Poole to London Waterloo Off Peak Query

[47832]

Good evening I am wondering if anyone can help me. I am trying to find out why there is a massive price increase for an off peak return on the 7.41 Poole to Waterloo service. On the weekdays commencing 7th January and 14th January but then a lower price right til the end of march.

I usually buy an off peak return with a 16-25 railcard which is coming out at £36.95 during these 2 weeks it is £68.50. I have tweeted Southwest trains but they don't seem to know so I thought I would ask here.

 

[yorkie]

The ticket is a Poole - London SVR with these conditions (selected parts only):

TOWARDS LONDON
Trains arriving at or later than:
London Terminals (except those listed below) - 1000
London Waterloo - 1000
Vauxhall - 1000
Clapham Junction - 1000

Tickets are also valid, as listed below:
TOWARDS LONDON:
06:55 Weymouth - Waterloo: boarding at stations Weymouth - Bournemouth inclusive.

The train in question is the 0655 Weymouth - Waterloo. So the ticket should be valid. The booking engines are therefore incorrect (but why they are incorrect, I do not know). If you buy the ticket for a later train, you can travel on this service. Alternatively, you could buy the ticket from a station if you require a seat reservation.

 

[47832]

The ticket is a Poole - London SVR with these conditions (selected parts only):



The train in question is the 0655 Weymouth - Waterloo. So the ticket should be valid. The booking engines are therefore incorrect (but why they are incorrect, I do not know). If you buy the ticket for a later train, you can travel on this service. Alternatively, you could buy the ticket from a station if you require a seat reservation.

Thanks for your prompt reply, thought this might be the case but just wanted to check. Have tweeted Southwest Trains and they are going to take a look at it. Will pop down the station and buy my tickets tomorrow.

 

[wintonian]

Alternatively, you could buy the ticket from a station if you require a seat reservation.

SWT don't do seat reservations

It is timed to arrive in Waterloo at 09:53 so presumably for some reason the easement that allows travel a bit earlier than normal (normally the train must arrive into London at or after 10:00 for these SWT tickets which is why the 07:20 is valid for off-peak travel with this ticket) is missing from the booking engines for those 2 weeks.

 

[LexyBoy]

Additionally you should be able to buy on the day of purchase, although the ticket machines may not be well programmed and might only offer the more expensive ticket. You could buy online and check this for future reference when collecting your tickets.

 

[yorkie]

SWT don't do seat reservations

I thought that, but the service has the diamond symbol in the timetable, which is supposed to indicate that reservations are available.

I guess it's there for technical reasons (ie, the "counted place" Advance system is in use)

 

[wintonian]

I thought that, but the service has the diamond symbol in the timetable, which is supposed to indicate that reservations are available.

I guess it's there for technical reasons (ie, the "counted place" Advance system is in use)

I would assume so, a bit confusing TBH, but then the NR timetable wasn't created with such a system in mind and therefore someone needs to create a new symbol like '®' perhaps?

The other option (and possibly more likely) as SWT don't show it in their timetables, could be that as I wasn't that long ago SWT officially stopped doing reservations, that the timetable creators still think they do offer them.

 

[greatkingrat]

Looking at Open Train Times, it seems there is a minor variation to the normal WTT schedule for this train up until 18th January. The public arrival time is shown as 0951 instead of 0953 which I guess is why the booking engine isn't applying the easement.

http://www.opentraintimes.com/schedule/W90508/

 

[yorkie]

Perhaps the booking engines are looking at arrival time, while the 'easement' is worded to us as departure time?

It's not uncommon for 'easements' to be coded very differently to how they are displayed to us!

 

[wintonian]

Looking at Open Train Times, it seems there is a minor variation to the normal WTT schedule for this train up until 18th January. The public arrival time is shown as 0951 instead of 0953 which I guess is why the booking engine isn't applying the easement.

Perhaps the booking engines are looking at arrival time, while the 'easement' is worded to us as departure time?

Doesn't look like it, 09:53 is it's normal arrival time, while the restriction is for 10:00 (easements excluded).

I agree with greatkingrat's suggestion here.
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I see from twitter that you have discovered that the correct fare is being offered on southerns booking engine.

It's useful to note for other people in general that sometimes different sites will have different interpretations of validity, sometimes this is due to updates not being applied quite as the should be.

 

[soil]

It's worth noting that a Poole - Brighton ticket routed Not Via London is valid as far as Clapham Junction (you'd need a separate CLJ-London Terminals ticket).

An off-peak return is £30.05 with railcard, an anytime day return £25.80.

This has a different validity code, that is valid only for travel after 9am, but there is en easement specifically to permit travel on the 06:55 Weymouth -Waterloo, boarding between Weymouth and Bournemouth inclusive.

Earlier trains in many cases do not stop at Clapham Junction and so would not be valid anyway.