No ScotRail Advance tickets on weekends in October?

[jzw95]

I've been waiting for several weeks to book a (single) journey from Kyle of Lochalsh to Edinburgh on Sat, 22 Oct. Last week, advance fares from Kyle to Inverness were released, but I was still only finding Anytime Day Singles from Inverness to Edinburgh. Booking horizons on NRE indicated that 22/23 Oct tickets still hadn't been released on ScotRail. Well today I got an alert from LNER telling me tickets for 22 Oct are now available, and NRE agrees… but the only ScotRail tickets available between Inverness and Edinburgh on Sat 22 Oct are still Anytime Day Singles.

I know they haven't been sold out as none of the services offer Advances (except the one LNER service), and it's been less than 12 hours since tickets were released. Have ScotRail stopped offering Advances on the weekend? Are they allowed to do this?

 

[Huntergreed]

I've been waiting for several weeks to book a (single) journey from Kyle of Lochalsh to Edinburgh on Sat, 22 Oct. Last week, advance fares from Kyle to Inverness were released, but I was still only finding Anytime Day Singles from Inverness to Edinburgh. Booking horizons on NRE indicated that 22/23 Oct tickets still hadn't been released on ScotRail. Well today I got an alert from LNER telling me tickets for 22 Oct are now available, and NRE agrees… but the only ScotRail tickets available between Inverness and Edinburgh on Sat 22 Oct are still Anytime Day Singles.

I know they haven't been sold out as none of the services offer Advances (except the one LNER service), and it's been less than 12 hours since tickets were released. Have ScotRail stopped offering Advances on the weekend? Are they allowed to do this?

A company is allowed to withdraw all advances for no given reason at any time. Advances are offered at the discretion of the TOC and can be withdrawn at any time, as I understand it.

I understand engineering works are taking place on this date near Inverness (albeit on the Elgin line, not the Aberdeen line), so I wonder if this has something to do with it:

Major Engineering work between Inverness and Elgin / Aberdeen from Saturday 15 to Tuesday 25 October | ScotRail

www.scotrail.co.uk

 

[jzw95]

Hmmm, thanks, disappointing that they can just decide not to offer Advances. I saw there was engineering work in places, but thought I'd be ok since nothing on the line between Inverness and Edinburgh. Maybe they're expecting spillover of people who would otherwise use the service to Aberdeen. You would think they could still offer some Advances though.

 

[XAM2175]

Hmmm, thanks, disappointing that they can just decide not to offer Advances. I saw there was engineering work in places, but thought I'd be ok since nothing on the line between Inverness and Edinburgh. Maybe they're expecting spillover of people who would otherwise use the service to Aberdeen. You would think they could still offer some Advances though.

You could always ask them?

 

[jzw95]

[10:30]
That never even occurred to me – I'm so used to it being impossible to get a timeous and helpful response from these companies! But it's a good idea, so I just phoned ScotRail and spoke with a helpful man who wasn't reading from a script, and actually listened to and understood the issue. He didn't actually know why there aren't any Advances on Sat 22 Oct between Inverness and Edinburgh, as there wasn't anything in their internal comms/advice explaining it. But he raised a case for me, contacting the ticketing team. Hopefully I hear something, will post here if I do.


[11:30 update]
Thank you @XAM2175, contacting ScotRail directly was the right idea! I've already received an email from the person I spoke with, and it contains useful information:

[The ticketing team] have confirmed that no Advance fares are available between Inverness and Edinburgh on 15th - 26th October at this time, as we are awaiting confirmation from Network Rail regarding any potential engineering work.

Our ticketing team are monitoring the situation, and the relevant tickets will be released as soon as possible.

So it seems that even though the booking horizons and journey planners are not flagging this as still awaiting NR engineering work confirmation, they are. There is still hope that Advance tickets will be released, so I'll hold tight for now.