Can you still get advance purchase tickets?

[Andy Kirkham]

With the current situation it's a while since I've made any train journeys. Recently I've tried planning out some journeys (on GWR and Cross Country) and I find that none of the ticketing options offered include cheap advance purchase tickets. Have they been suspended as matter of policy?

[jonhall]

It might depend on the date and specific route, a lot won't be available if the engineering timetable isn't set.

 

Jon

[woodenhead]

They do exist, but perhaps not in the volumes we were used to.

 

I remember planning to get to GETS and there quite a few West Coast Advanced tickets available but they did go quite quickly, but none for the Sunday.  It was only on the actual weekend I realised, it was also the London Marathon that weekend and probably explained why they went quickly on the Saturday and there were none for Sunday.

 

I can see tickets for January that are Advanced too and I've just taken a look at Cross Country for next week, it has some for the Manchester-WSM route, though it's cheaper to get an Advanced ticket via Newport and then go to Bristol/WSM using Transport for Wales

[Zomboid]

I was talking to someone on another forum about how they couldn't find anything but advance tickets for the journey they were making, so clearly they can be bought.

 

Depends on your journey and time I guess.

[KCL]

Not had a problem with advance purchased. Booked a couple of weeks ago on LNER for Huntingdon to Edinburgh (and return 4 days later) for mid December.  Using Senior railcard as well. £68 return standard class or £96 First class.  

[Hobby]

I've seen some real cheapos over the past few weeks when checking them, so the answer is a definite Yes, though as Woodenhead said there may not be as many issued.

[RedgateModels]

My lad went up to Leeds from Chesterfield on Friday to see his GF, outbound advance ticket £6.70, return a fiver. Booked through Trainline so add on the 80p booking fee. 

 

The free taxi (Mum) to and from Mansfield/Chesterfield are not a consideration to him though LOL

[Hobby]

Trainline are our nemesis, whenever people use it they seem to take ages to get it up on the screen, that's if they can find them, none of the other (mainly TOC apps) have the same issues. I've spoken to many people who avoid it like the plague!

[great central]

Trainline is merely a travel agent and no connection with the railway.

[ejstubbs]

22 minutes ago, great central said:

Trainline is merely a travel agent and no connection with the railway.

 

In principle yes - although I believe some of the TOCs do (or used to) use the Trainline booking engine.

[Chris116]

I have in the last week bought advance tickets to York, Beverley, Carlisle via Settle from King's Cross and to Okehampton from Clapham Junction. All obtained on the LNER app with no charges unlike Trainline who always charge you. I have never understood why anyone would use Trainline as it is always cheaper from any of the TOC websites.

[DY444]

19 hours ago, Hobby said:

Trainline are our nemesis, whenever people use it they seem to take ages to get it up on the screen, that's if they can find them, none of the other (mainly TOC apps) have the same issues. I've spoken to many people who avoid it like the plague!

 

I've never entirely understood why people pay a booking fee to access the same set of fares available on the TOC sites without a booking fee.  The power of marketing over common sense I suppose

Edited November 23, 2021 by DY444

[Zomboid]

Branding. The Trainline has a strong enough brand that people will use it and not know that they could buy a ticket from anywhere to anywhere using any of the TOC sites.

[Oldddudders]

Journeyplanner is the easy way to find a train, or series of trains, with fares to match. Walk-up fares are terrifying. Planning well in advance brings huge savings, as far as I can see.  

[Fenman]

11 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Journeyplanner is the easy way to find a train, or series of trains, with fares to match. Walk-up fares are terrifying. Planning well in advance brings huge savings, as far as I can see.  

Unless you have the misfortune to live on one of the many routes that offer no apex discounts — just the same “flat-rate” (= high) fares at all times. Check out the 100 mile route from King’s Lynn to King’s Cross. 
 

“We’re all in this together” except when we’re not. 
 

Paul

[phil-b259]

On 22/11/2021 at 09:45, Andy Kirkham said:

With the current situation it's a while since I've made any train journeys. Recently I've tried planning out some journeys (on GWR and Cross Country) and I find that none of the ticketing options offered include cheap advance purchase tickets. Have they been suspended as matter of policy?

 

The really dirt cheap ones were TOC initiatives and can be withdrawn at any time.

 

More expensive 'Advance' tickets are a hangover from BR and as such I believe have to still be offered as part of the national fare structure  - though TOCs can limit numbers sold / train validity.

 

Thing is 'Advance' tickets generally make a loss for TOCs - the reason they exist (and BR introduced them in the first place) is to reduce the loss that would otherwise be incurred by having those seats empty.

 

Given the Pandemic induced cuts to train services and the 'do minimum' attitude of the DfT (who have all the power now under management contracts or directly run TOCs it wouldn't surprise me that lower frequencies / shorter trains means there are less seats potentially ending up empty and thus less need to try and fill them with cheap advanced fares.

[phil-b259]

On 24/11/2021 at 07:41, Fenman said:

Unless you have the misfortune to live on one of the many routes that offer no apex discounts — just the same “flat-rate” (= high) fares at all times. Check out the 100 mile route from King’s Lynn to King’s Cross. 
 

 

Thats simply a legacy of BR!

 

Generally speaking ' Advanced' Tickets were only offered by the InterCity sector - hence you got them to destinations on the ECML, Norwich, etc.

 

The Kings Lyn service was operated by Network SouthEast, a commuter operation that simply didn't offer Advanced tickets to ANYWHERE (not just Kings Lyn - we are aslo talking about Exeter, Weymouth, Brighton, Dover, etc) as Policy!

 

Privatisation didn't really cause any significant change - so LNER and all their predecessors, being ex InterCity, offer 'Advance' tickets but GN as the successor to NSE don't. Not sure about GA as thats a mix of former NSE, RR and IC routes - but I suspect you can only get Advance tickets to ex IC stations.

 

 

[Zomboid]

9 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

Not sure about GA as thats a mix of former NSE, RR and IC routes - but I suspect you can only get Advance tickets to ex IC stations

A few years back (so might have been NXEA days) I got London to Cromer in 1st on an advance ticket for £13. Such things may have been available in BR days as the majority of the journey was on the former IC route, but the good deals were not just limited to the ex IC stations.

 

On the other hand, advance fares for a trip like Reading to Abergele were available, but no cheaper than the walk up fare so there's no point buying them.