[NTarrant]

The Trainline and others are all drawn through the ATOC/Netwrok Rail system which does not allow them to do that. The national fares namual has only been available in a format that allows split ticket website to be able to provide that service.

You can purchase a disk which has all the fares but you will have to trawl through the lot to find the fares and you have to have your wits about you in using the right fares against the restrictions.

[Shearer]

It is a very complex and incredibly interesting topic.
Split ticketing is a by product of the way British Rail split the country and while it looks counter intuitive there is a logic behind it.

One other thing to watch out for is that on some tickets, an “All Line Rover” can be cheaper than 2 or 3 day trips, especially in First Class at peak times. Although ATOC, typically, have made it slightly more difficult by introducing a peak travel period from London where the All Line rover is not valid. Happily you can get round it.

[NTarrant]

And another one is a season ticket which has no restrictions. I’m not sure of the destination but somewhere between London and the North if you are going to make three round trips in a week it is cheaper than three returns.

Some years ago I had a guy who lived in Manchester and was working in Blackpool. He was going for two days a week and it was cheaper to buy a monthly season from Chester to Blackpool than for four weeks buying two returns per week from Manchester to Blackpool (might not be the case now but it was 10 years ago)

[AMcWhirter]

I’ve trawled the archives and I wrote about cutting the cost of rail travel in our July-August 2012 issue.

The piece we published covers split ticketing, all-line rovers and season tickets.

Interestingly if you purchase a monthly season from London to Manchester it will pay for itself with just four or five trips – assuming you wish complete flexibility with your travel.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/archive/2012/july-august-2012/special-reports/cut-the-cost-of…-rail-travel

[superchris]

Bath_VIP – 16/07/2013 17:04 GMT

Bath VIP, Im sorry but any organisation who takes a commission is not going to help you reduce your cost, aka their income.

[Bath_VIP]

Yesterday, I purchased my first ever split ticket and what a revelation it was. I had travelled into London from Bath with a cheap advance first class ticket but I wanted to come back at peak time in the evening. Sometimes, advance peak fares are available but not yesterday so I bought a split standard class ticket consisting of London to Didoct & Didcot to Bath.

A normal anytime std class one way London to Bath is £57.75 with a disabled railcard but the split ticket is £35.30. However, when checking the tickets on trainline, I noticed that an off peak single was valid at peak hours from Didcot. The FGW site showed the same thing so I actually bought an anytime single for London-Didcot & an off peak single for Didcot-Bath for £27.75 is more than half price!

I’ve been criticising trainline for not offering split tickets but trainline do allow you to make multiple bookings on the same reference number. This means you only have to enter one reference number at the station ticket machine which makes the whole process painless. I don’t think FGW offer the same facility so I made the booking on trainline this time. There was an additional fee of £2.08 but for once I wasn’t quibbling because of the saving and convenience of the process.

Does anyone know if trainline do receive commissions from TOCs as superchris claims? I am not sure if they do otherwise why put a booking fee on the process? No other TOC adds booking fees (apart from Cross Country).

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

I think Trainline receive 5% commission on train tickets they sell (Any train company keeps 5% of the value of the ticket they sell – even if for other operators). A few years back it was 9% and is likely to move to 0% (like the airlines have) – if it has not already done so and I’m wrong on the 5%. Alex might know if this has gone down yet.

[canucklad]

Good TGIF to you Bath_VIP

You’re savings are indeed impressive…….I’m surprised the split ticketing web site doesn’t advertise more…….

But then again, if everybody started doing this how long do you think it would be before the train operators closed the loophole…

When I watched the BBC Scotland news report on the subject, it certainly didn’t paint Scotrail in a positive light…..quite the contrary…and the Scotrail official admitted that they needed to revise their pricing structure!!

I will guarantee you; it’s not going to be in our favour!!!

[AMcWhirter]

The Trainline is an agent for the TOCs.

It introduced a booking fee a few years ago. I asked it why. I was told that The Trainline’s commission rates had been lowered by the TOCs and that, as its average ticket selling price was not high (you must remember that leisure ticket sales dilute the average revenue per ticket) it had to bring in a booking fee to cover costs.

