Nottingham to Blackpool North AP

[ashworth]

How are quotas of AP tickets allocated? It's just that I have found some very inconsistent fares available when looking at prices from Nottingham to Blackpool.
I am wanting to book tickets for midweek journeys for end of July/August but finding these tickets far harder to come accross than in past years. I know it's too early for those dates but I have been doing a bit of pre purchase research and looking at what is available during May and June.

These past few summers I have managed to get quite cheap AP tickets via Derby and Leeds but these no longer seem to be available. I seem to be able to get a £9.50 AP ticket most mornings, even departing from my local station of Hucknall on the Robin Hood Line at 08.28 via Crewe. However, there is never anything available for the return journey to either Hucknall or Nottingham.

Stranglely there are plenty tickets available to both Nottingham and Hucknall on a variety of trains from both Layton and Poulton Le Fylde (stations just outside Blackpool) mainly priced at £17. However, for just £9.50 there are lots of tickets available from Blackpool North to Long Eaton (just short of Nottingham). All are via Crewe.

This seems very strange that there are no AP from Blackpool to Nottingham, when there are plenty, using the same trains, by just cutting the journey a few miles short at one end or the other.

Complicated I know, but I hope it makes sense. But both ways better than the £51 for an Off Peak Return paying on the day.
If I want to cut the price for the flexibility of paying on the day and not being tied down to specific services I usually go for.
Hucknall to Sheffield - £12.30 Off Peak Return
Sheffield to Blackpool North (via Leeds) £29.60 Anytime Return
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I've actually found a way of getting an AP ticket all the way from Blackpool North to Hucknall for just £9.50! Using the National Express East Coast Website and typing in 'avoid Manchester Piccadilly', intending this to give me journeys via Crewe or Leeds it actually gave me a very interesting route for £9.50.

Blackpool North - Preston
Preston - Crewe
Crewe - Stockport
Stockport - Nottingham
Nottingham - Hucknall

It only takes just over 4 hours and I am not in any hurry!
Does anyone know of any websites that definitely still issue the airline style tickets that list all trains for the whole journey in detail. If this price is still available in a few weeks time when I am able to book for early August, I would feel happier travelling with it all printed on my ticket as proof that it is an acceptable route for the fare.

 

[mathmo]

That's a bizarre route - I'm fairly sure it's not permitted, but it shouldn't be refused if you take a printout of the booking summary. If you put "via Crewe" you can get £17.50 tickets that take a more normal route but aren't any faster!

 

[yorkie]

I don't think it's a permitted route either. I can't find any combination of maps that allows that. Print the itinerary and you'll be fine though.

I'm not sure that AP tickets follow the same rules about permitted routes though.

 

[northernbored]

As i far as I am aware an AP ticket does not follow the Permitted Routes system as you are a buying a ticket to travel on certain train(s), therefore the routing is set only by the TOC

 

[ashworth]

Thanks for that. If I do manage to get one of these £9.50 tickets for August I will print the itinerary. It will be worth going the roundabout route if I can get for that price!
Also of course with it being an AP ticket I will have reserved seats on the Virgin services between Preston and Crewe and Crewe and Stockport. Also a seat may be reserved for me on the EMT service between Stockport and Nottingham. that also will show that the ticket was validly sold to me for that route.

I did actually wonder whether I may get away with buying one of these tickets and then when I get to Crewe going the normal route via Derby to Nottingham and Hucknall. The tickets usually only say Virgin West Coast and connections and it is only usually the Preston to Crewe section that is restricted to a particular timed train with a reserved seat. If I am travelling on local EMT services from Crewe to Hucknall no-one will know that my £9.50 ticket was actually routing me via Stockport as it will just look the same as a ticket that was routed via Derby.
Does that seem OK?

 

[yorkie]

Yes, if there are no reservations for a portion then you should be able to get any connecting train. This has been debated several times in the past though with no conclusive answer as to whether this is technically valid or not though.

 

[ashworth]

Just an update for anyone who is interested:

I have managed to get AP tickets for both my outward and return journeys both at only £9.50.

Outward from Hucknall to Blackpool by a fairly normal route changing at Nottingham, Derby, Crewe and Preston. Incidently this journey takes considerably longer than via Manchester because of a long wait for a connection at Derby. When the through services were stopped from Nottingham to Crewe decent connections have not been provided at Derby. The only seat reservation is for Crewe to Preston.

My return journey is the one mentioned earlier in this thread changing at Preston, Crewe, Stockport and Nottingham. No problems about anyone questioning whether the route is valid because I have been provided with seat reservations from Blackpool to Preston (TPE), Preston to Crewe (VWC), Crewe to Stockport (VXC) and Stockport to Nottingham (EMT).

For both journeys my tickets says the same 'VWC & Connections' and so therefore there is no reason why I cannot also return from Crewe via Derby. However, the journey via Stockport does not take very much longer and so I may go that way and see if the straff on the EMT train from Stockport to Nottingham looks puzzled at my VXC and connections ticket!