TrainsCanBeCheaper - New Booking Engine

[SickyNicky]

I'm pleased to offer members of this forum exclusive early access to our new booking engine, TrainsCanBeCheaper, which now includes full ticket booking facilities.

We use the FastJP journey planner which many of you will have been testing for a while now, but TrainsCanBeCheaper builds on this to offer through tickets on a variety of itineraries, including slower ones, less common routes and different changing options.

We give you a whole host of advanced options including multiple via points (with granular control), mulitple avoid points, TOC selection, mode selection etc.

Obviously there's no fees of any sort if you choose the default delivery options.

The site is https://www.trainscanbecheaper.info

Please have a play with it, even if you're not going to book. It does come up with some interesting routes. Don't be put off by the slow speed sometimes - for this test I've set it to always do an exhaustive search. The public version has this only as an option.

Feedback would be appreciated - either by PM or directly in this thread. And stand by for the release of a full split-ticketing version in a month or so.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Will the split ticketing relese of this replace trainsplit or compliment it?

 

[SickyNicky]

Replace, over time. But not immediately.

 

[greatkingrat]

Am getting an error message when I search

Server Error in '/' Application.

Compilation Error

Description: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately.

Compiler Error Message: CS1061: 'ASP.timetable_fares_aspx' does not contain a definition for 'ButtonIntensive_Click' and no extension method 'ButtonIntensive_Click' accepting a first argument of type 'ASP.timetable_fares_aspx' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Source Error:


Line 482: <ContentTemplate>
Line 483: <div id="book" class="pull-right">
Line 484: <asp:Button ID="ButtonIntensive" class="btn btn-default blue" runat="server" Text="TRY A MORE INTENSIVE SEARCH (SLOW)" OnClick="ButtonIntensive_Click" />
Line 485: <a href="default.aspx" class="btn btn-default blue">EDIT JOURNEY</a>
Line 486: <asp:Button ID="ButtonProceed" runat="server" class="btn btn-default green tooltipnew" OnClick="ButtonProceed_Click" Text="PROCEED" title="Click here to see details of your journey" />

Source File: c:\inetpub\wwwroot\timetable_fares.aspx Line: 484

 

[SickyNicky]

Am getting an error message when I search

Yeah - you caught me adding a button to do a more intensive scan on the results page. It's done now.

 

[roversfan2001]

Am I right in thinking this is just an alternative booking engine until the split-ticket version is released?

 

[SickyNicky]

Am I right in thinking this is just an alternative booking engine until the split-ticket version is released?

Yep - but the routeing system is a little more sophisticated and will find alternatives to the "normal" fastest routes that most planners offer.

We have to go through this step and get it approved before we can think about launching the splits version. But the splits version will look exactly the same.

 

[roversfan2001]

Yep - but the routeing system is a little more sophisticated and will find alternatives to the "normal" fastest routes that most planners offer.

We have to go through this step and get it approved before we can think about launching the splits version. But the splits version will look exactly the same.

Ah right - cheers for the quick reply. I wonder if it will find the interesting itinerary I found on Trainsplit a few weeks back

 

[some bloke]

First look:

Nice matrix for outwards and returns.

Good to see it shows the London Midland super off-peak options for London Terminals to Stafford, even without choosing "value".

BRFares and Fastjp don't show them if the origin is London Terminals.
BRFares shows them if the origin is Euston.

I haven't yet managed to get the new site to show LM super off-peak Mon-Thu Euston-Birmingham Stations, which BRFares shows with origin London Terminals or Euston.

 

[SickyNicky]

First look:

Nice matrix for outwards and returns.

Good to see it shows the London Midland super off-peak options for London Terminals to Stafford, even without choosing "value".

BRFares and Fastjp don't show them if the origin is London Terminals.
BRFares shows them if the origin is Euston.

I haven't yet managed to get the new site to show LM super off-peak Mon-Thu Euston-Birmingham Stations, which BRFares shows with origin London Terminals or Euston.

After seeing the results, click "Try a more intensive search (SLOW)". This should find them. I'll make a note that direct trains should be in by default.

 

[infobleep]

Thanks for this. Once this is approved, do you then a lot of work to do, to get it working for split ticketing?

I will test it out later.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[SickyNicky]

Thanks for this. Once this is approved, do you then a lot of work to do, to get it working for split ticketing?

I will test it out later.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

Nope. It's all ready to go. We just need this site to be properly tested (and a reasonable number of tickets purchased) before we get the green light.

You'll love the split ticketing version when you get to see it.

