Liverpool to Carmarthen - help needed.............

[whole diary]

[Clan Line]

My grandson wishes to travel from Liverpool to Carmarthen, and back. The itineraries all seem to route him via Crewe/Stafford/Bristol - to me, a simpler, and possibly quicker, routing would appear to be via Crewe/Cardiff (Crewe to Cardiff using the mid-Wales line). He has done this trip, to Cardiff, before.

Ticket will be an off peak return  + 16/17 Saver Card. Both ways on a Saturday

Can anyone offer any thoughts as to the use of the mid-Wales route as opposed to the Bristol route on this same ticket...........it would appear to be a shorter route too ! I think each leg of the route will be using a different ToC - could this affect it, or does this not apply to an OPR ticket ?

[PhilWakely]

£64.75 via Llandrindod Wells. Timings wise, there will be a big gap outward between 09:28 and 13:43

[Mark A]

To further trim the distance, is Liverpool - Chester - Shrewsbury an option too? Though, watch the connections at Chester perhaps as some aren't' good.

Mark

[Mark A]

The National Rail web site is happy to quote for... a route via Aberystwyth and then TfW^▸ (Transport for Wales)'s T1 bus - and also offers through fares, but not of the sort that people should buy - the site quotes Liverpool to Aberystwyth return as £44.05 but Liverpool to Carmarthen via Aberystwyth and the T1 bus as... £129.50 so possibly a prompt to explore split ticketing.

Mark

[Oxonhutch]

If it is one bus it should be capped at £3

[rogerw]

Route Hereford £64,75. Changing at Crewe in each direction. There are through trains from Crewe to Carmathan every 2 Hours

[Mark A]

If it is one bus it should be capped at £3

Looks as if TfW^▸ (Transport for Wales)'s fares cap is currently at £4 (with exceptions, one of which is for the 'T1C' service...).

Mark

https://traws.cymru/en/changes-fares-selected-services

[ChrisB]

My grandson wishes to travel from Liverpool to Carmarthen, and back. The itineraries all seem to route him via Crewe/Stafford/Bristol -

Because the planners are programmed to provide the quickest journeys via valid routings....If you want the 'shortest'/fewest changes/different parameters, you need to specify - using the 'via' tool

[Trowres]

The £64.75 fare is from "Liverpool Stations".

In spite of this, the National Rail Journey Planner cannot seem to cope with the return destination in Liverpool being different from the Origin (e.g. Lime Street vs. Central). It merely says:

We have been unable to find a valid fare. Please re-plan your journey

Note: the £64.75 Saver fare carries the 8A restriction - meaning that it is not restricted by time of use, on any day of the week. However, break of journey is not allowed (until recently was allowed on return journey, but no longer?...)

[Clan Line]

Many thanks for all the helpful comments. It seems you have to be "creative" and careful about what you ask for ! I did try "via" to get the route I was after, but sometimes the result was telling me to get off at a "via" station and get the next train on from there - even though the train I had just got off went to the same place. Most odd !
Eventually I learned to get what I was after. Two changes on the outward leg and only one on the return leg. Still a long ride for him though ! Must tell his mum to give him plenty of sarnies for the trip. £64.75 for an OPR, not too bad !

[Clan Line]

PART 2

I bought the tickets from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) (mad panic to post them to him ........ONLY paper tickets available for this trip - but the tickets have a QR^▸ (QR Code - Quick Response code (2D bar code)) code printed on them ?) the more I look at this, the more I scratch my head. The itinerary I was presented with when I bought the tickets has 4 changes shown, not 2 that I got originally from GWR a few days back.

Examination of RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) shows that the (original) through train from Crewe to Swansea is running......
The new itinerary tells him to go from Liverpool to Crewe on an Aviva train - which goes on to Rugby. Ten minutes later he has to board another Aviva service to get to Stafford - this train starts at Manchester and also goes to Rugby. Even closer examination of RTT shows that BOTH of these trains stop at Stafford !

I have told him to get the through train to Swansea from Crewe...........luckily I kept a screen grab of the original itinerary to give him, in case anyone queries why he is on that through train.

I can, perhaps, understand the 4 change route - it is marginally quicker, but 3 of the 4 changes are not overly generous with the time - room to lose that benefit by a missed connection. ............but to tell you to get off a train which goes to where you need to go and then get onto a different train to the same place, that one escapes me completely

I was bored..........the 4 change route is 31 miles longer too.