I was playing around with ticket prices from Worcester a few months ago, looking for places to visit.
There is one particular station on the rail network which I can get to from Worcester by either changing at Smethwick Galton Bridge or Birmingham New Street. (The journey time is almost identical, to within a couple of minutes, by changing at either station).
An off-peak day return from Worcester to this particular station is approximately 15 to 20% less then the same ticket from Worcester to either Smethwick Galton Bridge or Birmingham New Street.
My first question is - why does this anomaly exist? It's just this one particular station, I'm sure (I tried playing around with prices of tickets to loads of stations and it's just that one.) Could it be that they forgot to raise the price for a few years with just that one station? Or some other reason?
So, I'm probably going to buy a return to this station, change at New Street, cut my journey short there and save £1.50 on my trip to Birmingham. National Rail enquiries says it's a valid route and I know I can break my journey on an off-peak day return, so I'm definitely allowed to do this. But for some reason I feel a bit guilty that I'm doing something wrong, even though I know I'm not. Or, I'm thinking that somebody is going to realise what I'm doing and say I should be paying the higher price like everbody else.
What does everybody think? If anomolies like this exist, is it acceptable to save money in this way?
There is one particular station on the rail network which I can get to from Worcester by either changing at Smethwick Galton Bridge or Birmingham New Street. (The journey time is almost identical, to within a couple of minutes, by changing at either station).
An off-peak day return from Worcester to this particular station is approximately 15 to 20% less then the same ticket from Worcester to either Smethwick Galton Bridge or Birmingham New Street.
My first question is - why does this anomaly exist? It's just this one particular station, I'm sure (I tried playing around with prices of tickets to loads of stations and it's just that one.) Could it be that they forgot to raise the price for a few years with just that one station? Or some other reason?
So, I'm probably going to buy a return to this station, change at New Street, cut my journey short there and save £1.50 on my trip to Birmingham. National Rail enquiries says it's a valid route and I know I can break my journey on an off-peak day return, so I'm definitely allowed to do this. But for some reason I feel a bit guilty that I'm doing something wrong, even though I know I'm not. Or, I'm thinking that somebody is going to realise what I'm doing and say I should be paying the higher price like everbody else.
What does everybody think? If anomolies like this exist, is it acceptable to save money in this way?
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