Trying to book a Crewe to London ticket : Timetable Unconfirmed?

[lancededcena]

I'm trying to book a London to Crewe return trip from the 3rd August to the 7th August (using 16-25), however there is no return advance tickets for the 7th August or the 8th?

Monday however shows tickets available:


Usually I can make advance tickets easily for the weekends and usually do it this far in advance unless if this is normal and should I wait for the ticket sales to come through again? Would I just be better off buying a single ticket from Crewe to London with LNWR rather than just waiting for Avanti advances to come around, or does this mean that there is planned engineering work on the WCML (would be really upset if that was the case).

Thanks for the help!

 

[Hadders]

Advance tickets for weekends tend to be going on sale very late these days due to late confirmation of the timetable. Recently for example Advance tickets for Avanti services on Saturday 29th May were not available until 8 days before the date. There are legitimate reasons for this but to be honest from a passenger point of view it's an absolute disgrace.

 

[Watershed]

Weekend Advances are released later because that is when major engineering works tend to happen, and the timetable for those dates won't be confirmed until around 6 weeks before (on current timescales). Weekdays can safely be released for sale a long time in advance because the operator knows there isn't anything that will affect the timetable.

That doesn't necessarily mean there are major engineering works on that weekend - it's just the way the process works.

 

[185]

Would I just be better off buying a single ticket from Crewe to London with LNWR

Perhaps advance singles, but I wouldn't buy LNR Off Peak Singles (£38.10) / LNR Super Off Peak Singles (£33.60) - worth buying a return, Off Peak is a few quid more for a return (£45), Super Off Peak Return is practically same price (£34.60) - Avanti's non-stop is 1h35 on the Manchesters, whilst LNRs quickest stopper is 2h04 for a lot cheaper.

Should note, Avanti recently had a weekend (Easter) where timetables were not being confirmed until the actual same day... sort of pointing the finger Network Rail, who in turn blamed Avanti for submitting the path requests late.