HS1 fares: a Christmas quiz

[A60K]

Below I present four railway stations in alphabetical order and four fares in ascending value order. The fares are for a CDR to Canterbury, valid on HS1, from one of the four listed stations. All fares are set by SouthEastern as shown in NFM05.

Using only your powers of logic and knowledge of rail pricing principles, can you match the correct fare to the correct origin station?

Kentish Town
London St Pancras
Luton
Stratford International

24.70
26.00
27.80
28.50

 

[DJ737]

Hi there

Luton 28.50
Kentish Town 27.80
St Pancras 26.00
Stratford 24.70

I'm probably totally wrong although I think I have listed the obvious. 8)

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia

All transport free on xmas day here.

 

[Mike395]

OK heres my guess....

Kentish Town £24.70
Luton £26.00
St Pancras £27.80
Stratford £28.50

(Fairly sure on the first one, not so sure on the rest)

 

[button_boxer]

All transport free on xmas day here.

Strictly speaking all the public transport that runs on christmas day round here is free too...

 

[yorkie]

Using the train companies' logic and using their principles, Luton & Kentish Town will both be cheaper than St Pancras. Stratford is less likely to be cheaper than St Pancras but anything is possible in railway ticketing.

I did look in Avantix to check but the fares appear to differ to what you've quoted?

 

[bnsf734]

Logic would say that Luton would be the most expensive ticket.....

But we all know how far logic goes in the rail ticketing minefield.

So I have just spent a few minutes on the London Midland site for January and got:

24.70 Luton
28.50 Kentish Town
27.80 Stratford

LM site gives
27.90 St Pancras

So not sure where the 26.00 fare is from but I'll say St Pancras

Makes a Luton Canterbury Ticket good value though!!

Calv (who should really be working on Xmas eve instead of writing this!!)

Merry Christmas all

 

[A60K]

Calv wins the prize! Times is 'ard though, so you'll have to settle for the knowledge of how to get to Canterbury cheaply

Yorkie: I checked the fares again on Avantix and they are showing as Calv's answers with the travel date set to 02/02/10. Which ones are appearing differently for you?

The LM wesbite cost for St Pancras is interesting - £27.90 appears to be the cost solely for the "SE Promotion" ticket (code SPO).

On NFM05 London Terminals to Canterbury Stations CDR, Plus High Speed, is shown as £26.00 for a date after the fares change. But a CDS for the same journey (i.e. a single instead of a return, with the same restrictions, is £27.90 - uh?

Further, there are actually return fares FROM London Intl(CIV) to Canterbury Stns - e.g. a Euro High Saver Return at £26.10. I didn't think a return was possible with the origin being London International, only with the destination?

I know we had the long debate about the validity of starting short a couple of weeks back, and I've no intention of reopening that in this season of goodwill!

It strikes me though, that if the rail companies didn't want people to start short, their first course of action should be to ensure that fares are based on some sort of logic. When you have a fares like these for journeys along the same route between Luton and Canterbury, it's no wonder that such a debate arises.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all

 

[philjo]

Using NFM05 CD, the £24.70 fare also applies for CDR to Canterbury Stations from any of the GN route stations from Potters Bar up to Welwyn North.
If you try Hadley Wood (or other GN stations in the travelcard zones), the fare goes up to £29.40!
I selected a travel date of Saturday 09/01/10.
The "Any permitted" fares are set by SET.
the "not valid on HS1" fares are set by FCC & are now slightly lower than "any permitted" (under the NFM04 they were exactly the same).

 

[yorkie]

Luton to Canterbury is indeed £24.70 CDR. But Canterbury to Luton is £29.80.

 

[Death]

Knowing NR and the way they set the fares, here's what I'm thinking the fares'll be after the 5th Jan:

• Kentish Town --> Canterbury: £97.99
• London St Pancras --> Canterbury: £97.99
• Luton --> Canterbury: £97.99
• Stratford International --> Canterbury: £97.99

...Of course, those fares are only available with a half-rate PRIV. Ye don't want to know what I'd get chinged on those with my 33% Railcard discount... hock::roll: