Introducing RailUK Tickets - support the forum when booking your rail tickets!

[yorkie]

I've just tried to make a test booking through Trainsplit and it booked Coach D, Seats 18 & 19 from Sheffield to Birmingham, at which point Trainsplit expects my elderly parents to get up and fight their way through the disembarking passengers to move to Coach C, seats 51 and 52 for the rest of the journey to Bristol Parkway...

My understanding is that it is the operators who is doing that, not the retailer. The retailer would issue it as the same if it was possible. Have you tried to change the reservations of one of the tickets? Sometimes that works but if not, someone at Raileasy can make a through reservation for you, or you can use the GWR website.

As for limiting splits your options are to either book it as separate journeys, each with splits off, or print out the e-tickets.

Only a couple of days ago I printed tickets for three family members to go between York / Cornwall (three return journeys in different directions); each booking was either seven or eight splits. When I printed the PDF, I chose multiple and chose 4 pages per A4 side and double sided. Each passenger then has one A4 piece of paper. They also all have the PDFs on their devices too (one PDF file per passenger and they each have each others copies too).

My family member prefer this to paper tickets as they have printouts and an electronic backup but that's a topic for another thread. The point is the forums site does support both and there are workarounds to limit the number of tickets if you want to do that.

 

[K.o.R]

I hold a Network Railcard and my mother holds a Senior Railcard, and I can't use them on this system if we're both travelling together as it only lets you pick one railcard that must apply to all passengers. I don't really want to do the whole palaver twice.

 

[Haywain]

I hold a Network Railcard and my mother holds a Senior Railcard, and I can't use them on this system if we're both travelling together as it only lets you pick one railcard that must apply to all passengers. I don't really want to do the whole palaver twice.

A Network Railcard can be applied for two (and up to 4) people travelling together.

 

[K.o.R]

True, but not to Manchester.

 

[Haywain]

True, but not to Manchester.

OK, but not much use for one to Manchester either.

 

[K.o.R]

No, but I would be travelling with someone who does have a valid railcard. I would either have to do the whole process once with and once without, or buy a Two Together card (which I probably will anyway, as the saving is worth the extra faff (and a TT railcard most definitely is a faff to obtain, not one but two photos required)).

It feels like having two passengers is some kind of bizarre edge case, and having one or three (thus Groupsave) is far easier.

 

[Adam Williams]

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. A limitation of the journey planner we use is that it does not support multiple railcards in one search for split ticketing, so in order that we offer you the best value tickets we unfortunately have to limit you to one railcard per search. This is something we know is a pain point for a lot of our customers. Our suppliers are aware of this limitation and are working, long-term, to remove it. In the meantime as a workaround, you can split your journey into two separate bookings for the same train services but note that there is a risk of the price changing if you wait a while between bookings and you're e.g. booking Advance tickets, so it's best to book one after the other.

 

[W-on-Sea]

I thing I have found recently is that on proposed return journeys involving a split in London (crossing between terminals by tube), I will be offered a ticket from my starting station (one of a few options, all on GWR) to London Zone 1, rather than the (slightly cheaper) One Day Travelcard for the first part of the journey , despite the latter being the better option. With the Network Railcard the difference is rather less than a pound, but without it is a bit more substantial.

 

[Miken]

Hello, I have a question re ticket availability on Avanti. Searching for Wigan North Western to Euston on Monday 14th August, Senior Railcard, 1st class departing trains from 0545 onwards. Whilst the first two departures from Wigan tickets/fares are displayed, subsequent offering on this site seems to be restricted to the slow 31 minutes past the hour direct services and is not displaying the faster 12 minutes past the hour (e.g. 0712). Options changing at Crewe are not being shown. I have looked at the Avanti ticket site and the faster services are being displayed. I prefer to use this website wherever I can (all my bookings in one place and you have saved me £££ since I switched) is there any way I can get these faster services to display/be booked.

 

[SickyNicky]

Hello, I have a question re ticket availability on Avanti. Searching for Wigan North Western to Euston on Monday 14th August, Senior Railcard, 1st class departing trains from 0545 onwards. Whilst the first two departures from Wigan tickets/fares are displayed, subsequent offering on this site seems to be restricted to the slow 31 minutes past the hour direct services and is not displaying the faster 12 minutes past the hour (e.g. 0712). Options changing at Crewe are not being shown. I have looked at the Avanti ticket site and the faster services are being displayed. I prefer to use this website wherever I can (all my bookings in one place and you have saved me £££ since I switched) is there any way I can get these faster services to display/be booked.

Towards the top right are three buttons - "Best value", "Fastest" and "Cheapest". The default is "Best value" which attempts to balance the price against the journey time. If you select "Fastest" you'll get the fast journeys no matter how much more expensive they are. Likewise, with the "Cheapest" button, it will show the cheapest option no matter how long the journey takes.

Fast journeys on this route are vastly more expensive than the slower ones.

 

[yorkie]

Yep, just to confirm the 0712 is £132.65 in 'Fast' mode.

 

[Miken]

Yep, just to confirm the 0712 is £132.65 in 'Fast' mode.

Thanks both, that's really helpful - as I travel on business speed not price is the essential so this works well for me.

 

[Snow1964]

No, but I would be travelling with someone who does have a valid railcard. I would either have to do the whole process once with and once without, or buy a Two Together card (which I probably will anyway, as the saving is worth the extra faff (and a TT railcard most definitely is a faff to obtain, not one but two photos required)).

It feels like having two passengers is some kind of bizarre edge case, and having one or three (thus Groupsave) is far easier.

The biggest problem with inability to do multiple types of railcard ticket is it doesn't group them travelling together, even if add them to basket as quick as possible, and pay as one transaction.

I did this recently, needed to add a 16 year old railcard, which was fine typing in destinations and times again. But it then split that person into a separate coach, rather than grouping everyone together. Helpful people on here subsequently manually moved the separated person (thank you), but it would have been nice had this common sense check been automated.

 

[Adam Williams]

I did this recently, needed to add a 16 year old railcard, which was fine typing in destinations and times again. But it then split that person into a separate coach, rather than grouping everyone together. Helpful people on here subsequently manually moved the separated person (thank you), but it would have been nice had this common sense check been automated.

The suggestion is to try and use the Seat Selector under these circumstances

 

[microrich]

We're delighted to announce the launch of RailUK Tickets! This is our new RailUK branded ticketing engine that supports the forum whenever you book a ticket, at no extra cost compared to using Trainsplit (who are powering the booking engine) directly.

Unlike the previous affiliate site we used a few years back, we've been able to much more extensively tailor the colour scheme of the site to the forum colours (and it looks very smart in its dark red guise in my opinion!) and the UI is much improved. Any feedback is appreciated, either on the booking engine functionality (which we'll pass onto Trainsplit) or the look and feel - just reply to this thread.

Firstly, loving the useability and flexibility of the railforums/trainsplit ticketing platform!

I would like to query the "Break of Journey" information being given on this platform, which I've noticed seems to be incomplete on a number of journeys I've tried to book recently.

For example, I'm trying to book a super off-peak day return from London St Pancras to Whitstable. My understanding is that a break of journey is allowed on both the outward and return legs (and indeed, if I attempt to book this on on the Southern website for example, it explicitly states this is allowed). However, on the railforums (trainsplit) site, it states:

Break of Journey:​

Outbound:
Break of journey is permitted unless otherwise indicated by a restriction shown against the ticket's Restriction Code.

But then is "silent" as to whether a BoJ is allowed on the return leg, which is disconcerting - and could be interpreted as meaning this isn't allowed (I attach a screenshot of what is shown for this journey on the railforums/trainsplit site). I have noticed this for many similar journeys which I have tried to book.

Can anyone clarify?

 

[OscarH]

Firstly, loving the useability and flexibility of the railforums/trainsplit ticketing platform!

I would like to query the "Break of Journey" information being given on this platform, which I've noticed seems to be incomplete on a number of journeys I've tried to book recently.

For example, I'm trying to book a super off-peak day return from London St Pancras to Whitstable. My understanding is that a break of journey is allowed on both the outward and return legs (and indeed, if I attempt to book this on on the Southern website for example, it explicitly states this is allowed). However, on the railforums (trainsplit) site, it states:

Break of Journey:​

Outbound:
Break of journey is permitted unless otherwise indicated by a restriction shown against the ticket's Restriction Code.

But then is "silent" as to whether a BoJ is allowed on the return leg, which is disconcerting - and could be interpreted as meaning this isn't allowed (I attach a screenshot of what is shown for this journey on the railforums/trainsplit site). I have noticed this for many similar journeys which I have tried to book.

Can anyone clarify?

The text on these pop-ups comes directly from National Rail Enquiries who expose this for us. Unfortunately the data quality is poor and inconsistent like this.

I'm fairly confident in saying that if it's silent about the return half in the ticket section it's allowed unless the restriction says its forbidden. I certainly would expect it to be allowed on a super off peak return at the ticket level

 

[MrJeeves]

Looking at the ticket on BRFares, there seems to be no BoJ restrictions imposed on a St Pancras to Whitstable Super Off-peak return, both via HS1 and not via HS1.

I tend to go by the rule of "if it doesn't say I can't, I'll assume that I can" (within reason and logic, of course).

 

[railfan99]

Some time ago, I bought a very cheap ticket through the site just to see how it worked, and to support this excellent forum. Being a distance away, I couldn't use the ticket.

If a few of us do this it helps the site and increases rail patronage.

Very good that 'the default will always be zero'. Responsible marketing.

 

[richw]

I've just tried to make a test booking through Trainsplit and it booked Coach D, Seats 18 & 19 from Sheffield to Birmingham, at which point Trainsplit expects my elderly parents to get up and fight their way through the disembarking passengers to move to Coach C, seats 51 and 52 for the rest of the journey to Bristol Parkway.

