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LNER: Lack of Advance tickets where using a connecting service.

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mirodo

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I often travel from Kings Cross to Burnley Manchester Road, changing at Leeds. Until recently, I used to be able to book Advance tickets as soon as they were made available on the KGX-LDS leg of the journey. The cost of the total KGX-LDS-BYM ticket would be a few pounds more than the KGX-LDS leg. Sometime, recently, something has gone wrong somewhere. I'm currently looking at journeys over the Easter weekend (although I've experience the same issue previously).

19/04/2019 09:33 KGX - LDS is available for £23.00. However, KGX - LDS - BYM (same 09:33 departure) is £94.80 for an Off-Peak single - no Advance tickets listed. It would appear to my untrained eye that the whole journey isn't considered eligible for an Advance ticket until Northern have released Advance tickets on the LDS - BYM leg. Previously, Advance tickets weren't available on this route, and it seems like it was their introduction which has caused the issue.

I'm having to book the two legs of the journey individually: KGX - LDS when made available (don't want to risk the cheaper Advance fares being sold out, especially at busy times like Easter) and LDS - BYM a few weeks later, in order to get reasonably priced tickets.

Can anyone shed any light on this ticketing anomaly? Is this issue likely to be fixed, or is it intended behaviour?
 
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It seems to have been the case since Northern made that service reservable. You could only get them 3 months in advance when EC went to 6 months.
Hebden Bridge used to work: can you get a fare via Todmorden or Brighouse or does the same problem apply?
 

mirodo

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Brighouse works but with limited availability - some trains departing KGX which are available KGX-LDS aren't available for KGX-LDS-BGH. Anything as far as Halifax seems to work, but that's the westerly limit.
 

ForTheLoveOf

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I often travel from Kings Cross to Burnley Manchester Road, changing at Leeds. Until recently, I used to be able to book Advance tickets as soon as they were made available on the KGX-LDS leg of the journey. The cost of the total KGX-LDS-BYM ticket would be a few pounds more than the KGX-LDS leg. Sometime, recently, something has gone wrong somewhere. I'm currently looking at journeys over the Easter weekend (although I've experience the same issue previously).

19/04/2019 09:33 KGX - LDS is available for £23.00. However, KGX - LDS - BYM (same 09:33 departure) is £94.80 for an Off-Peak single - no Advance tickets listed. It would appear to my untrained eye that the whole journey isn't considered eligible for an Advance ticket until Northern have released Advance tickets on the LDS - BYM leg. Previously, Advance tickets weren't available on this route, and it seems like it was their introduction which has caused the issue.

I'm having to book the two legs of the journey individually: KGX - LDS when made available (don't want to risk the cheaper Advance fares being sold out, especially at busy times like Easter) and LDS - BYM a few weeks later, in order to get reasonably priced tickets.

Can anyone shed any light on this ticketing anomaly? Is this issue likely to be fixed, or is it intended behaviour?
As far as I can tell, this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Whenever you buy an Advance, the booking engine must be able to reserve seats on all reservable services.

Northern won't let this be done on their services where they haven't put Advances on sale yet, so there's no surprise that you then can't get a LNER & Connections ticket involving travel on a reservable Northern service, before Northern have released Advances.

The only way of getting around it is to ensure that your itinerary only includes non-reservable connecting services. Sites like www.trainscanbecheaper.info will help here, as you can customise the itinerary with up to 3 'via', 'change at' or 'call at' stations, as well as 3 'not via', 'not changing at' or 'not calling at' stations. You can use that, as well as the controls on the TOCs that the itinerary includes, as well as the number of changes, to control which services you are offered.
 

mirodo

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The only way of getting around it is to ensure that your itinerary only includes non-reservable connecting services. Sites like www.trainscanbecheaper.info will help here, as you can customise the itinerary with up to 3 'via', 'change at' or 'call at' stations, as well as 3 'not via', 'not changing at' or 'not calling at' stations. You can use that, as well as the controls on the TOCs that the itinerary includes, as well as the number of changes, to control which services you are offered.

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I don't think there are any services on the LDS-BYM route which don't at some point offer reservations (although they're all "counted place" reservations, with no actual seat allocated). Looks like I'll have to stick to booking the two legs of the journey individually.
 

ForTheLoveOf

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Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I don't think there are any services on the LDS-BYM route which don't at some point offer reservations (although they're all "counted place" reservations, with no actual seat allocated). Looks like I'll have to stick to booking the two legs of the journey individually.
Yep, the TOCs are actively encouraging splitting...
 

robbeech

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11 Nov 2015
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Another interesting example of TOCs effectively encouraging the use of split ticketing, by their actions!
Then try getting one toc to pay compensation on both legs in the event that one is delayed!
 
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