasgow are so ridiculously expensive when booked direct. For example, a Fort William to Carlisle advance for 1 adult costs £89 (unless you stay overnight in Glasgow, in which case £19!). However, if you book Fort William to Glasgow then Glasgow to Carlisle, it's £24. The same is true with other journeys off the West Highland line. This seems bizzarre and a lot of money for a bus transfer between Queen Street and Central, is there a reason why this discrepancy exists?

 

[sonic2009]

I cannot see the £89 advance ticket in either Standard or First. The difference would be that Virgin set the Fort William - Carlisle through ticket, and maybe that only a certain number of tickets are released into each fare category.

If you split the ticket, then again Scotrail price the fares between Fort William and Glasgow, Glasgow - Carlisle is set by Virgin, it's all down to demand and allocations i think personally.

 

[yorkie]

I think the bus would be free if you use a combination of tickets; Scotrail say "it's free when you have a valid train ticket". It's not a case of charging a premium for the bus. There is no need to transfer between Queen Street and Central anyway as you could go via Partick and/or change at Dalmuir, depending on the journey.

It's just a general policy of long distance rail fares being charged more than shorter distance fares. The revenue generated from the lucrative longer distance market is worth too much to the rail industry for them to reduce the through fare.

In Scotland some money was made available to reduce overpriced fares, but this didn't extend to journeys beyond the border and the money ran out after a year or two.

Savvy passengers will purchase a combination of fares (there are websites that calculate this automatically, so anyone can do it, no specialist knowledge is required) while the rail industry is happy to charge a premium to those who are prepared to pay it.

 

[433N]

I don't know why this is but guess that it is nothing to do with Virgin being in the picture.

Even with just Scotrail, if I want to do Edinburgh - Gourock it is 23.60 for an OPDR.
If I do Edinburgh - Glasgow and then Glasgow - Gourock then it is 13.30 + 7.90 = 21.20 OPDR.

The only way I've rationalised this is something to do with a historical quirk and SPT ... but it is ridic.

(On Edit : edited me numbers a bit cos I got it wrong).

 

[DanTrain]

I cannot see the £89 advance ticket in either Standard or First. The difference would be that Virgin set the Fort William - Carlisle through ticket, and maybe that only a certain number of tickets are released into each fare category.

If you split the ticket, then again Scotrail price the fares between Fort William and Glasgow, Glasgow - Carlisle is set by Virgin, it's all down to demand and allocations i think personally.

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/FTW/CAR/140619/0830/dep

This is the £89 through ticket, you can see that a sleeper fare is only £19 when the system is forced to split it for whatever reason.

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/FTW/Glasgow/140619/0830/dep#outwardJump
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/Glasgow/CAR/140619/1130/dep

This will do it for £30, or @yorkie is correct that Trainsplit will od it for £26.60, but then add on their share of £8, making them more expensive than splitting it yourself (but I guess this isn't surprising).

 

[47271]

In general Scotrail combined with other operator fares are eye wateringly expensive Anytimes, unless you're very lucky and get in early enough to snap up the tiny handful of through Advances available.

I travel out from Kingussie on Scotrail via both East and West Coast routes most weeks for work. I always give a through Advance a quick glance but 97% of the time (ok, I don't really know if that's the stat!) I split at Glasgow or Edinburgh and the cost is fine. It's probably a year since I got a through ticket worth buying, it really is that rare.