Reading to Inverness

[EricS]

Hi

This question isn't limited to one particular date as I do this journey from time to time, but say for example that I wanted a single ticket from Reading to Inverness on 8th February, leaving after 1900. I don't have a railcard.

I could make two separate bookings:
1. 19:45 Reading to London Euston via Paddington, £19.80 off-peak single.
2. 21.15 to Inverness, £63.60 advance single with shared sleeper cabin. (Let's assume that I'm travelling on a date when there don't happen to be any 'bargain berth' fares available, but an ordinary advance fare is available.)

However, if I attempt to book RDG-INV as one journey, all the scotrail.co.uk journey planner will offer me is:
20:40 Reading to Birmingham New Street
22:36 Birmingham New Street to Crewe
23:54 Crewe to Inverness
There are two problems here:
1. It's tried to give me a shorter journey by sending me via Crewe, so it'd be midnight by the time I got to bed.
2. There's no advanced fare available, so it costs £146 plus supplement.

When booking a daytime train, I can easily book an advance through ticket RDG-INV on eastcoast.co.uk. This gives me the train to Paddington, the underground, and the daytime direct Kings Cross to Inverness train all as one booking.

Is there any way I could buy a ticket for RDG-INV via EUS with a berth (ideally an advance for roughly £83) even though I can't find one using the journey planner?

Would it help to go to a ticket office? I know that websites other than scotrail.co.uk can't sell Caledonian Sleeper tickets with berths, but can non-Scotrail ticket offices sell them?

The obvious solution might seem to be just buying the two separate tickets. However, I don't want to do that because of a past experience where I made the journey during the day, with an advance ticket via King's Cross. The train to Paddington that should have taken 27 minutes was over two hours late. The person at the King's Cross ticket office implied that it was only because I had a through ticket that they arranged an alternative journey, at no cost to myself.

I know the issue of passengers' rights in the case of missed connections with split advanced tickets has been discussed at length on this forum before, and I don't wish to re-start that debate. I just want to err on the side of caution, and not risk having to pay full price for a daytime train the next day should I miss the connection with the sleeper.

Thanks

 

[dzug2]

Does 'via London' in the Journey Planner make any difference?

 

[EricS]

I think it has to be booked on scotrail.co.uk to get a proper sleeper ticket, and the Book Tickets form on scotrail.co.uk doesn't have a "via" box unfortunately... unless I'm missing something?

 

[bb21]

The £63.60 ticket you quoted is, I assume judged by current fares as I don't have NFM11, routed Cal Sleeper and is only available from London Terminals. There is no equivalent Advance fare inclusive of berth from Reading. The only Advance fare from Reading are routed +EC & Connections, XC & Connections or +VWC & Connections. Unless things change significantly at NFM11 I'm afraid I reckon you might be out of luck.

 

[route:oxford]

When travelling daytime, do you ever route via Birmingham and WCML rather than via London?

Travelling from Oxford, I find that it's significantly quicker avoiding London - although not as handy as it was when there were direct Voyager services between Reading/Oxford and Edinburgh/Glasgow via the WCML.

 

[EricS]

The £63.60 ticket you quoted is, I assume judged by current fares as I don't have NFM11, routed Cal Sleeper and is only available from London Terminals. There is no equivalent Advance fare inclusive of berth from Reading. The only Advance fare from Reading are routed +EC & Connections, XC & Connections or +VWC & Connections. Unless things change significantly at NFM11 I'm afraid I reckon you might be out of luck.

I see, thanks. I'd always imagined that, if most of a journey can be made by Advance ticket, then it was always possible to "tag on" extra legs at the beginning or end, and still get an Advance ticket. But from what you say I guess it's more complicated than that, and a special route called "Cal Sleeper & connections" would have to exist for me to do this.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

When travelling daytime, do you ever route via Birmingham and WCML rather than via London?

Travelling from Oxford, I find that it's significantly quicker avoiding London - although not as handy as it was when there were direct Voyager services between Reading/Oxford and Edinburgh/Glasgow via the WCML.

I've often looked for WCML tickets when travelling daytime, as that does seem logical. But it's always quicker to use the East Coast trains from Kings Cross (maybe Reading has faster and more frequent services to London than Oxford does). It also usually works out cheaper, particularly when you take the East Coast online booking discount into account.

 

[bb21]

I see, thanks. I'd always imagined that, if most of a journey can be made by Advance ticket, then it was always possible to "tag on" extra legs at the beginning or end, and still get an Advance ticket. But from what you say I guess it's more complicated than that, and a special route called "Cal Sleeper & connections" would have to exist for me to do this.

Yes, it is often possible to tag on additional local journeys with an & Connections ticket, however this is usually not possible if the ticket is routed XXXX Only and the intercity (main) operator being different from the local operator.

 

[EricS]

Yes, it is often possible to tag on additional local journeys with an & Connections ticket, however this is usually not possible if the ticket is routed XXXX Only and the intercity (main) operator being different from the local operator.

Out of curiosity, I tried booking London Euston to Dingwall, but the advance fare disappears on selecting that too. I guess because whilst Inverness to Dingwall is Scotrail, it's not Cal Sleeper.

Does 'via London' in the Journey Planner make any difference?

I've just realised that although the Scotrail front page lacks a "via" box, you can access one by deliberately making certain mistakes in the front page form (e.g. date in the past). Then it will sell me RDG-INV via EUS, £153.60 plus supplement for a super off-peak single, but of course no advance fares.

 

[bb21]

Out of curiosity, I tried booking London Euston to Dingwall, but the advance fare disappears on selecting that too. I guess because whilst Inverness to Dingwall is Scotrail, it's not Cal Sleeper.

Such routeing is available to Dingwall, however the cheapest few tiers of Advance fares (inclusive of berth) are not available for this particular flow. The cheapest tier routed Cal Sleeper is priced at £116.40. The cheapest tier routed Cal Sleeper Seat is priced at £74.80. (All NFM10 fares.)

 

[John @ home]

it will sell me RDG-INV via EUS, £153.60 plus supplement for a super off-peak single, but of course no advance fares.

Yes. The 2012 Super Off-Peak fares for Reading - Inverness route + Any Permitted are £153.60 single or £154.60 return. These tickets have Validity Code 9F.

The train to Paddington that should have taken 27 minutes was over two hours late. The person at the King's Cross ticket office implied that it was only because I had a through ticket that they arranged an alternative journey, at no cost to myself.

I know the issue of passengers' rights in the case of missed connections with split advanced tickets has been discussed at length on this forum before, and I don't wish to re-start that debate. I just want to err on the side of caution, and not risk having to pay full price for a daytime train the next day should I miss the connection with the sleeper.

The rules were clarified by the train companies on 30 June 2011. If the incident above happened before that date, you may gain some reassurance from reading Note 2 to Q&A 4 of Advance Fares FAQs.

 

[EricS]

My 2 hour late journey was before last June, so yes that is reassuring (though I'm using 1 off-peak then 1 advance, rather than 2 advance tickets as described in the FAQ... then again maybe that's just nitpicking). Thanks all for the help.