Newton-Le-Willows to Chester (with two together railcard)

[joke2711]

Hi

Yesterday evening my partner and I travelled from Newton-Le-Willows (NLW) to Chester (CTR) with a two together railcard.

Our planned journey was to catch the 18:28 from NLW and return on the 22:13 from CTR.
National Rail Journey planner was showing the cost of this as £11.40.

We arrived at NLW slightly earlier and our first departure was the 18:17. We purchased tickets at NLW but were charged £13.50.

On checking this morning by repeating the journey today ... to leave on the 18:17 would cost £15.80 (anytime) and a whopping £32.80 (off-peak).

The actual fare charged only shows for the 19:18 departure from NLW.

Am I missing something here and what is the correct fare that we should have been charged?

Thanks ...

 

[Saperstein]

Looks like one Fare is via Warrington and one is Northern only.

Saperstein

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Hi

Yesterday evening my partner and I travelled from Newton-Le-Willows (NLW) to Chester (CTR) with a two together railcard.

Our planned journey was to catch the 18:28 from NLW and return on the 22:13 from CTR.
National Rail Journey planner was showing the cost of this as £11.40.

We arrived at NLW slightly earlier and our first departure was the 18:17. We purchased tickets at NLW but were charged £13.50.

On checking this morning by repeating the journey today ... to leave on the 18:17 would cost £15.80 (anytime) and a whopping £32.80 (off-peak).

The actual fare charged only shows for the 19:18 departure from NLW.

Am I missing something here and what is the correct fare that we should have been charged?

Thanks ...

You were charged for the Off-Peak Day Return, route "via Warrington". This has evening peak restrictions and therefore wasn't, in theory, valid on the 18:17.

The cheapest way to make this journey is to use the Off-Peak Day Return route "via Liverpool", which costs just £7.00 for both of you!

 

[M28361M]

You were charged for the Off-Peak Day Return, route "via Warrington". This has evening peak restrictions and therefore wasn't, in theory, valid on the 18:17.

According to BRFares, there is an Anytime Day Return routed "Northern Only" which is the same price as the via Warrington Off Peak Day Return, so maybe this is what joke2711 was sold.

However, there is also a Northern Only Off Peak Day Return which works out as £11.40 for two people with Railcard, and has no evening peak restriction. I suspect this is what the National Rail planner offered, and as both trains the OP intended to take were Northern operated, this was the most appropriate fare.

EDIT: Sorry, I misread the thread and missed that they intended to catch the 1828 but actually caught the 1817 (a Transport for Wales service). Ignore what I say above as it doesn't apply!

The cheapest way to make this journey is to use the Off-Peak Day Return route "via Liverpool", which costs just £7.00 for both of you!

The joys of being in a PTE area, the fare cannot be any more expensive or the Merseytravel Saveaway would undercut it. Quite a long way round compared to the direct route though!

 

[joke2711]

Thanks for the clarifications.

If I had been charged the anytime return at £15.80 i would have queried as I was expecting to pay £11:40. The ticket was checked as soon as we left NLW as well without any comment. Good to know that we were sold an invalid ticket!

Would have thought that at NLW we could have been informed of ticket options. Would have been interesting if we had arrived after the TFW service had left and then seen what options were offered. In fact we would have waited for the 1828 .. it was only 10 minutes behind but we were always catching the 2213 from CTR on the return. All we were asked was ... returning today?