London Banter - View Single Post - Through ticketing from tube to rail [part 2]

Roland Perry · March 2nd 10, 07:28 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In message , at 18:44:26
on Mon, 1 Mar 2010, remarked:

VT sell through Advance tickets with reservations only on their
services, e.g. Cambridge to Selly Oak.

Huh? Since when did VT have a through service on that route...

There's a VWC *and connections* ticket though.

The ticket they sell is an Advance from Cambridge to Selly Oak. You
can't buy a Cross-Country Advance from Cambridge to Selly Oak.

XC don't call at Selly Oak, do they?

Neither do Virgin Trains!

Do keep up, Roland.

But VT are selling a ticket *and connections*. The XC tickets on the
Stnsted-Birminham route seem to be inherited from a small number of
point-to-point fares available when it was operated by Central.

XC have been making much of how many of their
passengers in particular travel on other TOCs trains as well as theirs -
and that they run no stations, not even the ones (like between
Peterborough and Leicester exclusive) called at by no other TOC.

EMT has a presence on that line. There's always been one through train a
day (via Syston North Curve) and more recently there's a sole Melton
Mowbray to London train (via Corby).

So offering significantly fewer off-network Advance fares than other
TOCs is self-defeating, especially where other TOCs are an option, as
with Cambridge-Selly Oak.

I think this is an artefact of inheriting the route from Central.

The Cross Country
MD recognised when i saw him recently that wasn't too clever. ;-)

You have to split the ticketing at New St.

Not with Virgin who charge the same fare to Selly Oak as to New St. I
should perhaps have mentioned that detail earlier.

I understood that, anyway. VT are selling the "and connection" part, XC
aren't.

Virgin's Cambridge - New St Advance fares can be cheaper too, even if you
split your XC fares at Leicester which generally reduces the XC fare from
£16 to £14 each way. You can get £10 or £11 from Virgin if you pick the
right time.

There are direct fares at £6.50 and £8.50 in the fares manual. Maybe
they have a very restricted availability? The cheapest I can find with
some mystery shopping [1] is £10 (XC).

I almost bought an XC AP ticket from Stansted to Leicester recently (but
chickened out in case the plane was late). That was quoted at a very
reasonable £5.50 !!

Like I said, XC realise this is a bit sub-optimal now.

Yes, they should make some effort to import the same policy they
inherited from the V-XC lines to the CT lines. Although some would say
even that is confusing, because it implies that fare structures change
when the franchise changes, and yet many people are resistant to the
fares they are familiar with changing.

[1] eg 10am departure 29th April.
--
Roland Perry