Saturday morning blockade at Salisbury: ticket acceptance via Reading

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

For e.g. Bristol to Southampton, there's no ticket acceptance via Reading. Can't recall if there was when the line was closed for some time by last month's collision. If there was, and isn't now, that's inconsistent.

Mark

[stuving]

For e.g. Bristol to Southampton, there's no ticket acceptance via Reading. Can't recall if there was when the line was closed for some time by last month's collision. If there was, and isn't now, that's inconsistent.

Mark

I suspect the difference is between disruption - unplanned, and tickets may have been bought for a route now impossible - and engineering - tickets were bought knowing (in theory) the possible options. And going via Reading is always an option.

But that journey is odd, for tickets and pricing, in any case. The option via Reading (called "not via London") is nearly twice the price of the route via Salisbury (for the SVR it's £85.40 vs £37.10, though there is an SSR at £63.60). Why the higher fare? It's not as if it's quicker - quite the opposite. At the moment there are advances available via Salisbury (afternoon) but not Reading, making the difference even greater.

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)'s advance information points out that the route is run by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and refers you to them. GWR don't list any block at Salisbury in their advance information. For some shorter journeys GWR do say you'll be on a bus from Salisbury - but they say's it's replacing an SWR service! That may be true if the journey (like most during the day) does end up on SWR services, but even so the lack of alignment looks bad. Incidentally, the advance notice PDFs don't align in any case - GWR's as for Sat-Fri and SWR's for Mon-Sun.

[bobm]

This note was issued by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) and Network Rail on Monday

Network Rail engineers will be working on the tracks near Salisbury station, just outside Fisherton Tunnel, completing repairs to the railway damaged during the incident at the end of October.
 
Track through the tunnel and across the junction had to be replaced after the incident and naturally "settled" over the following weeks. As with any track renewal, engineers will work overnight and into the morning to "tamp" the track and make sure it gives a smooth and safe ride.
 
While this work is carried out, there will be changes to services through Salisbury, with minor alternations to the last trains on Friday 17 December and a replacement bus operation until early afternoon on Saturday 18 December.
 
Replacement buses will be in place between Salisbury and Andover and customers will be able to use tickets on Great Western Railway and CrossCountry services, via any reasonable route.
 
Full service information is as follows:
 
•   Minor alterations to the last trains through Salisbury on Friday 17 December
•   Rail replacement buses will run between Salisbury and Andover until early afternoon on Saturday 18 December, with revised train services either side of the engineering work
•   From early afternoon a revised service will run between London Waterloo, Salisbury and Exeter
Salisbury to Romsey via Southampton services will not run until early afternoon.
•   Replacement bus services will operate between Salisbury and Romsey
•   Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour services will terminate at Salisbury, with replacement buses available to Southampton Central
 
SWR tickets will be accepted on Great Western Railway and CrossCountry services, via any reasonable route. Please visit www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey and www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates for more information.
 
We've chosen this weekend to avoid clashing with other engineering works and further disrupting travel, but we appreciate closing the railway just before Christmas isn't ideal and we're sorry for the disruption the work will cause to passenger journeys.

[grahame]

This note was issued by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) and Network Rail on Monday

SWR tickets will be accepted on Great Western Railway and CrossCountry services, via any reasonable route. Please visit www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey and www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates for more information.
 

Good point, thank you, Bob.   But that's SWR tickets and they say nothing about the acceptance of GWR tickets being accepted on SWR (Or Cross Country) services.   Oversight, or a one way arrangement?

[ChrisB]

One way arrangement is my guess, with bus replacement for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway). Probablyvstill quicker than via RDG^‡(resolve)

[grahame]

This note was issued by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) and Network Rail on Monday

SWR tickets will be accepted on Great Western Railway and CrossCountry services, via any reasonable route. Please visit www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey and www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates for more information.
 

Good point, thank you, Bob.   But that's SWR tickets and they say nothing about the acceptance of GWR tickets being accepted on SWR (Or Cross Country) services.   Oversight, or a one way arrangement?

One way arrangement is my guess, with bus replacement for GWR. Probablyvstill quicker than via RDG^‡(resolve)

Here is what GWR has just offered me in tickets sales for a Cardiff to Southampton journey on Saturday morning



The earlier trains are all via Reading at super off peak single price of £85.80
The final two are both advance fares for specific trains - anytime day single at £48.10 via Salisbury offered on both of them

The alert on the 08:41 relates to potential discrunption on Cross Country
The alert on the final two trains related to potential disruption at Salisbury due to engineering works

The 10:30 from Cardiff is a GWR train to Salisbury and a short wait of 26 minutes here for an SWR train to Southampton

[grahame]

I was a bit worried about my previous answer and went back to the booking site and entered "via Sal" - got the same advance fare as offered from lunchtime, but with a bus which turns out to be slower. Here's an example - same timings give or take a minute or two an hour earlier and an hour later

[paul7575]

I think there’s a general issue with fares not keeping pace with routes when on diversions. 

SWT^▸ (South West Trains) (and now SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)) hardly ever organised route easements for diversions - they simply put the relevant  text allowing the diversion on their own and the national rail websites.  Obviously if you show up at a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) or ticket office your normal ticket ought to still be available, and you just buy it and go the long way round via Reading or whereever.   The problem is that online sales sites try and work out a fare for the diversion, and often fail so quote a combination of fares.

IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) during the problems at Eastleigh last year which meant down trains could not call for about a week  SWR never fixed the fares to allow  for example the advised “circulation via Winchester”

But there are other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) who put a reasonable amount of effort into short term easements to cover planned engineering works.

[stuving]

This note was issued by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) and Network Rail on Monday

But where was that issued, and who would see it? I think that was a press release, not intended for (and not likely to be seen by) passengers in general. Today, on GWR's site, I can't see that release - only the weekly listing I mentioned above. NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have a simpler version of the text bobm quoted, still dated 13th, and SWR have the same dated 15th and headed "Network rail press release". SWR also have a monthly listing page as well as the weekly PDF and that adds a new element:

Altered train services and buses replace trains in the Salisbury area until early afternoon Saturday 18 December

The lines between Andover and Salisbury, also between Salisbury and Romsey will be closed until early afternoon due to maintenance work.

Great Western Railway services will be affected by this work. Please see their publicity for details.

There is a reciprocal ticket acceptance between South Western Railway and Great Western Railway via any reasonable route. Tickets may also be used on CrossCountry services between Bournemouth and Reading.
[and lists their service changes]

That implies that SWR see via Reading as reasonable, at least for some journeys. But there is still the perennial problem of different advice given in different places.