I don't think this has had a mention on either uk.r or u.t.l. yet - I
only noticed it the other day.

In early October [1] new 'Advance' tickets were introduced on the
Stansted Express, at a cost of £12 each way (Stansted - London Liv St or
v.v.) - compared to £23.40 for a single or £32.80 for a return (Standard
class fares). An Advance fare is also available to/from Tottenham Hale,
cost £11.

https://www.stanstedexpress.com/offers/advance-fares

These are a bit different from regular Advance fares elsewhere on the
railway in these respects...

* They allow travel on *any* Stansted Express service on the specified
date (i.e. you are not restricted to travel on a particular train at a
specified time).

* They must be purchased 7 days before travel.

* They are not quota limited (at least there's no suggestion they are).

* No Railcard discounts.

* They're issued as either an "e-ticket" (aka print at home) or an
"m-ticket" (in this instance, as a simple SMS/text message) [2].

* Whilst this isn't explicitly spelt out anywhere I can see, it seems
they're only available from the Stansted Express website.


A regular complaint about the Stansted Express has been that it's too
pricey - this does now make it rather more competitive with the coach
services offered by National Express and Terravision (both operators run
competing services linking the airport to Victoria, Liverpool Street and
Stratford in east London).

It's quickly worth noting that Stansted Express have a couple of other
pre-existing offers which also bring down the cost...

* WebDuo - 2 adult return tickets for £48, equivalent of £12 each way.
As the name suggests, it must be bought online - no need to book days in
advance, though 1 hour needs to be allowed for before the tickets are
ready for collection [2].
https://www.stanstedexpress.com/offers/webduo

* GroupSave - brings down the cost to £8 each way for 4 people, £10.50
for 3 people, if buying a return.
There's no off-peak only limitation for GroupSave on the Stansted
Express as is usually the case elsewhere. They also offer a '5 for 3'
option (requires at least 3 adults in the group).
Unlike regular GroupSave tickets these are only available online from
the Stansted Express website - again, there's no need to book days in
advance, but 1 hour needs to be allowed for before tickets can be collected.
https://www.stanstedexpress.com/offers/groupsave


----------
[1] "Stansted Express introduces new Low-cost 7 day Advance - Travel to
the airport from just £12":
http://preview.tinyurl.com/StEx-Advance-introduced

[2] Ticket Booking & Collection:
https://www.stanstedexpress.com/tickets-fares/ticket-booking-collection

In message , at 20:46:03 on Thu, 12 Dec
2013, Mizter T remarked:
https://www.stanstedexpress.com/offers/advance-fares

These are a bit different from regular Advance fares elsewhere on the
railway in these respects...

* They allow travel on *any* Stansted Express service on the specified
date (i.e. you are not restricted to travel on a particular train at a
specified time).

* They must be purchased 7 days before travel.

* They are not quota limited (at least there's no suggestion they are).

* No Railcard discounts.

* They're issued as either an "e-ticket" (aka print at home) or an
"m-ticket" (in this instance, as a simple SMS/text message) [2].

* Whilst this isn't explicitly spelt out anywhere I can see, it seems
they're only available from the Stansted Express website.

Even if they don't get many points for their trains (including the
Stansted Express which is painfully slow, although they are quite new
and clean) Greater Anglia have introduced quite a lot of ticketing
innovations. Far more than any other TOC I can think of.
--
Roland Perry

On 12/12/2013 20:46, Mizter T wrote:
In early October [1] new 'Advance' tickets were introduced on the
Stansted Express, at a cost of £12 each way[...]

https://www.stanstedexpress.com/offers/advance-fares

These are a bit different from regular Advance fares elsewhere on the
railway in these respects...

* They allow travel on *any* Stansted Express service on the specified
date (i.e. you are not restricted to travel on a particular train at a
specified time).
[...]

I missed another important feature - if you buy a return 'Advance'
ticket (at £24 - or £22 from Tottenham Hale), then the return portion
can be used any time within 30 days of the outbound travel date - i.e.
you don't have to specify your return date.

Useful if for example plans change and passengers change their flights
(easyjet has flexible fares aimed at the business market, and the 'new &
improved, cuddly' Ryanair is set to introduce them soon), or there's a
significant flight foul-up of some kind.

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at 20:46:03 on Thu, 12 Dec
2013, Mizter T remarked:
https://www.stanstedexpress.com/offers/advance-fares

These are a bit different from regular Advance fares elsewhere on the
railway in these respects...

* They allow travel on *any* Stansted Express service on the specified
date (i.e. you are not restricted to travel on a particular train at a
specified time).

* They must be purchased 7 days before travel.

* They are not quota limited (at least there's no suggestion they are).

* No Railcard discounts.

* They're issued as either an "e-ticket" (aka print at home) or an
"m-ticket" (in this instance, as a simple SMS/text message) [2].

* Whilst this isn't explicitly spelt out anywhere I can see, it seems
they're only available from the Stansted Express website.

Even if they don't get many points for their trains (including the
Stansted Express which is painfully slow, although they are quite new
and clean) Greater Anglia have introduced quite a lot of ticketing
innovations. Far more than any other TOC I can think of.

