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Author Topic: At LAST! - The Great British Rail Sale!  (Read 3344 times)
Mark A
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« Reply #15 on: April 19, 2022, 11:37:39 »

Rather predictably, CrossCountry's Advances cost more than the normal return fare.

This. *Every time*.

Mark
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ChrisB
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« Reply #16 on: April 19, 2022, 11:44:33 »

Not all of them don't for sure.
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grahame
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« Reply #17 on: April 21, 2022, 12:36:38 »

Harriet Williamson in the Independent doesn't thing much of the sale.

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The cringe factor of transport minister Grant Shapps shrugging his North Face puffer jacket on and off in front of a green screen is enough to put anyone off their spring getaway. But here we are, with the “Great British Rail Sale”, which promises more than one million discounted train tickets from 25 April to 27 May.

The catch? Most fare types aren’t included in the sale – such as Anytime, Off-peak (with a few exceptions), Seasons and Flexi-Seasons. The vast majority of discounts are on Advanced fares, meaning that you need to commit to a journey in advance. The discounts aren’t available on all routes, and connecting journeys on different train operators don’t qualify either.

One million tickets might sound like a lot, but it’s not when you consider how many rail journeys are usually made within a 33-day period – more than 160 million. Moreover, the sale and Shapps’s attempt at on-camera humour can’t assuage my suspicion that consumers are just being tossed a few crumbs to keep us semi-sweet.
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ChrisB
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« Reply #18 on: April 21, 2022, 13:38:59 »

Rabitting Simon Calder's piece - he of the doom-sayer reputation that goes all out looking to score points & has to grumble about the smallest problem....
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grahame
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« Reply #19 on: April 22, 2022, 15:53:27 »

The view from Andy Burnham in the Evening Standard

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Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the "Great British Rail Sale" is that, finally, something has arrived that has been subject to very long delays: an admission from the Government that rail fares in this country are way too high. Beyond that, though, I’m struggling.

For just one month, some passengers on some routes will get a glimpse of what it’s like to travel on the railways at prices permanently available to people in pretty much every other country in the world. And then, in May, the window on what rail travel should be like will be slammed shut again.

I can’t help but think it makes Grant Shapps this Government’s equivalent of Jim Bowen, the host of the old TV programme Bullseye. "Come and have a look at what you could have won," Jim used to say to his losing guests. “Come and have a look at what things were like before rail privatisation,” the Transport Secretary seems to be saying to people in their thirties and younger.
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ChrisB
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« Reply #20 on: April 22, 2022, 16:04:31 »

He obviously didn't use the pre-privatised railways. Of course, he may be too young. Nuff said. They were terrible
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« Reply #21 on: April 22, 2022, 17:30:10 »

He obviously didn't use the pre-privatised railways. Of course, he may be too young. Nuff said. They were terrible

I am old enough to have used the nationalised railway for 25 years; a mix of leisure, education and work journeys (but not commuting). Stations and trains often looked tired; punctuality wasn't brilliant, but never, ever, was I left stranded. Most journeys were enjoyable and rail was a positive choice for me. Some parts of BR (British Rail(ways)) were better than others; the good parts seemed to do very well at creating improvements with modest funding.

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Trowres
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« Reply #22 on: April 22, 2022, 17:49:43 »

Back on topic, some observations about the Great British Rail Sale:

1. Not very Great British, with Wales and Scotland doing things somewhat differently.
2. A great example of fragmentation, with no fares available covering more than one operator
3. Massive variation in what each TOC (Train Operating Company) has done - people in some areas luckier than others
4. The entry page at https://greatbritishrailsale.nationalrail.co.uk/ is supposed to list routes that are available, but doesn't list all of the available ones.

Point 2 is rubbing in the loss of direct SWR» (South Western Railway - about) services from Bristol to Waterloo and the forthcoming loss of GW (Great Western) Brighton services. You can get Frome-Waterloo Railsale fares, but not Trowbridge-Waterloo. RailSale to Brighton from GWR (Great Western Railway) land ceases with the May timetable change.

Point 3 - GWR have generally been quite good with a wide range of journeys. Not so SWR, who have provided only London fares, so, from Waterloo you could go to pretty much anywhere SWR, but if you don't live in London your choices are... Waterloo or nothing.

Point 4 - Plenty of examples, but I tried Whitby. The only fare listed is Middlesborough at £1.50. One has to experiment with journey planners / TOC websites to find that there are other £1.50 fares from Whitby (I recall Newcastle being one).

The prize for good value may go to Northern, who offer Carlisle-Nottingham via Leeds, with a railcard, for 95p.




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JayMac
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« Reply #23 on: April 22, 2022, 18:15:44 »

I've just booked a journey for 19th May from Appleby to Templecombe via Leeds and London.