On the return leg between Swansea and Bristol Parkway they have to change seats at Newport and Trainsplit won't even show what seats they have reserved from Bristol Parlway to Sheffield.

Sorry but a booking site that "tries to allocate you the same seat throughout your journey" isn't good enough; for a long distance journey I want one that absolutely 100% guarantees the same seat throughout the journey. If Trainsplit can't do that then regrettably I'll have to book elsewhere, even if that means paying a little over the odds.

It is possible to make a secondary reservation through GWRs website in my account. Select the origin and destination as if you’ve got a through ticket. I’ve done it a couple of times now. This should be possible through telephone support too or a ticket office. GWRs website doesn’t verify you actually have a ticket when reserving seats through their my account section.

 

[MrJeeves]

Some time ago, I bought a very cheap ticket through the site just to see how it worked, and to support this excellent forum. Being a distance away, I couldn't use the ticket.

If a few of us do this it helps the site and increases rail patronage.

Very good that 'the default will always be zero'. Responsible marketing.

If you simply want to support the forum but don't need to travel, there are better ways to do this.

I'm pretty sure there's now a donation field at checkout for the forums ticketing site, so you could buy a cheap ticket preferably fulfilled to e-ticket (or one actually useful to you!) and an additional donation if you desired.

 

[megabusser]

Used the forum site to book for the first time the other day - worked well except changing seat reservations on the same train. On the way back, I booked a seat only reservation via GWR, which worked perfectly.

One feature request - could the booking confirmation email and/or .ics calendar file provide a link to the service(s) on RealTimeTrains? Would be a really neat feature if possible!

 

[cb a1]

Love the split ticketing offering here and have used it successfully for all my summer travels .

I'm wondering if there's a way for those who are super-flexible with their travel, to find really good deals? I live in Scotland and my now retired sister lives in Somerset. Would love for her to visit and I think the £120 ish return fare (Taunton to Perth with Senior railcard) I get choosing random dates is pretty good. However, it's still a little steep for her. Other than spending a lot of time trying different dates and times is there a better way?
Is it random luck to find a really cheap fare or is there a function I've not found?
Apologies if this has been asked before. Tried a search but didn't find any obvious answer.

 

[Adam Williams]

Other than spending a lot of time trying different dates and times is there a better way?

We've asked RDG to provide us with a better way to identify undersold inventory across larger time periods (and more generally, distributing availability information to retailers in bulk in realtime), but to date they've not been able to commit to delivering any such functionality.

 

[AgeoftheTrain7]

Other than spending a lot of time trying different dates and times is there a better way?

I suppose that the Avanti Superfare (https://www.avantisuperfare.co.uk) could be an option potentially, especially if you're very flexible on timings?

 

[Buzby]

Can the RailUKs forum service also provide access to Rover Tickets (or is it just ticket-splitting?). I hate using the primary TOC site if RailUK can benefit - even if the costs remain broadly the same!

 

[Benjwri]

We've asked RDG to provide us with a better way to identify undersold inventory across larger time periods (and more generally, distributing availability information to retailers in bulk in realtime), but to date they've not been able to commit to delivering any such functionality.

How do LNER manage it? They have a calendar of cheapest fares, albeit only on their routes. Trainline also show the cheapest fare for the day for the 7 days around your search date.

 

[yorkie]

How do LNER manage it? They have a calendar of cheapest fares, albeit only on their routes.

That may be some custom thing they have done just for themselves. They have a custom seat map thing going on, where the version available to other retailers is in reverse.

 

[alistairlees]

How do LNER manage it? They have a calendar of cheapest fares, albeit only on their routes. Trainline also show the cheapest fare for the day for the 7 days around your search date.

Cacheing of user requests

 

[Adam Williams]

Trainline also show the cheapest fare for the day for the 7 days around your search date.

My understanding is that Trainline build and maintain their own cache. They benefit from massive search volumes, so it's not too bad (and can be kept up-to-date-ish as visitors search for fares). But, it's not perfect - and there are routes where it just won't work properly at all or just gives you a wrong/misleading fare amount:

View attachment Kooha-2023-08-16-16-53-22.mp4
A screencast showing Trainline suggesting fares start from £29 when there is an £8 Advance Single available.

I recorded this video thrice and it still didn't invalidate the incorrect fare amount!

My worry with this implementation is that it suggests to users that there aren't cheap fares available when there actually might be. It's almost better not to offer anything at all, in some ways.

 

[yorkie]

Also how would that work for a journey such as Matlock to Formby? You can do this with only two changes, but that's slow. The quickest route is convoluted and can be expensive, wheras the cheapest route isn't the fastest. We offer fares at a discount of over 60% compared to what TOCs such as LNER want to charge customers (around £26 vs £67), but there are a lot of calculations involved to figure out those fares. It just isn't practicable to analyse all the fares on all possible itineraries (the suitableness of which would be subjective depending on the customer) for multiple days into the future, so some compromises would need to be taken.