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England Train Journey Booking Options

Posted by (Tucson) on

I've been marching through National Rail as days in May become available for buying tickets and have saved a lot of GBP by buying in advance. (I admit I was ignorant about how National Rail works, and was surprised when I had to go somewhere else to actually buy the tickets.) I've gotten as far as I can get for now, but I hit a snag early on involving a trip from Moreton-in-Marsh to Bletchley.

I found the exact route I want, but National Rail bumped me to London Midland to buy it. When I tried to do that, I got error messages twice on 2 different days here (nights there). So I tried to get the same ticket through Great Western Railway (GWR), where I'm already registered and from whom I have already bought one ticket. But GWR does not show the option I want which has only 2 train changes. All their listings have 3. Also National Rail shows a price of 30.10 GBP for the journey with a Senior Card and GWR shows a price of 35 GBP.

Next stop, Live Chat with someone at GWR who told me that the National Rail option I want does not meet "guidelines" and recommended that I split up the journey into 2 segments and go to London first, then from London to Bletchley. Being the cantankerous type, I don't want to do that.

The 2 change route I want to take is Moreton-in-Marsh to Oxford on Great Western Railway, Oxford to Coventry on CrossCountry, and Coventry to Bletchley on London Midland. It takes longer than the 3 change option, but I don't mind that.

When I split this journey up, the advance Senior Card price from Moreton-in-Marsh to Coventry is 8.65 GBP for the exact same route. National Rail bumps me to CrossCountry to buy the ticket. The train on to Bletchley is 3.30 GBP. National Rail bumps me to London Midland for it, but in this case, it seems to work. Doing the math, the total price is 11.95 GBP, a little over 1/3 of the National Rail price for the same trip. Both CrossCountry and London Midland quote the same prices as National Rail.

Does anyone (looking at you, Nigel) know why this works this way? Is there any reason why I can't or shouldn't do this? I really would like to get the route and number of changes I want, and now that I know about the prices, also get the tickets at a substantial discount.

Posted by
2542 posts

You are trying to get a route that is complicated by the fact that you will be using 3 different companies. National Rail is the best site for figuring out the fares & the routes. When you make your choice and click BUY - it then switches you through to the 'dominant' company on whose trains you will be travelling (usually).

So, lets say that you showed up at MIM station today to catch an off peak (9.50 from MIM or later) and requested a ticket to BLY. You would be charged £30.10. Now, you are quite rightly getting a lower price by pre booking for future travel and discovered that by splitting the tickets at Coventry, you can get lower prices. So, my advice would be to do that. If it fails to accept your booking, try doing a split at Banbury - though it may work out a bit dearer. (Your Cross Country train will stop at Banbury but you don't get off).
If the Banbury split fails - try a split at Oxford.

Don't forget - that you must use the specific train for these pre-booked fares.

It is planned to re-build an old rail route to directly link Oxford with BLY & eastwards to East Anglia. Had this happened already, your journey would have been more straight forward.

It is possible that you would have had more responses with this question placed under 'England'.

Posted by
4181 posts

Thanks for the train advice, James. I debated with myself about where to put this. I'll take your suggestion and put a shorter version under England.

Posted by
33572 posts

There is no reason why you can't do the journey as you planned.

The reason the various computers are balking at one journey with those connections is that you are doing two things which confuse them.

The first is that you cannot backtrack on a journey, and by going onto Oxford and then north to Coventry and then south to Bletchley the computers see it as backtracking and get their electronic knickers in a twist.

Then by routing via Northampton you are putting delay into the journey, as most trains wait a significant amount of time at Northampton, as much as 20 minutes, before continuing south to Wolverton, Milton Keynes Central and finally Bletchley.

Most likely the same already knicker twisted lump of silicon now throws its electronic hands up at such a choice.

Now you and I are humans and we can see past all that, and realise that the route you have chosen makes loads of sense. By breaking your tickets up the way you have you don't upset any computers or offend and travel conditions, and you save money into the bargain.

Go for it.

By the way, your train from Oxford will probably be arriving at Coventry on platform 4. It has a habit of running a few minutes later.

The train to London (Bletchley) will be on 1 or sometimes 2.

If the Cross Country train from Oxford is sufficiently late to cause you to miss the LM train to Bletchley, have the platform staff at Coventry - all wearing distinctive red uniforms, and to a man and woman a particularly nice bunch of folk - endorse your LM ticket with the fact so that your tie specific ticket will be accepted. Don't make that connection too tight. Because you are doing it yourself the computer won't spit out a connection which doesn't meet guidelines. I'd leave at least 15 minutes, maybe a tad more.

The nice Pumpkin on Coventry platform 1 has been replaced by a Starbucks but there is a tiny Pumpkin on platforms 2/3.

When you get to Bletchley your will probably arrive on platform 4; there is a lift at the back of the train and a staircase at the middle. The lift between platform 1 and the way out is notorious for breaking down but at least the stairs are in the downwards direction.

Posted by
4181 posts

Thanks for the detailed explanation and advice. I'll be making this journey on Sunday, 8 May and I'll be sure to allow enough time for the Oxford to Coventry train to be late. It's arrival time is listed as 13:23 on Platform 4. The next train from Coventry to Bletchley, which has no change in Milton Keynes, leaves from Platform 2 at 13:44. That meets your suggested 15+ minutes of connection time. It is in fact the same routing shown on National Rail. There is another train, same price, same 0 changes that leaves at 14:44, in case I miss the 13:44.

But I am a little concerned about these phrases:

Advance : advance fares offer great value for money, you must book in advance and travel on a specific train. ROUTE OF TICKET AP LDN MID ONLY - Only valid on booked London Midland services and required connecting London Midland services.

This ticket is valid for this service only. You can get more flexibility by buying a different ticket.

Would the nice folks in the red uniforms be able to put me on that later 14:44 train if need be?

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