Station change on an advance ticket

[mike57]

Not sure if this is the right place...

Take the following scenario:

Traveling from Seamer to Manchester Airport mid morning, there are no through trains at this time of day, so you need to change. There are 4 possible places where you can change, York, Leeds, Huddersfield or Manchester Piccadilly. Of these Huddersfield is the easiest, just wait on the same platform. York and Manchester Pic are potentially the worst, long walk, with stairs/lift to negotiate and people wanting to see your ticket at Man Pic. Leeds is usually OK, same platform but with a small chance of a walk/stairs if things are disrupted.

When booking advance tickets for this journey it is not possible to force the booking engine to give you a change at Huddersfield, it will always default to York. You can split the journey but it doesn't save any money and increases your problems in the event of late running.

Why isnt 'ease of change' information included in the booking engine so that those of us with (too much!) luggage or those with mobility problems can choose the easiest change. Or at least have the option to choose the change station where there are a number of options.

There are other journeys where this type of situation applies so I would have thought it would be relatively easy to add this sort of info

Obviously if you are traveling on an open ticket this isn't a problem, but on this journey that can add £30 to a return journey.

 

[185143]

NRE allows you to force a change at X dosen't it?

EDIT-yes it does.

 

[causton]

Any competent ticket clerk could arrange this for you in a couple of seconds (assuming their software allows them to specify it, which hopefully they all do!)

...good luck finding a competent ticket clerk

 

[najaB]

There are other journeys where this type of situation applies so I would have thought it would be relatively easy to add this sort of info.

If you are changing onto the same train, just at a different station, I don't see any guard raising an objection.

 

[mike57]

To answer the replies:

Yes you can do it in NRE, but you cant buy your tickets on NRE it refers you to a TOC website, and there you find it wont work, certainly with the TPE website

Competent ticket clerk presents a problem. I usually travel from Seamer which is unmanned, with no ticket machine, or Bempton which doesn't even have a information display. To get to manned ticket office means a trip to Scarborough or Bridlington, which is a 16 or 5 mile journey. I have my tickets delivered by post or sent to my phone if I am buying in advance.

To be fair the clerks at Scarborough are good, for a day trip they volunteered a split ticket when this would save me a decent amount.

 

[najaB]

Yes you can do it in NRE, but you cant buy your tickets on NRE it refers you to a TOC website, and there you find it wont work, certainly with the TPE website.

Under the NRCoT, if you present the itinerary then you should be okay. If you want to get picky, the Advance Ticket T&Cs say:

Tickets are valid ONLY on the date and train service(s) shown on the ticket(s).

Since you will be travelling on the date and service(s) shown - just changing between them at a different station - I can't see how you could get into any bother.

 

[Paul Kelly]

There are other journeys where this type of situation applies so I would have thought it would be relatively easy to add this sort of info

To a fair extent, "this sort of info" is already there. In the data supplied to booking engines, York is a "Large" interchange compared to Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester Piccadilly which are all only "Medium" interchanges. Thus booking engines (unless they include a specific ability to request a change at a particular station) would be violating the ATOC code of practice for journey planners, if they didn't force the change to always be at York. You should consider complaining to ATOC about this.

 

[greatkingrat]

Try https://www.takethetrain.co.uk/ and put Huddersfield as a via point.

 

[embers25]

I thought that site had closed. That site is great for getting cheap fares via obscure routes.

 

[Paul Kelly]

Try https://www.takethetrain.co.uk/ and put Huddersfield as a via point.

Nice find, but I can't reproduce it for the OP's journey. As far as I can see from some limited testing, it only seems to work when it is possible to get to the destination at the same time by changing at Huddersfield (e.g. on a weekday), but not when the timetable means it would involve a slower overall journey, like on a Sunday?

Edit: don't know why I thought the OP was travelling on a Sunday. I must be confusing this with another thread!

 

[furlong]

Try https://www.takethetrain.co.uk/ and put Huddersfield as a via point.

How can that website claim still to be accredited when, according to its FAQ, it is still creating contracts subject to the NRCoC instead of the new CoT?

 

[najaB]

How can that website claim still to be accredited when, according to its FAQ, it is still creating contracts subject to the NRCoC instead of the new CoT?

I suppose it depends on if the FAQ has contractual force or not. Similar situation as the information boxes in the NRCoT itself.