 

[Fiyero]

I tried Eastleigh - Waterloo on 4th April for 2 people with my Gold Card. It only offered the off-peak price not the super-off-peak

 

[SickyNicky]

I tried Eastleigh - Waterloo on 4th April for 2 people with my Gold Card. It only offered the off-peak price not the super-off-peak

OK - we're looking into that. Our diagnostics tell us there's a date-based restriction in force.

 

[trainophile]

Any chance of a "reverse" arrow to swap 'from' and 'to' stations, as per WebTis sites? Handy for checking what's available for your return before committing yourself to a specific date for outbound.

 

[SickyNicky]

Any chance of a "reverse" arrow to swap 'from' and 'to' stations, as per WebTis sites? Handy for checking what's available for your return before committing yourself to a specific date for outbound.

Yes. I'll put it on the dev list now. Good idea.

 

[GW43125]

I may have missed something, but there doesn't appear to be any indication that the system is working on it when I press the journey type buttons on the ticket matrix page.

 

[SickyNicky]

I may have missed something, but there doesn't appear to be any indication that the system is working on it when I press the journey type buttons on the ticket matrix page.

I was hoping they might be fairly instant, but clearly they aren't. I'll do some work on it.

 

[GW43125]

I was hoping they might be fairly instant, but clearly they aren't. I'll do some work on it.

Thanks. Aside from those few teething issues it's looking like a very handy website!

 

[trainophile]

Thanks. Aside from those few teething issues it's looking like a very handy website!

Agreed, it looks very user friendly and is quicker than many others.

I have to at Nick's avatar though, makes me feel guilty for even suggesting any improvements!

 

[GW43125]

I have to at Nick's avatar though, makes me feel guilty for even suggesting any improvements!

Fair point

 

[SickyNicky]

Agreed, it looks very user friendly and is quicker than many others.

I have to at Nick's avatar though, makes me feel guilty for even suggesting any improvements!

LOL! That dates from the time I was doing my rail sites as a hobby in my spare time. Now that FastJP is starting to be used, it will hopefully take the pressure off a little.

Anyway, please throw suggestions into the ring. I do take note and most of them will be added to the dev list. Thanks.

 

[maniacmartin]

I'm trying to buy a ticket from West Drayton to Slough, for tomorrow.
Departing around 08:30, and returning same day around 12:30, one adult no railcards.
I'm wanting it to return the £6.70 Anytime Day Return.

It doesn't show any departures between 06:18 and 09:34, even though FastJP shows many direct train departures in this interval.

Also, when I select 'Fast' instead of 'Popular', it reverts back to 'Popular' once I click the left or right arrow to adjust the Outward Time in the results table.

 

[SickyNicky]

I'm trying to buy a ticket from West Drayton to Slough, for tomorrow.
Departing around 08:30, and returning same day around 12:30, one adult no railcards.
I'm wanting it to return the £6.70 Anytime Day Return.

It doesn't show any departures between 06:18 and 09:34, even though FastJP shows many direct train departures in this interval.

Also, when I select 'Fast' instead of 'Popular', it reverts back to 'Popular' once I click the left or right arrow to adjust the Outward Time in the results table.

As you have noticed, you need to set "fast" mode to see more expensive services, even if they are earlier. The default is "popular" which is a trade off between price and time. But fast overrides this and shows the fastest, regardless of price.

However, I accept that the type should be kept when you change times, so I'll add it to the todo list. Thanks.

 

[Mike395]

What a nice looking site!

Only one suggestion so far - once the outbound date is selected on the homepage, could the return date change to the same day/next day rather than staying on today's date?

 

[SickyNicky]

Yes. That's already on the list - just got to force a post back, which i was trying to avoid to improve the speed.

 

[Mike395]

Yes. That's already on the list - just got to force a post back, which i was trying to avoid to improve the speed.

Rather than forcing it globally, you could do as NRE do, and have same day/next day buttons for on demand POST queries?

 

[greatkingrat]

There seems to be a bit of a problem with the way Advance ticket availability is being handled. For every train it says "There is only 1 seat left at this price" which presumably isn't always true.

This means that if you search for two or more people, the system only offers flexible tickets, not advances.

 

[FQTV]

DHM KGX 22APR17 and KGX DHM 23APR17 - site will only give me Super Off Peak Return or First Off Peak Return, saying that no Advances are available.

Hope that's useful.

 

[FQTV]

There seems to be a bit of a problem with the way Advance ticket availability is being handled. For every train it says "There is only 1 seat left at this price" which presumably isn't always true.

This means that if you search for two or more people, the system only offers flexible tickets, not advances.

Ah, that seems to be the problem with my search above. I was looking for two passengers travelling.