Liverpool Lime Street - Brighton journey options

[adam9413]

Hi,

I'm looking at travelling from Liverpool Lime Street [LIV] - Brighton [BTN] with a 16-25 railcard on 1st December, travelling back on 3rd December. I am flexible with times.

Ideally I would travel with Virgin Trains but the Liverpool - London route seems to always be expensive nowadays.

The cheapest VT option I have seen on the outward leg is LIV dep 1447 arr BTN @ 1849 (4 hr 2 mins), which is £25.40. On the return leg, all options on Virgin Trains are showing as £35.10 Off Peak Single (only valid as part of a return journey). The journey is about 4 hr 10. The total price with VT is therefore £60.50. This is quite expensive.

I note that there is Southern/London Midland Off Peak return for £38.50, which takes about 6 hours and is a possible option. There is also an Advance £7.90 single from BTN - LIV (Route SOUTHERN &LONMID - NSC Advance) which shows on BRFARES. If I could find this fare somewhere, it would be handy for the return leg.

I've struggled to find the fares anywhere. Does anyone know how to see if the £7.90 fare is available? I've looked on Transpennine Express using the 'Show Slower Routes' Southern/LM option and cannot find the fares, so they either aren't available or I am not looking in the right place. I cannot find an option for this on the London Midland site either and it is very hard to find the slower route on any journey planners.

Many thanks.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I suspect very few Advances will be released across the LM franchise change, and as "wmtrains" isn't Govia those fares may not remain in place.

 

[adam9413]

I suspect very few Advances will be released across the LM franchise change, and as "wmtrains" isn't Govia those fares may not remain in place.

Ah thanks for that - I didn't realise that the franchise was changing in December.

 

[Bletchleyite]

10th Dec.

 

[Hadders]

I believe @gray1404 travels this route regularly and might be able to assist.

 

[horizonflame]

Another option for cheap advances for part of your route is Chiltern & Thameslink advances combined with London Midland advances for the northern section of your journey.

One example...

Friday 1st December 2017
09:04 Liverpool Lime Street - Birmingham New Street 10:48 Advance Single £6.25
11:15 Birmingham Moor Street - Brighton 15:15 Advance Single £7.60

Sunday 3rd December 2017
(Anytime) Brighton - London Bridge Super-Off Peak Single (Thameslink Only) £7.75 + £2.40 Contactless to Marylebone
13:10 - London Marylebone - Birmingham Moor Street 14:59 Advance Single £3.65
15:35 Birmingham New Street - Liverpool Lime Street 17:14 Advance Single £7.60

Total: 35.25

You gain the comfort of Chiltern but will loose the flexibility of the LM&SN ticket.

 

[Hadders]

Try putting in via Kensington Olympia to get the £7.90 fares to show. I’m out and about at the moment so can’t check but that might do it.

 

[adam9413]

Thank you horizonflame, I had not thought of the Chiltern option (agreed on the greater comfort).

Try putting in via Kensington Olympia to get the £7.90 fares to show. I’m out and about at the moment so can’t check but that might do it.

Cheers, no fares are showing for via Kensington Olympia option.
All I can see is a £33.20 Off Peak Day Single when I select the "Valid only on Southern and London Midland services" option.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Beware though that the WLL is VERY unreliable at the moment, so plan into your journey extra time (probably about an extra 30 minutes to an hour) to go via London if one or more are cancelled. If that happens ticket acceptance is arranged on LM, LU and Southern via London (LU staff at Victoria and Euston are used to it, as it is at present typically happening at least once or twice every day).

Furthermore on Southern strike days while most other services run the WLL does not as it requires guards and is a low priority.

 

[Hadders]

I can get the £7.90 fares to show on the outward journey on Webtis by specifying via Kensington and then ticking both ‘Southern and London Midland’ options under more details.

I can’t get it to show on the return but suspect that’s because it’s a Sunday and the quota’s likely to have sold out.

 

[gray1404]

I do indeed.

The tickets are available for your outward journey but not your return. It is normal for them not to be offered on a Sunday due to reasons such as engineering work.

 

[Starmill]

I suspect very few Advances will be released across the LM franchise change, and as "wmtrains" isn't Govia those fares may not remain in place.

What do you mean by that? It's unlikely that fares will change until the new fares round in January.

 

[M28361M]

I suspect very few Advances will be released across the LM franchise change, and as "wmtrains" isn't Govia those fares may not remain in place.

I agree that these fares might be endangered long-term, but I checked a few random dates in December after the franchise change and they are being offered, but not - as noted above - on Sundays.

 

[Bletchleyite]

What do you mean by that? It's unlikely that fares will change until the new fares round in January.

I would agree about walk-ups but I'd have thought limited Advances would be released pending "wmtrains" deciding what to release from the options they have - but it seems this is not the case.

 

[Romilly]

To get the £7.90 fare to show, I used new.trainsplit.com and, in the Advanced Options, chose to exclude all operators other than London Midland and Southern (it doesn't seem to matter whether you exclude London Underground or not). That got me the £7.90 for an outward journey on the 1st on e.g. the 0934 or 1034 from Lime Street, changing at Birmingham New Street, Watford Junction and East Croydon. They suggest a combination of tickets for coming back via London Victoria/Euston and Birmingham at a price for the Sunday leg starting from around £25.

 

[Starmill]

I would agree about walk-ups but I'd have thought limited Advances would be released pending "wmtrains" deciding what to release from the options they have - but it seems this is not the case.

Ah yes, I see what you mean. There is certainly a possibility of fluctuating Advance availability around franchise changeovers. Outside of this, ticket options are likely to remain the same until January - and any tickets with 'AP LDN MID ONLY' or 'LDN MIDLAND ONLY' routes will be accepted as normal by their successors.

 

[adam9413]

Thanks everyone. I will look into all of the options. It seems that no advance fares are available on the Sunday from Brighton to any Virgin Trains destinations (I looked at Lime St, New St and Manchester) but there are advance fares from Euston.