Trainline question

Unfortunately this is what happens when you book too early and with a third party reseller. I am sorry that has happened to you.

Trainline have taken a gamble and sold you a ticket for a Sunday before the timetable was confirmed.

An incorrect gamble on their part.

Any Thameslink journey into London is the same price on the day as booked ahead.

You also didn't have to cancel your ticket and book again.

The way these things work is that, as the route through Blackfriars turns out to be closed for engineering work, your ticket would have been valid on a train to Victoria then the tube to Blackfriars. It is a shame that Trainline did not apparently tell you that.

As for 5 May LNER have not yet announced their timetable for that Sunday, which is a public holiday weekend.

They will be awaiting confirmation from Network Rail (usually at 8 weeks before, sometimes longer) of whether there is any engineering work happening that day which may close the line or affect journey times.

The 1055 train is a Lumo train.

Please don't make the same mistake again. Wait until LNER (the main operator) announce their timetable in early March. If you look for a closer Sunday you will see that LNER Sunday fares on mid morning trains are typically around £5/$7.50 cheaper than that Lumo fare. If the line is closed (a big if) at that point you will find out the true timetable. If there is a closure that Lumo train may not run at all, or end up being diverted.

Also $49.23 sounds high. Booked direct it is £37. Say it is $1.20= $1 that is about $44.50. So it sounds as if Trainline are charging you about $5 commission.

Lumo sell themselves as offering the cheapest fares. Sometimes that is so, and sometimes not, as theirs (like other train companies) are dynamic.

Your answer is so incredibly helpful. I havent booked the york ticket and will take your advice to wait. I read Trainline’s message carefully and it only gave the option to cancel. Luckily the fee was only $1 because I didnt get it back.

Third party anything isnt a good idea (I lost on an airfare during covid), but I went with the suggestion that its worth it to have all tickets in one place and that they often suggest ways to save (split fares). I have 7 train trips booked and did save a lot by booking early and can just hope there arent any major changes.

Thank you again for posting. I learned a lot!

So I overspent by $25 by using Trainline on 7 tickets. Lesson learned.

I have seen some of the split fares and am quite often unconvinced that is the best split. I have seen fares split- and half the split is on an untraceable fare type. While I hope that none of the split fare companies are doing anything naughty (apart from charging commission) it kinda worries me when I can't trace the fare basis they have used.

I also have a feeling in my water that they may split by which companies pay the most commission, rather than in an unbiased way.

The other thing that worries me is when they split a fare, but you stay on the train at the split station. An example would be Edinburgh to London Euston. That is often cheaper by splitting at Preston- you stay on the train but may have to change seat. But it is not unusual for trains to be turned round short at Preston due to lack of crew. So if the train is cancelled between Edinburgh and Preston, but starts at Preston, you are allowed to travel on the next Edinburgh to Preston, but then have to buy a new ticket on the next Preston to Euston as yours ran on time. Now in practice train crew may take sympathy on you, but they don't have to, legally.

Sure I do splits, but there is a subtle (maybe dark) art to doing them judiciously.

Any journey where I do a manual split I can almost always beat the splits by any of the online sites- totally not singling out Trainline.

Of course siphoning off revenue to third party profits also removes money which could be directly invested in the rail system.

You can't do it, but I have a case today (it keeps happening) where buying an Advance Ticket direct from a ticket machine, the machine has suggested a money saving idea to me which I didn't know existed, the online system didn't suggest and a ticket clerk couldn't have known to suggest. It helps that in the north we have very advanced ticket machines- far better than any in the London area-which it seems can almost read my mind.

You have a lot of knowledge and experience in split tickets! I think I have one or two that got scheduled that way. Planning an overseas trip can be daunting and the information you give is so helpful.

What I looked for mostly were direct routes because Im afraid of connecting to other trains and making a mistake. Once in Wales, I very nearly got off at the wrong stop but luckily asked someone. I know I paid more for a direct route but it does mean I can relax a little.
Ive learned quite a bit so thank you so much for posting!

I wanted to ensure that I got a particular ticket on two routes for May in Spain and I used trainline for this. It sounds like I've made a gamble and hope that my two routes won't get cancelled.

But what if they do get cancelled? They look like popular routes (Madrid to Granada and Malaga to Madrid). Do I have any recourse if these routes get cancelled? I'll post this in the Spain forum too. ugh. I had no idea about this....

Thanks.

Just because a stop on my route was cancelled doesnt mean yours will. As it gets closer to your trip, just monitor the train website for any changes. Be sure they have a way to contact you by text or email.