There is something very suspicious going on with the fares between Lincoln and London Terminals.
The logical options to me are to to change at Nottingham for St Pancras or to change at Retford or walk from Newark Castle to Newark North Gate for King's Cross. One of the direct trains to either would also be very sensible.
Take a look at the Anytime Single fares. There is an Any Permitted one for £72. Sounds good and looks like via Nottingham is a permitted route, and via Newark North Gate is the shortest route. There's a £77.50 ticket routed VIA RETFORD - great, seems fair to allow that and charge a bit more as that might sometimes be quicker and is going further north, and £72 would also undercut the Retford - London fare. But then we have the highest priced option at £81 - EMIDSTRAINS.ONLY. What? A check of the easements reveals perhaps what they were thinking:
So according to ATOC, Lincoln to London via Nottingham is a 'Circuitous Route' ! Even though there are direct trains, a set of Advances sold this way, and a curious walk-up ticket that is not valid unless this route is taken. EMT are charging more for a journey that can only be made on the slightly slower route via Nottingham, and you cannot use any other operator to come back should you purchase a return, or break your journey? WebTIS at least will not allow the use of an Any Permitted ticket via Nottingham, not even on the direct train. But by insisting that in order to use that train (or go via Nottingham at all, a fairly sensible route - and I would argue one of the most sensible if you can't walk across Newark*) you buy an EMIDSTRAINS.ONLY ticket they are both charging more and offering less flexibility for doing so. This seems like a terrible solution to a problem of their own making to me, and sets a rather negative precedent. Posters on here are fond of saying that buying the most expensive ticket is the easy way to make sure you aren't going to end up with problems en route - but if you bought the EMIDSTRAINS.ONLY (Guys, why the '.'?) Anytime Return from Lincoln to London (costing £160.50 rather than £139 for an Any Permitted) and then boarded the direct Virgin Trains East Coast service back there from Kings Cross in the evening you would be charged for another Any Permitted Anytime Single because you are travelling on the wrong TOC and an Excess cannot remove the TOC restriction - even though here it would be a negative excess.
Lastly there is the reason I noticed this issue. WebTIS shows the following message which appears to be an error (?) in the conditions of the EMIDSTRAINS.ONLY. Surely it's valid on any East Midlands Trains train?
Please somebody tell me I have got something wrong here. The way some TOCs are using their own TOC ONLY fares is very very dodgy indeed.
*I recognise that a direct train from Lincoln to Newark North Gate also solves this problem, but there aren't that many of them and they appear to be at very odd times.
The logical options to me are to to change at Nottingham for St Pancras or to change at Retford or walk from Newark Castle to Newark North Gate for King's Cross. One of the direct trains to either would also be very sensible.
Take a look at the Anytime Single fares. There is an Any Permitted one for £72. Sounds good and looks like via Nottingham is a permitted route, and via Newark North Gate is the shortest route. There's a £77.50 ticket routed VIA RETFORD - great, seems fair to allow that and charge a bit more as that might sometimes be quicker and is going further north, and £72 would also undercut the Retford - London fare. But then we have the highest priced option at £81 - EMIDSTRAINS.ONLY. What? A check of the easements reveals perhaps what they were thinking:
Easement 700386 said:
So according to ATOC, Lincoln to London via Nottingham is a 'Circuitous Route' ! Even though there are direct trains, a set of Advances sold this way, and a curious walk-up ticket that is not valid unless this route is taken. EMT are charging more for a journey that can only be made on the slightly slower route via Nottingham, and you cannot use any other operator to come back should you purchase a return, or break your journey? WebTIS at least will not allow the use of an Any Permitted ticket via Nottingham, not even on the direct train. But by insisting that in order to use that train (or go via Nottingham at all, a fairly sensible route - and I would argue one of the most sensible if you can't walk across Newark*) you buy an EMIDSTRAINS.ONLY ticket they are both charging more and offering less flexibility for doing so. This seems like a terrible solution to a problem of their own making to me, and sets a rather negative precedent. Posters on here are fond of saying that buying the most expensive ticket is the easy way to make sure you aren't going to end up with problems en route - but if you bought the EMIDSTRAINS.ONLY (Guys, why the '.'?) Anytime Return from Lincoln to London (costing £160.50 rather than £139 for an Any Permitted) and then boarded the direct Virgin Trains East Coast service back there from Kings Cross in the evening you would be charged for another Any Permitted Anytime Single because you are travelling on the wrong TOC and an Excess cannot remove the TOC restriction - even though here it would be a negative excess.
Lastly there is the reason I noticed this issue. WebTIS shows the following message which appears to be an error (?) in the conditions of the EMIDSTRAINS.ONLY. Surely it's valid on any East Midlands Trains train?
Please somebody tell me I have got something wrong here. The way some TOCs are using their own TOC ONLY fares is very very dodgy indeed.
*I recognise that a direct train from Lincoln to Newark North Gate also solves this problem, but there aren't that many of them and they appear to be at very odd times.
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