Just wondering how this could be explained - I was in Bath yesterday and
travelling back to Shadwell. According to National Rail an off-peak
single to Paddington was £31.50 (what the machine actually spat out was
a Super Off-peak single to London Terminals for that). However, a
search for Waterloo finds the cheapest ticket is £34.50.

Each was any permitted in routing terms, and given Waterloo is a
legitimate London Terminal (having changed at Reading) the £3
discrepency seems odd.

However, that's not what I came here to post about - given the tube
strike, my uncertainty of routing and my inability to find/see large
pink Oyster routing indicators I thought I would be cunning and look at
the price of a ticket straight to Shadwell as it's technically a
National Rail station. The quoted off-peak price? £58.00.

I'm not normally one to get het up about petty price disputes, but even
I have to admit that £26.50 for a Z1-2 single seems a little steep....

In message , at 10:07:24 on Thu, 1 May
2014, Someone Somewhere remarked:
Just wondering how this could be explained - I was in Bath yesterday
and travelling back to Shadwell. According to National Rail an
off-peak single to Paddington was £31.50 (what the machine actually
spat out was a Super Off-peak single to London Terminals for that).
However, a search for Waterloo finds the cheapest ticket is £34.50.

Each was any permitted in routing terms, and given Waterloo is a
legitimate London Terminal (having changed at Reading) the £3
discrepency seems odd.

That's because the £3 is the tube fare from Paddington to Waterloo, and
the journey planner is only showing the fastest routes. It's £31.50 to
Waterloo from Bath, change at Reading or Salisbury, if you specify "via
Clapham Junction" to show the slower trains.

However, that's not what I came here to post about - given the tube
strike, my uncertainty of routing and my inability to find/see large
pink Oyster routing indicators I thought I would be cunning and look at
the price of a ticket straight to Shadwell as it's technically a
National Rail station. The quoted off-peak price? £58.00.

Super off peak.

I'm not normally one to get het up about petty price disputes, but even
I have to admit that £26.50 for a Z1-2 single seems a little steep....

The difference is a result of the single to Shadwell only being £1 less
than the £59 return, whereas the single to Paddington is [much closer
to] half the price of the £55[1] return.

So based on the majority of ticket prices nationally, the anomaly is
actually how cheap the single to Paddington is.

Obviously something to watch out for when buying singles - the
opportunity to save money by splitting according to the possibility of
"x/2" vs "x-£1" rates for singles on different legs.

[1] With the cross-London portion of the return thus being £4.
--
Roland Perry

On 01/05/2014 10:49, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 10:07:24 on Thu, 1 May
2014, Someone Somewhere remarked:

That's because the £3 is the tube fare from Paddington to Waterloo, and
the journey planner is only showing the fastest routes. It's £31.50 to
Waterloo from Bath, change at Reading or Salisbury, if you specify "via
Clapham Junction" to show the slower trains.

Aha - thanks.


However, that's not what I came here to post about - given the tube
strike, my uncertainty of routing and my inability to find/see large
pink Oyster routing indicators I thought I would be cunning and look
at the price of a ticket straight to Shadwell as it's technically a
National Rail station. The quoted off-peak price? £58.00.

Super off peak.

Yes - unless you hover over the fare, nationalrail.co.uk only specifies
it as "Off-peak" but I now see it that it's a super off-peak.

I'm not normally one to get het up about petty price disputes, but
even I have to admit that £26.50 for a Z1-2 single seems a little
steep....

The difference is a result of the single to Shadwell only being £1 less
than the £59 return, whereas the single to Paddington is [much closer
to] half the price of the £55[1] return.

So this is a result, I presume, of FGW setting BTH-PAD and some other
op-co setting the price of BTH-SDE. I know that a few years back FGW
changed from off-peak singles being returns minus £1 to a more
reasonable value, so presumably someone else hasn't, even though 90%
plus of the journey is actually on FGW?

So based on the majority of ticket prices nationally, the anomaly is
actually how cheap the single to Paddington is.

For some measure of cheap of course! The peak single to get there the
day before was an eye-watering £93ish though, so certainly cheap in
comparison.

Obviously something to watch out for when buying singles - the
opportunity to save money by splitting according to the possibility of
"x/2" vs "x-£1" rates for singles on different legs.

[1] With the cross-London portion of the return thus being £4.
Got you - I thought I knew this stuff, but there's further
complications. One of those of course is trying to buy long distance
rail tickets from Overground stations who can sell them, but seem to
have little practice in doing so....

In message , at 11:17:02 on Thu, 1 May
2014, Someone Somewhere remarked:
I'm not normally one to get het up about petty price disputes, but
even I have to admit that £26.50 for a Z1-2 single seems a little
steep....

The difference is a result of the single to Shadwell only being £1 less
than the £59 return, whereas the single to Paddington is [much closer
to] half the price of the £55[1] return.

So this is a result, I presume, of FGW setting BTH-PAD and some other
op-co setting the price of BTH-SDE.

FGW sets both fares, but obviously have a different policy for the price
of singles on different tickets they set.

I know that a few years back FGW changed from off-peak singles being
returns minus £1 to a more reasonable value, so presumably someone
else hasn't, even though 90% plus of the journey is actually on FGW?

This is all FGW's "fault". Although I don't think we should discourage
them from offering more-reasonably priced singles on those flows which
they do.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at 11:17:02 on Thu, 1
May 2014, Someone Somewhere remarked:
I'm not normally one to get het up about petty price disputes, but
even I have to admit that £26.50 for a Z1-2 single seems a little
steep....

The difference is a result of the single to Shadwell only being £1 less
than the £59 return, whereas the single to Paddington is [much closer
to] half the price of the £55[1] return.

So this is a result, I presume, of FGW setting BTH-PAD and some other
op-co setting the price of BTH-SDE.

FGW sets both fares, but obviously have a different policy for the
price of singles on different tickets they set.

I know that a few years back FGW changed from off-peak singles being
returns minus £1 to a more reasonable value, so presumably someone
else hasn't, even though 90% plus of the journey is actually on FGW?

This is all FGW's "fault". Although I don't think we should
discourage them from offering more-reasonably priced singles on those
flows which they do.

There is presumably no super-off-peak ticket to Shadwell?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 11:19:13
on Thu, 1 May 2014, remarked:
There is presumably no super-off-peak ticket to Shadwell?

All the tickets mentioned in the thread are super-off-peak.
--
Roland Perry

On 01/05/2014 17:19, wrote:
[...]
There is presumably no super-off-peak ticket to Shadwell?


The East Coast site (and I imagine say others) will show a £34.50 Super
Off-Peak from Bath to "Zone U12* Londn" - that's Tube zones 1&2, but
Tube tickets can also be used on the London Overground (TBH I'm not sure
about the section south of Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction/ Crystal
Palace/ West Croydon).