For the last couple of years I’ve travelled from either Tiverton / Exeter to Paddington on a Monday, returning on Wednesday.
The total cost for 2 single, advanced tickets has been around £75-£80.
In recent weeks the newly available tickets are practically £50 - £60 more for the same journey.
Have advanced fares been abolished?!
Yes, I am in exactly the same boat. I've commuted from Exeter SD to London Paddington for the last 4 years, weekly always on 6.39am up and return afternoon Tuesday after 4pm. I have always been able to get the lower base rate regular 2 x advances singles (£36.50 each way) over this period. Now as of mid June it has gone to £72 one way (£136 return) which has thrown my budgeting and work pattern way out.
I have spoken to about 4 different GWR staff now, and the answer they give is that they either don't know why or that they don't have to guarantee the advances fares (as per above) at that rate so hard luck. The ticket office staff I first spoke to said "maybe there is racing at Newbury" which was pretty unhelpful and high demand for tickets for summer. It is really disappointing, as my experience with these early services is there is plenty of availability even in Summer and I always book as soon as the fares are released on the booking system so struggling to understand the demand point for that far in advance.
The only fares at that decent starting price (£36.50) on the Monday are around 17:00 and 20:00 which aren't exactly commuter friendly and the returns from Paddington are now all starting around £60-£70 plus...
This was the reply from GWR when I raised online last week:
"As tickets are tiered depending on the forecasted availability on the train, there may not be tickets released at all at the £36.50 level. The prices themselves are constantly changing and their availability at any given price will also fluctuate. There is no guaranteed tier of prices for the Advance tickets that will be released and over the course of the year there may be none at all released for specific tiers based on the matrix used even if prices have appeared this way in the past. We do understand that any change in pricing can have a big impact and that you are stating that the train tends to get busier at Reading as opposed to Exeter where you board. I have made sure to report your comments on the fairness to our loyal weekly customers, the boarding trends and the impact on your finances and commute to the Fares teams, so they are aware of the issues you have raised and can use this in a continuous effort to improve how we can serve our customers."
I am going to have to move over to the long train with SWR to Waterloo and pray they don't push up their advance prices in the same way!
Bit silly, as I spend thousands with GWR annually on these trains as it is. Doubling the most advances fares means I simply won't travel with them anymore.
