TVM not offering lowest fare

[deltic]

Yesterday I traveled from Vauxhall (London) to Wool and went to buy a day return ticket from the TVM and was taken aback when it quoted a fare in excess of £100 - having previously looked on-line I was expecting a fare around half of that. So I went to the ticket office and brought the same ticket for £57 - I presumed that as it was just before 9am perhaps the TVM wasnt selling off peak fares.

But looking at the National Rail website it quotes both £57.30 and £106.20 as any time return fares between Vauxhall and Wool

Why are there two very different priced fares for the same journey and why didnt the TVM offer me the lowest priced one?

 

[telstarbox]

£106.20 is the Anytime Return fare (SOR, valid for 1 month) and £57.30 is the Anytime Day Return (SDR).

 

[soil]

Clapham Junction - Wool would have been £48.90.

Splitting at Basingstoke would reduce it to £46.40 and allowed Network Railcard on the Basingstoke-Wool section

 

[deltic]

£106.20 is the Anytime Return fare (SOR, valid for 1 month) and £57.30 is the Anytime Day Return (SDR).

Thanks - But the anytime day return fare did not come up as one of the options on the TVM!

 

[button_boxer]

Thanks - But the anytime day return fare did not come up as one of the options on the TVM!

I'm not sure if it's still the case but when I was living in Derby the default option on the "popular destinations" screen at Derby TVMs when buying a return ticket to Sheffield before 9am was the £30+ Anytime Return. To find the ~£18 Anytime Day Return you had to explicitly select the "other fares" button.

After 9am it offered the Off-Peak Day Return by default, and to get the Off-Peak Return you had to select "other fares"...

(prices may be out of date, I've not had reason to check them recently)