• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Huddersfield to London

Status
Not open for further replies.

158801

Member
Joined
26 Sep 2011
Messages
304
From Huddersfield to London there are two routes :

Any Permitted &

Via Manchester

My interpretation of the routing guide shows that an Any Permitted ticket is valid via Manchester (maps GM+MA) so why have a seperate route (that is more expensive) for travel via Manchester ?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

sonic2009

Established Member
Joined
19 Jan 2010
Messages
4,915
Location
Crewe
Which ticket are you looking at?

The OFF PEAK R Huddersfield - London Terminals ROUTE VIA MANCHESTER is cheaper than the Any Permitted fare.

The SUPER OFF PEAK R Huddersfield - London Terminals ANY PERMITTED is the same price as the OFF PEAK R via Manchester.
 

All Line Rover

Established Member
Joined
17 Feb 2011
Messages
5,221
A Huddersfield to London "Any Permitted" ticket is valid via any mapped route. This includes via Manchester. The fact that a higher priced "route Manchester" fare exists does not affect this validity.
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
so why have a seperate route (that is more expensive) for travel via Manchester ?
Well, why not? ;) Pricing managers don't look at every flow, and they don't all understand the Routeing Guide or NRCoC. The pricing manager may be unaware of the fact that, for some ticket types, Rte: via Manchester is more expensive, or alternatively may incorrectly believe that it is not a permitted route for an Any Permitted route ticket.

What you almost certainly find, if you look far enough back, the via Manchester fare will have been cheaper and Virgin probably just increased their Anytime fares across the board without really analysing the impact over a period of many years.

In fact, a few years ago, wasn't Manchester to London more expensive than Edinburgh/Glasgow to London, until it was pointed out on here?
 

calc7

Established Member
Joined
8 Aug 2011
Messages
2,097
It is also one of the many ways to pay less than the Greater Manchester "fares bubble" Standard/First Anytime fares.
 

All Line Rover

Established Member
Joined
17 Feb 2011
Messages
5,221
Well, why not? ;) Pricing managers don't look at every flow, and they don't all understand the Routeing Guide or NRCoC. The pricing manager may be unaware of the fact that, for some ticket types, Rte: via Manchester is more expensive, or alternatively may incorrectly believe that it is not a permitted route for an Any Permitted route ticket.

What you almost certainly find, if you look far enough back, the via Manchester fare will have been cheaper and Virgin probably just increased their Anytime fares across the board without really analysing the impact over a period of many years.

Evidently Virgin's pricing manager is very dumb. Virgin haven't contested some other fares priced by CrossCountry, which although they don't appear to be valid via London, are - and they make for some cheap (ish) Standard Anytime and First Off-Peak fares.

In fact, a few years ago, wasn't Manchester to London more expensive than Edinburgh/Glasgow to London, until it was pointed out on here?

It wouldn't surprise me. Manchester to London is Virgin's flagship route, and clearly the most profitable considering the extortionate fares they are able to charge. Let's just hope that Virgin, or the ensuing WCML franchise holder, don't get any the wiser about these beneficial oddities. ;)
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
Virgin haven't contested some other fares priced by CrossCountry...
Well, you obviously know more than me then as I am unaware as to what has been contested, but I do not see how Virgin can do anything about those flows anyway. Even if Virgin were to gain control over the flows, the routes are protected and in the case of SVRs so are the fares!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top