TrainsCanBeCheaper - New Booking Engine

[paul1609]

Has anyone else had any problems finding itineraries with this?

Or any itineraries that are found that perhaps shouldn't be (these may best discussed via PM if so!)






I note this has been changed, so a search for Rye (Sussex) to Ivybridge for Saturday departing after 0930 shows the 0956 - 1652 itinerary with a change at St Pancras/Paddington.

NajaB - I see the Belfast NI fares appear to be working too

I don't think the West Country to Marshlink problems have been entirely fixed!
It appears that if I try to buy a ticket for Ivybridge to Appledore (Kent) it will stop me using off peak tickets that depart from Paddington on the Tube during the Paddington main line off peak restrictions and only offer me advance tickets that in the case of this Thursday cost twice the price of a super off peak return, it will however offer me the off peak fare by its old favourite route Exeter St Davids, Clapham Junction and Brighton taking nearly 3 hours longer.

 

[Paul Kelly]

It appears that if I try to buy a ticket for Ivybridge to Appledore (Kent) it will stop me using off peak tickets that depart from Paddington on the Tube during the Paddington main line off peak restrictions and only offer me advance tickets that in the case of this Thursday cost twice the price of a super off peak return

As you haven't given full details of the dates and times you're looking at it's quite hard to see what's going on, but time restrictions never apply to the Underground leg of the journey. I would note that the electronic version of the time restrictions for the Ivybridge to Appledore Super Off-Peak return contain a bar on evening peak departures from St Pancras: http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=IVY&dest=APD&ldn=1&tkt=SSR

Not valid to depart LONDON ST PANCRAS 1516–1858 on any TOC

Perhaps that is part of the problem? Strange that it doesn't always show the route via Charing Cross and Tonbridge when this is cheaper, though.

 

[paul1609]

As you haven't given full details of the dates and times you're looking at it's quite hard to see what's going on, but time restrictions never apply to the Underground leg of the journey. I would note that the electronic version of the time restrictions for the Ivybridge to Appledore Super Off-Peak return contain a bar on evening peak departures from St Pancras: http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=IVY&dest=APD&ldn=1&tkt=SSR

Perhaps that is part of the problem? Strange that it doesn't always show the route via Charing Cross and Tonbridge when this is cheaper, though.

I agree that its the St Pancras restriction thats causing the problem> I've used HS1 since it opened and wasn't aware that these peak restrictions overuled the network rule.
I was confused by it offering an alternative route via Brighton.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I've used HS1 since it opened and wasn't aware that these peak restrictions overuled the network rule.

They really shouldn't. If it affects you, you should complain to GWR who set the fare and restrictions. They shouldn't be doing Southeastern's dirty work for them.

 

[yorkie]

They should not over-rule the network rule.

I suggest writing to Southeastern asking them to fix their mistake.

Unfortunately until it's fixed, booking engines are compelled to adhere to these restrictions.

I'm not sure if the network area rule has protected status under fares regulation; I'd certainly hope so! Does anyone know for sure?

(I recall Virgin were caught red-handed breaching their franchise agreement by flouting fares regulation when they imposed illegal evening peak restrictions out of Milton Keynes).

 

[paul1609]

They should not over-rule the network rule.

I suggest writing to Southeastern asking them to fix their mistake.

Unfortunately until it's fixed, booking engines are compelled to adhere to these restrictions.

I'm not sure if the network area rule has protected status under fares regulation; I'd certainly hope so! Does anyone know for sure?

(I recall Virgin were caught red-handed breaching their franchise agreement by flouting fares regulation when they imposed illegal evening peak restrictions out of Milton Keynes).

When I get a spare moment Ill write to GWR who set the fare. As I understand the situation no HS1 routing has fare protection as the line came in to use after the base date of the protection, technically this would presumably be the same for things like the East London Line and Borders Railway.
It would however be helpful if the journey planners showed the classic route via Charing Cross as the alternative available on an off peak ticket rather than a rather unlikely route via Yeovil Junction and Brighton.
In my specific case it was suggesting a premium of £75 to travel on HS1 using an advance ticket. The choice of people living on Marshlink and the High Weald area is even more complicated as Headcorn station which is about the same journey time from Charing Cross as Rye is from St Pancras is easily accessible.
Perhaps the name of the the new website should be "Trains can be horrendously Expensive"?

