Trainline offering invalid itineraries

[Felix A]

So I was just browsing trainline (as any normal person does) and I stumbled across this journey it was offering me from Newquay to London on 22nd April. It was for the 1013 out of NQY arriving into Par at 1102, then the 1106 out of Par to London. It was priced at Off-Peak Single price but surely they are not allowed to offer this journey as the connection time at Par is less than the standard 5 mins.

Feel free to respond accortingly. If I'm honest I don't know what I expect from this I just thought it would be an interesting spark for discussion.

Many thanks,

Felix

 

[Bletchleyite]

It is possible to configure specific connections as less than the standard minimum, I believe.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

So I was just browsing trainline (as any normal person does) and I stumbled across this journey it was offering me from Newquay to London on 22nd April. It was for the 1013 out of NQY arriving into Par at 1102, then the 1106 out of Par to London. It was priced at Off-Peak Single price but surely they are not allowed to offer this journey as the connection time at Par is less than the standard 5 mins.

Feel free to respond accortingly. If I'm honest I don't know what I expect from this I just thought it would be an interesting spark for discussion.

Many thanks,

Felix

Par is a bit of an odd one. The minimum connection time is generally configured as being 3 minutes - except if changing from one GWR service to another. These kinds of overrides are designed to allow for stations which have operator-separated parts of the station, e.g. Clapham Junction, but here it appears a little odd. I would suspect that Trainline are ignoring the GWR specific override here or they have manually set the connection to be less than the minimum.

If you buy your ticket with that itinerary (note: many TOCs use the Trainline's backend so you can make use of the itinerary without paying their silly fees) then it is valid and you are entitled to travel on the next train if you miss the booked one, and you may be entitled to compensation depending on the length of the delay (it must be at least 15 minutes, which it probably would be).

 

[Deafdoggie]

The minimum connection time at Par is 3 minutes (although rising to 5 if GWR to GWR) so this is fine. It is a simple cross-platform transfer too.

 

[maniacmartin]

I'm guessing that Trainline developers assumed that the operator-specific overrides are always less than the general connection time for a station, as is the case with most of them, and didn't even consider that the operator-specific connection time could ever be the larger of the two values.

 

[Felix A]

Par is a bit of an odd one. The minimum connection time is generally configured as being 3 minutes - except if changing from one GWR service to another. These kinds of overrides are designed to allow for stations which have operator-separated parts of the station, e.g. Clapham Junction, but here it appears a little odd. I would suspect that Trainline are ignoring the GWR specific override here or they have manually set the connection to be less than the minimum.

If you buy your ticket with that itinerary (note: many TOCs use the Trainline's backend so you can make use of the itinerary without paying their silly fees) then it is valid and you are entitled to travel on the next train if you miss the booked one, and you may be entitled to compensation depending on the length of the delay (it must be at least 15 minutes, which it probably would be).

Ah thanks. I wasn't going to book it, I was just curious as to why they could sell the ticket. In my opinion GWR really should just revise the Atlantic Coast Timetable to give a 5-6 min connection there at Par.

 

[yorkie]

It's not a valid itinerary as the data stands, but the data makes no sense.

I suspect the data is a mistake; surely it should be 5 minutes by default, except 3 mins for GWR <> GWR connections?

That would make sense, as GWR are unlikely to want to hold connections for XC and vice-versa.

So, although I believe this may be an error by Trainline's journey planner provider, I think they may have unwittingly produced the intended outcome for this case?

 

[Paul Kelly]

I did wonder if it could be that the shorter connection time is intended for transfer to the "PAR STN BUS STOP" location. But that does't make much sense.