Leeds to Swansea TPE/ATW advance tickets

[Grizzly]

Hello everyone,

I've posted before about the difficulty in obtaining through advance tickets between Yorkshire and South Wales via Transpennine and Arriva Trains Wales, and received some useful advice, so hope someone will be able to help again.

Are these fares still available, or have they been discontinued? I have tried using several different booking sites. This is only a problem after the timetable change on 20th May, so I wonder whether the problem is related to the best connections involving the revised service between Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly via Manchester Victoria?

I think I found one example where you could get the through advance which used a train taking the route avoiding Manchester Victoria, but it seemed to be an exception.

Split advances are possible, but it's often more expensive in this case.

I'd be grateful for any advice or tips.

cheers,
Grizzly

 

[pdq]

Just come back from a few days in Tenby. The split at Huddersfield saves loads, and I've rarely found a combination of advances in both directions that gives a big enough saving over the saver return to be worthwhile.
Thst ticket gives the option of travel on GWR + XC between Swansea and Manchester which can be useful if ATW have any issues.

 

[John @ home]

When I made a Leeds - Swansea return journey in April, I found that a combination of the following flexible Off-Peak Returns was cheaper than using the available Advance tickets:

• Off-Peak Return Leeds - Stockport £24.30 (£16.05 if you have a Railcard)
• Off-Peak Return Stockport - Shrewsbury route not via Wolverhampton £26.30 (£17.35 Railcard)
• Off-Peak Return Shrewsbury - Swansea. This is available as route via Newport £65.20 (£43.05 Railcard) or route via Llandovery £50.00 (£33.00 Railcard)

This combination gives a Leeds - Swansea return journey for between £100.60 (£66.40 Railcard) and £115.80 (£76.45 Railcard), saving at least 9% on the flexible £125.10 (£82.55 Railcard) Leeds - Swansea via Shrewsbury return.

For my journey, I chose to travel out via Newport and to return via Llandovery. To do this, I bought the cheaper via Llandovery ticket, together with a £7.60 (£5.05 Railcard) excess fare to travel on the outward leg only via Newport. This excess is calculated as half the difference in fares.

 

[Grizzly]

Just come back from a few days in Tenby. The split at Huddersfield saves loads, and I've rarely found a combination of advances in both directions that gives a big enough saving over the saver return to be worthwhile.
Thst ticket gives the option of travel on GWR + XC between Swansea and Manchester which can be useful if ATW have any issues.

Thanks pdq. That looks like a walk-up fare of £97.60. It looks like the same fare from Mirfield, which I could use in combination with a West Yorks M-card zones 1-3 I usually have for commuting.
I've usually been able to get a fair bit cheaper than that with advances booking well in advance. Pretty good that you can get all the way to Tenby for the same fare.

 

[Grizzly]

When I made a Leeds - Swansea return journey in April, I found that a combination of the following flexible Off-Peak Returns was cheaper than using the available Advance tickets:

• Off-Peak Return Leeds - Stockport £24.30 (£16.05 if you have a Railcard)
• Off-Peak Return Stockport - Shrewsbury route not via Wolverhampton £26.30 (£17.35 Railcard)
• Off-Peak Return Shrewsbury - Swansea. This is available as route via Newport £65.20 (£43.05 Railcard) or route via Llandovery £50.00 (£33.00 Railcard)

This combination gives a Leeds - Swansea return journey for between £100.60 (£66.40 Railcard) and £115.80 (£76.45 Railcard), saving at least 9% on the flexible £125.10 (£82.55 Railcard) Leeds - Swansea via Shrewsbury return.

For my journey, I chose to travel out via Newport and to return via Llandovery. To do this, I bought the cheaper via Llandovery ticket, together with a £7.60 (£5.05 Railcard) excess fare to travel on the outward leg only via Newport. This excess is calculated as half the difference in fares.

Thanks John @ home, that's another potentially useful option.

The last time I made this journey, I was able to get Advances for £30 (no railcard) in each direction, but unless I can find a way to book the through Advances it will be more expensive, maybe making flexible tickets the best option.

 

[Starmill]

The tickets you are after, route ATW GWR NT & TPE are still in the fares data after 20th May. Cheapest tickets are £30. You will need all of the legs of your journey to be open for reservation at the same time in order to buy one. You don't seem to have told us what dates you're after for this though so we can't look that up.

 

[Grizzly]

The tickets you are after, route ATW GWR NT & TPE are still in the fares data after 20th May. Cheapest tickets are £30. You will need all of the legs of your journey to be open for reservation at the same time in order to buy one. You don't seem to have told us what dates you're after for this though so we can't look that up.

Thanks, happy to give more details. I was looking at travelling on Friday 22nd June, returning on Sunday 24th June. When I looked last night there did not seem to be any ATW Advance tickets (yet) available on the Sunday. For the outward journey, however, both legs do appear to be open, but I can't find any through Advances, e.g. on the 0614 from Leeds, connecting to the 0730 from Manchester Piccadilly.