I would imagine that the TOCs still pay The Trainline some commission. Perhaps there are further incentives based on turnover. Who knows ?

But one must also note that The Trainline must pay a fee every time a customer uses one of the TOC’s ticket machines.

I was told this ticket machine fee was not cheap. That was another reason given for the booking fee.

[Bath_VIP]

Canucklad,

It may be different in Scotland but my understanding is that off peak & anytime fares are regulated and so TOCs can’t change them willy nilly. I did read something about the Scotrail issue but I suspect the Scottish government would have to approve the changes.

Alex, is Trainline owned by the TOCs? If not, then I would have thought that some lawyer could make a restraint of trade claim on behalf of Trainline if the TOCs are restricting their ability to sell rail tickets.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Forgive me for being cynical, but I think the fee is pure profit to cover the reduction in commission from 9 to 5% – I’m not sure there are any costs involved for the TOC/Trainline. The TOC’s have to have TOD machines for there clients who book through there own websites, and they way to the ticketing network is linked up there is no extra cost involved in printing a ticket offered by another ticket provider (e.g. – there is no fee for me to buy a St Pancras to Nottingham ticket on Midland Mainline and pick it up at Brighton station (Southern). It is actually cheaper for the TOC’s to drive people onto the TOD machines as it saves on queues at the manned ticket offices.

I use Split ticket when travelling to London in the peak hours. Instead of paying about £48 I think it is now for a Peak TravelCard from Brighton – I buy a ticket to Havant for £19-20 these days and then a TravelCard from Clapham for £10. Saves 40% roughly. Train just has to stop at Clapham. The Brighton to Havant ticket is routed any permitted – which allows travel via Clapham Junction (I do get the odd check though!!).

Another one – if travelling from Brighton to Guildford/Farnham (or station that way) – a peak return is close to £50. A return to Alton which is 2 stops further down than Farnham for a peak return is about £22-23 now. You are allowed to break your journey early on these tickets – so you can save £30 by buying a ticket 2 stops further. The lesson here is that it can be cheaper to but a ticket to a destination beyond the point you are travelling to. The reason is down to a) routings permitted,b) who sets the fare and c) whether the journey falls inside/outside the “London” zone – if applicable. A trip to a further point might mean company y prices the ticket rather than company x if there is mroe than 1 TOC who could in theory offer the route, and this might be cheaper.

Crazy!

[NTarrant]

Well done Bath. What Tim has said about the ticket to Alton is the same as I was talking about earlier in the thread that going further can be cheaper.

The Trainline is owned by Virgin and Stagecoach. The FGW site will allow you to put tickets in a basket and collect all under one reference.

[AMcWhirter]

The Trainline was sold off to a private equity firm a few years ago. It’s no longer owned by Virgin/Stagecoach.

It was up for sale last year but the current owners took it off the market as it didn’t achieve its £400 million asking price.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/privateequity/9418207/Low-bids-derail-trainline.com-sale.html

[TominScotland]

Slightly off topic here but we don’t seem to have the facility to address ferry issues on this site. There appear to be odd ticketing anomolies with the ferries as with trains and planes.

Just booked P&O for the Irish Sea crossing between Cairnryan/Troon and Larne. Return fare for the departures we wanted came to £358 with vehicle (crazy prices compared with the Channel, I know) but book two singles for the same dates and times and the total cost came to £306.

Any logical explanations please on the back of a post card to PO Box xxxxx, Ferrytown……….

[Bath_VIP]

It appears that FGW have finally twigged split ticketing!

I have been using split ticketing with a vengeance over the last few weeks and the savings have been significant. Last week I was updating my spreadsheet of split ticket options on the train when the ticket inspector came by. Clearly she could read my screen and immediately asked to check the subsequent sectors of my split journey. There was no hassle at all so clearly the staff know this is acceptable.

However, today on the 1600 back from London to Bath, I heard the ticket inspector announce over the tannoy before we departed a whole list of tickets that were not valid on this train. For the first time ever, I heard the guard say that split tickets (with Didcot as the split) are not valid on this train since it doesn’t stop at Didcot. This was correct advice but I have never split tickets explicitly mentioned before.

Has anyone come across this? It makes me wonder if the ticket inspector from last week has spread the word around FGW.

[Author]

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