Great Western Coffee Shop

I currently appear to have an issue with the GWR booking engine:

I am trying to book 3 adults  travelling between Didcot Parkway and Gatwick Airport with a Network Card.

Out date is 2nd July at 13:05 change at Reading.
Return Date is 9th July at about 14:00 (dependent on when the plane lands)

When I use the GWR booking engine for the return journey it is only offering me return journeys via Faringdon and London Paddington and no option to select the change at Reading only option.

The fare via Paddington is £100 whereas via Reading (with one change) it is £93 and the £100 ticket is not valid via Paddington in the evening peak hours (this would cost £265!).

At first I just assumed that the trains from Gatwick to Reading are not running on 9th July, but that isnt the case.

If I enter 'via Guildford' it offers me the £93 change at Reading only ticket.

What I don't understand is why does it not show me the £93 by default? Passengers can't be expected to know that they have to enter 'via Guildford' to get the cheapest fare?
Other ticket retailers do show the £93 ticket without using the via option.

So why does the GWR booking engine expect me to pay £100 or £265 instead of £93 and is this a bug or a feature?

All booking engines will quote the fastest services, not the cheapest, by default.

It shows you the fastest journeys, I'm afraid.

I wonder if the changes to the Reading - Gatwick service that made it twice an hour rather than once, but slowed all journeys down because the two trains share out the low-use stations rather than having a fast to Gatwick and a stopper to Redhill now mean that it's rare for this to be the fastest way any longer.

Surely the informed members of Joe Public will know to put in "via Gomshall" when they book, and the uninformed members won't know they haven't been sold the best fare.  A win for The Treasury  :D ;D ;)

Couple of points
1) Showing invalid options which only become valid when I spend £265 instead of £93/£100 would mean I would go by car so no money to the railway. Maybe there could be at least an option to show cheapest, slowest, fewest changes, type options although appreciate this could get complicated.

2) The Southeastern app shows the  £93 fare by default, with no options set. So that isn't the fastest.

It's interesting how we tend not to recommend The Train Line for its extra costs for delivery, etc, but then there are times that it will offer you combinations that you'll find hard to buy from GWR.  They may be worth those who are not fully understanding of the fares system (all of us, right?) paying them a little commission to save a lot of money.  The Virgin West Coast engine used to offer "this train will be overtaken" options, so it can be done ...

So what would YOU provide in tuning?   I have been using the Interrail planner a lot recently, and as well as from, to and depart or arrival time, I can select filters:
* Via (but just 1 per journey)
* No seat reservation required
* Interrail network only
* High Speed Trains only
* Night trains only
* Direct trains only
* One change max
* Minimum transfer time
* Modes - train, bus, boat and ferry, metro and tram
* Bike Carriage
.... and that's before you start considering prices!

Personal note - I read, I learn, I ask (here) and I do a lot of experimenting.     I don't always get it *best* - in fact I got caught out by a rule I had overlooked just on Tuesday when I came to buy a ticket.

https://tickets.railforums.co.uk/results?FromStation=7030300&ToStation=7054160&Adults=1&OutboundDate=02%2F07%2F2024&OutboundTime=13%3A00&InboundDate=09%2F07%2F2024&InboundTime=14%3A30&Railcard=NEW&searchBy=2&firstClass=false&flexible=false&selectionMethod=Grid

Plus of course the impact of the Elizabeth Line.

I would very strongly recommend the Trainsplit app (or its various web incarnations, such as the RailUKForums white-label mentioned by GBM). It's almost always cheaper and it's very easy to use.