Stymied by Trainline Site and Rail Travel in General

Engineering works?

Who knows? How is it even possible to tell?

If you break this journey down into it's two parts Brockenhurst to London Waterloo and London Marylebone to Haddenham and Thame Parkway you will see that tickets are available for that Sunday for the two parts. Booking the two parts separately is also far cheaper than booking it as one journey on all Sundays after 2 June currently.

You take the Bakerloo line London Underground line between Waterloo and Marylebone.

One very important thing to remember is that a railway in the UK will ALWAYS have service. This travel is on a Sunday which is a favourite day for engineering work. When that happens, meaning that trains can't run a bus service will always be provided around the work site.

This date is about 9 weeks in the future which is a very long time indeed for engineering work planning. Looking at the Chiltern website they do not currently have engineering work confirmed for any Sunday after 2 June.

Really you are making the classic mistake of trying to book too soon. It is 100% guaranteed that you will get there- whether that is all the way on a train, or part of the journey on a rail replacement bus is a matter of conjecture currently.

Instead of trainline when looking at schedules, use the official UK train website:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk

Thank you very much for your reply. I know it's a long ways off and was mostly just feeling around to see how to get from place to place, times, etc. But having zero options available for this one day blew my mind. The last time I visited the UK - to visit your own beautiful Lake District, as it happens - the rail went on strike and I had to hire a car from Manchester. $$$!

How far in advance IS too far in advance? (Being a better safe than sorry sort of person, I'll probably end up buying all my rail tickets too early.)

Seeing that Brockenhurst to Oxford is available and could get a taxi from there brought my heartrate and hyperventilating down a notch. Still .....

I should add that both National Rail AND Trainline fail to offer any options for this date.

Well if there is a possibility of engineering works then neither of them will have information yet, will they? Nobody will. I wouldn’t stress over it.

Thanks. I'll try....

On a Sunday I would argue that much more than 4 weeks is too far in advance.

It varies by line, day of the week and circumstances.

The interesting thing is that if you look on 2 June (the last Sunday with tickets fully released currently) train specific fares of £23 Brockenhurst to Haddenham (including the cross London Tube fare) are on for £23.

Whereas a Marylebone to Haddenham ticket for that day is £26!! Make sense of that.

On 16 June, because the cheap tickets are not yet released the through fare is £81- the fully flexible fare.

EDIT- By the way Brockenhurst to Oxford avoids crossing London. That is Brockenhurst to Southampton then Southampton to Oxford- which has it's benefits. If you're happy to take a taxi from Oxford and it gives you peace of mind then at £35 take that if you want. At least you know you won't be put on a bus somewhere.

Thank you! I very much appreciate your help, everyone.