Obviously, to take advantage of Rail Sale tickets I've had to split the journey. The tickets I've purchased are (Railcard duscounted):

Appleby to Leeds £0.95
Leeds to London King's Cross £23.40 (1st Class)
London Waterloo - Templecombe £21.10 (1st Class)

The first two are absolute bargains. The last one isn't a Rail Sale ticket, just the usual Railcard discounted SWR» (South Western Railway - about) 1st Advance. I could've got a Standard Class Rail Sale ticket from Waterloo to Templecombe for £9.80 on my chosen train, but decided to go for space/comfort over price. SWR are seemingly not offering 1st Class Rail Sale tickets. Nor are they offering Railcard discounts on the sale tickets, unlike other operators, and despite what National Rail says in their Rail Sale FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and T&Cs.




A not unexpected poor show from SWR. As far as I can gather they are the only TOC (Train Operating Company) not offering Railcard discounts on Rail Sale tickets.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2022, 07:59:33 by bignosemac » Logged

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« Reply #24 on: April 22, 2022, 19:32:16 »

He obviously didn't use the pre-privatised railways. Of course, he may be too young. Nuff said. They were terrible

I am old enough to have used the nationalised railway for 25 years; a mix of leisure, education and work journeys (but not commuting). Stations and trains often looked tired; punctuality wasn't brilliant, but never, ever, was I left stranded. Most journeys were enjoyable and rail was a positive choice for me. Some parts of BR (British Rail(ways)) were better than others; the good parts seemed to do very well at creating improvements with modest funding.

My experience the same for the same mix of types of journeys. 
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Mark A
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« Reply #25 on: April 27, 2022, 10:08:49 »

The window for travel having opened on Monday, it would have been churlish not to take the 06:43 from Bath Spa up to London to start two days of travel to visit friends and relatives. Especially as said 06:43 was pretty quiet from Bath and still plenty of seats from Reading. The big beneficiary was probably Transport for London - though Greater Anglia took a bite at the cherry with a fare from Stratford to Liverpool Street that the guy in the ticket office at Chelmsford did his best to mitigate by selling me a ticket from a station further out - fares from Stratford are a little naughty, and indeed there's a bit of an edge-effect issue with Oyster (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services).

Two most useful days travel that would otherwise have been completely unaffordable, and mostly on quiet services. The final part being the return journey to Bath on the 10:05 from Paddington on a Class 800, in the roof of each carriage of which something was emitting a loud 300Hz sine wave hum which was rather odd. Also, those trains - I know some people say its the track and some, the hard suspension as they're carrying a diesel power pack and associated stuff, but impressive track squeals from the adjacent one on Platform 3 at Paddington as it left, and when underway the train to Bath certainly provided a rough ride, probably even more noticeable when passengers are tired. The down line about 15 minutes out of Paddington particularly so, rough enough on a long length of plain line that I was starting to think - 'It's ok, one of these has recently taken a 30 mph crossover at 80 and stayed on the rails.'

Mark
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PhilWakely
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« Reply #26 on: April 28, 2022, 10:53:08 »

Just purchased a round trip Newport -> Swansea -> Shrewsbury -> Hereford -> Newport for this Saturday.

Using a Senior Railcard the cost was .....

Newport -> Swansea         £2.60
Swansea -> Shrewsbury    £5.60
Shrewsbury -> Newport     £5.20

Absolute bargain!  Shame about the Exeter to Newport return cost (£38.50), but still good value for money for the whole trip.
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Mark A
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« Reply #27 on: May 03, 2022, 11:00:06 »

Advance fares aside, did anyone encounter any off-peak discounted tickets?

Mark

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Mark A
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« Reply #28 on: May 09, 2022, 07:36:56 »

On a rale sale ticket on the 06:46 monday morning BTH» (Bath Spa - next trains) to Swansea. It's 35 minutes late at Bristol, and anyone heading for the likes of Llanwrda will be wishing that it'd run direct to Newport rather than on its booked path via Abbey Wood and Parkway where it's possibly going to get under the feet of the stopper that's going the same way.

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Mark A
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« Reply #29 on: May 10, 2022, 12:40:32 »

The Swansea train made up time and Heart of Wales passengers would have made the 9:28 departure from Swansea. They'd also have enjoyed sparkling clean windows on the HoW(resolve) train, which is good to see. I headed out to visit family.

Later, back to the station for the 8:22 with a connection at Newport for Bath Spa, which all worked fine-ish. Both the outward and both return trains were very quiet - the return Newport to Bath leg being the busiest. The train manager on the Bristol leg was keeping busy countering the effects from the info at Newport, which was that the train would detach the front two carriages at Bristol for onward travel to Frome. You can imagine what then happened - it depends what, at Newport, you call the front two carriages of a train that then reverses at Bristol. Also, the interior passenger information was for some reason convinced that every station east of Bristol was still Bristol Temple Meads.

Mark
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