 

[yorkie]

....Perhaps the name of the the new website should be "Trains can be horrendously Expensive"?

Train fares can be expensive, but not as expensive when using Trainscanbecheaper compared to using, for example, GWR's own website.

Searching for a return journey, GWR wants an Anytime Return at £303, while at least Trainscanbecheaper will suggest an Anytime one way and a Super Off Peak the other, saving around £50.

And TCBC does have a "try a more intensive search" option, which then does find itineraries via Charing Cross using an Off Peak Return at the time at which Southeastern appear to dislike people using their shiny new trains. There appears to be no such option on the GWR website.

A screenshot is attached.

I'd like to know if GWR accidentally entered erroneous restrictions, or if Southeastern colluded with GWR to disregard the long-standing Network Area Rule in their favour? Either way, the rail industry should have effective safeguards in place to prevent such occurrences.

 

[cav1975]

Why does the railcard box require the railcard to apply to all members of a group? For example I have a Senior Railcard but my wife does not and if we travel together we need to have one railcard fare and one without. If we use other booking engines, such as East Midlands Trains, I can specify the number of railcards.

It would be a useful improvement to trainscanbecheaper to have this option.

 

[yorkie]

This is because it's currently going through Raileasy (http://www.raileasy.co.uk), who are the only booking site i know of to have a "Railcard must apply to ALL passengers" requirement.

 

[Condor7]

This is because it's currently going through Raileasy (http://www.raileasy.co.uk), who are the only booking site i know of to have a "Railcard must apply to ALL passengers" requirement.

Which is of course a strange phylosophy as I am in the same position as Cav1975 in that I have a senior railcard and my wife does not. Even if she wanted to she can't because she is not old enough.

 

[cav1975]

This is because it's currently going through Raileasy (http://www.raileasy.co.uk), who are the only booking site i know of to have a "Railcard must apply to ALL passengers" requirement.

Thanks for the explanation, but it does defy logic.

Incidentally one of the reasons that I have moved to booking online rather than buying tickets from the machines at my local SouthEastern station is that they suffer from the same problem.

If a way can be found around this issue then the question needs to carefully phrased. "How many railcards?" is not a clear question as some railcards are valid for small groups.

 

[SickyNicky]

We will be allowing multiple railcards in a later version of the system, which will find and use the best combination of whatever railcards you have.

 

[fishquinn]

Any chance of allowing an itinary to be selected for the return journey before the selected one for the outward journey gets there i.e. you select an itinerary with reservations for the outward journey that gets there at some time after the return journey (also with an itinerary and reservations) selected? I believe WebTis offers this, and it's a useful function if you want to stop short due to it being cheaper etc. but still want an itinerary and reservations on particular service on the way back.

 

[ainsworth74]

I wonder if a 'show all' option on fare selection might be useful? An example I've just come across using Darlington to York ends up showing a hotchpotch of journey options/fares. Searching the above journey on 14 July at 1600 and leaving the default 'popular' option selected means that the booking engine tries to suggest that there is a two hour gap in service between 1706 and 1907:



For anyone who doesn't know that route has around five trains per hour at that time of day!

If you then go for value it then tries to suggest that there is only an hourly service throughout the period in question:



That seems to be because it's picking up only TPE.

Fast seems to do a better job of showing everything (as the journey times are quite similar across the three different operators) but it's fiddly to use as you can only see four results at a time (and remember there are a lot of services per hour) and clicking the later/earlier arrows seems to default back to the 'Popular' option which then starts excluding things again!

It seems like it would be a lot simpler if there was simply an 'all' option so you could scroll through a list of all the journey opportunities and their fares that meet your search criteria.

 

[fishquinn]

I've just tried to book some tickets (my first ones from TCBC) but have had a booking failed on both times. I think it was because my return journey left at the same time as my outward arrived on the first time, but I don't understand the problem the second time. I've attached a screenshot of the failure message the second time. I presume I haven't been charged for either?

 

[talldave]

I've just tried to book some tickets (my first ones from TCBC) but have had a booking failed on both times. I think it was because my return journey left at the same time as my outward arrived on the first time, but I don't understand the problem the second time. I've attached a screenshot of the failure message the second time. I presume I haven't been charged for either?

The other issue with that error message is that the London phone number is incorrectly formatted - the area code for London is "020", so it should be presented as "020 8989 3437".

[/PEDANT]