Indeed. They have revolutionised my arrangements for business trips to
London.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 10:41:52
on Fri, 13 Dec 2013, remarked:
Even if they don't get many points for their trains (including the
Stansted Express which is painfully slow, although they are quite new
and clean) Greater Anglia have introduced quite a lot of ticketing
innovations. Far more than any other TOC I can think of.

Indeed. They have revolutionised my arrangements for business trips to
London.

And talking about their trains, they appear to have downgraded the
Cambridge-Ely-Norwich service to 2-car trains at the recent timetable
change. During the day that won't be too much of an issue, but if it's a
permanent thing, in the rush hours I can foresee quite a bit of over-
crowding especially between Cambridge and Ely.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
10:41:52 on Fri, 13 Dec 2013, remarked:
Even if they don't get many points for their trains (including the
Stansted Express which is painfully slow, although they are quite new
and clean) Greater Anglia have introduced quite a lot of ticketing
innovations. Far more than any other TOC I can think of.

Indeed. They have revolutionised my arrangements for business trips to
London.

And talking about their trains, they appear to have downgraded the
Cambridge-Ely-Norwich service to 2-car trains at the recent timetable
change. During the day that won't be too much of an issue, but if
it's a permanent thing, in the rush hours I can foresee quite a bit
of over- crowding especially between Cambridge and Ely.

Are you sure it wasn't just an occasional instance? They have 8 three-car
units, bought for the Anglia franchise and 4 two-car units bought for the
Cambridge-Norwich service launch in 2002.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 13:04:03
on Fri, 13 Dec 2013, remarked:

And talking about their trains, they appear to have downgraded the
Cambridge-Ely-Norwich service to 2-car trains at the recent timetable
change. During the day that won't be too much of an issue, but if
it's a permanent thing, in the rush hours I can foresee quite a bit
of over- crowding especially between Cambridge and Ely.

Are you sure it wasn't just an occasional instance?

When a 2-car turned up for my trip to Cambridge yesterday it confirmed
my suspicion - I'd only seen 2-car all week. The first day was last
Sunday, and I thought it might have been a substitution due to being a
Sunday, but it appears to have carried on all week.

They have 8 three-car units, bought for the Anglia franchise and 4
two-car units bought for the Cambridge-Norwich service launch in 2002.

They were using 3-car on the Peterborough-Ipswich too (quite a step up
from when the service was run with a dogbox). Today I'll try to look out
for specific trains.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 08:01:47 on Sat, 14 Dec
2013, Roland Perry remarked:

They were using 3-car on the Peterborough-Ipswich too (quite a step up
from when the service was run with a dogbox). Today I'll try to look
out for specific trains.

All three (CambridgeNorwich and PeterboroughIpswich) just now were
3-car. So the 2-car I've been seeing all week do seem to be the odd ones
out, if this keeps up all day.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at 08:01:47 on Sat, 14 Dec
2013, Roland Perry remarked:

They were using 3-car on the Peterborough-Ipswich too (quite a step up
from when the service was run with a dogbox). Today I'll try to look
out for specific trains.

All three (CambridgeNorwich and PeterboroughIpswich) just now were
3-car. So the 2-car I've been seeing all week do seem to be the odd
ones out, if this keeps up all day.

The 2-car units are meant for the Cambridge-Ipswich service these days. Use
of 3-car units on Peterborough-Ipswich is normal. They used to carry on to
Colchester or Liverpool St. The ending of services into Liverpool St (From
Lowestoft if not from Peterborough) released enough 3-car units to cascade
them to the Cambridge-Norwich service and 2-car units to end the use of
single car trains on Cambridge-Ipswich.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 15:00:18
on Sat, 14 Dec 2013, remarked:
They were using 3-car on the Peterborough-Ipswich too (quite a step up
from when the service was run with a dogbox). Today I'll try to look
out for specific trains.

All three (CambridgeNorwich and PeterboroughIpswich) just now were
3-car. So the 2-car I've been seeing all week do seem to be the odd
ones out, if this keeps up all day.

The 2-car units are meant for the Cambridge-Ipswich service these days. Use
of 3-car units on Peterborough-Ipswich is normal.

Yes, I know. What was interesting me is why there was a 2-car unit
passing Ely regularly last week (I didn't check which route, although my
Ely-Cambridge on friday was 2-car). I noticed that one of yesterday's
3-car had advertising vinyls on it, perhaps it was away having that
done.

They used to carry on to Colchester or Liverpool St.

For a few years, yes. But they changed their mind. Although it appears
they still stable them in Colchester because the first/last trains work
there rather than Ipswich.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/trai...12/15/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/trai...12/15/advanced

The ending of services into Liverpool St (From Lowestoft if not from
Peterborough) released enough 3-car units to cascade them to the
Cambridge-Norwich service and 2-car units to end the use of single car
trains on Cambridge-Ipswich.

And of course it makes Liverpool St-Ipswich 'all electric' again. I
expect these changes were done when some extra EMUs arrived (probably
321's cascaded from London Midland) a couple of years ago.

--
Roland Perry