SRTA uncovers rail website fares rip-off for this weekend
Site of a previous train robbery
An investigation by the Sevenoaks Rail Travellers Association has uncovered that the rail industry’s main website nationalrail.co.uk is quoting the “cheapest” Sevenoaks to Charing Cross return fare for Saturday 10 January of £27.80 – over double the proper fare of £11.60.
The Southeastern website also only offers return tickets with a Travelcard supplement – £15.20 rather than £11.60 – even though another part of the same site says that rail tickets without the supplement will be accepted free on the tube.
We’ve already reported on the major engineering works at London Bridge for the weekend of 10-11 January – during which Sevenoaks fast trains will be re-routed to Victoria. Southeastern say that rail tickets will be valid on the Underground from Victoria to Charing Cross. So the adult fare should be the usual off-peak return at £11.60, shouldn’t it?
Not according to the rail industry websites! If you trust the rail industry to sell you a ticket you won’t get the right ticket – and you could end up paying as much as £27.80!
On Southeastern’s own on-line ticket sales site a Sevenoaks to Charing Cross journey for Saturday 10 January is shown as a diversion via Victoria. However the cheapest return ticket is shown as a Off-Peak Day Travelcard at £15.20 (screenshot). Basically it’s telling you to buy a tube ticket you don’t need.
It gets worse, much worse. On the National Rail Enquiries website (often seen as the “one version of the truth” by the rail industry) the diversion via Victoria is also shown. But the quoted fare for Saturday 10 January is £27.80! What’s more, this is explicitly said to be the “cheapest fare” (screenshot).
It’s said that this is an “Anytime” fare, so the system clearly does not recognise that all fares are off-peak on Saturdays. Yet it is not clear what this £27.80 ticket actually is – an Anytime Day Return from Sevenoaks to London is £21.80 and an Anytime Day Travelcard from Sevenoaks is £27.40 (and that’s the highest price on the Southeastern site). If you try to purchase this ticket then Southern/Thameslink, South West Trains and Trainline.com will happily sell you it (interestingly if you select the Southeastern website as ticket provider it requotes with their own price).
This is not just a problem for Sevenoaks. For Dartford, for instance, the National Rail Enquiries site quotes a cheapest return fare to Charing Cross of £22.40 for Saturday 10 January (screenshot) and the Southeastern site quotes the cheapest return ticket as a Off-Peak Travelcard at £12.80 (screenshot) – whereas the fare to Charing Cross on Saturday should be an off-peak return of £9.20!
In short Southeastern have fed the details of the engineering works re-routing into their website but have failed to tell the system about the agreement on Underground ticket acceptance in the pricing rules. That’s at least an explicable error. And, in response to our questions, Southeastern did say that they are aware there are issues relating to ticket pricing on their website and are currently working on a solution that resolves this.
On the other hand National Rail Enquiries have also used the details of the engineering works re-routing but are then quoting a very high fare – higher even than the usual maximum, a peak-hour Day Travelcard. Their system does not even appear to know that Saturday is an off-peak day. That’s very hard to explain or to excuse.
Some people might think that not content with inconveniencing passengers due to weekend engineering works the train companies are trying to rip them off as well.
It certainly adds to the doubts about whether train companies can be trusted to sell you the cheapest ticket for your journey.
Notes:
(1) Screenshots take on Monday 5 January at 1400
(2) The Southeastern Engineering Works webpage (archive) says for the London Bridge work on 10-11 January:
Valid train tickets will be accepted as follows:
On London Underground in each direction and by any reasonable route between Blackfriars, Canada Water, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, Embankment (for London Charing Cross), London Bridge, Southwark (for London Waterloo East), Waterloo and Victoria, underground stations.
There is no “peak” or “off-peak” Travelcard any more. There is just one product (except for some users north of the Thames in zones 7-9). So, whilst the website may be wrong in some respects, it is not as wrong as you think it is.
That may be true within the Travelcard area itself, but Sevenoaks is outside it. So we have to buy a ticket with a travelcard add-on. For peak journeys that a “Anytime Day Travelcard” for £27.40; for offpeak it is a “One Day Off Peak Travelcard” for £15.20. We’d like to be in the Zonal area, but we’re not.
The left hand of Southeastern needs to speak to the right hand !
On the one hand, they say you CAN’T use SER tickets at Victoria Underground. http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/thameslink/january2015/january-tickets/ Similarly, if you buy a ticket on the SER website, it says that you need a Travelcard costing £3.60 more.
On the other hand, SER say you CAN use SER tickets at Victoria Underground on 18 Jan when Charing Cross is closed. “Valid train tickets will be accepted as follows:
“On London Underground in each direction and by any reasonable route between Blackfriars, Canada Water, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, Embankment (for London Charing Cross), London Bridge, Southwark (for London Waterloo East), Waterloo and Victoria, underground stations.”
The SER call centre on Tonbridge 378751 is equally confused, firstly saying that tickets wouldn’t be valid, eventually backtracking only when reminded that the National Rail Journey Planner advises you to go to Victoria and use your SER ticket on the Underground.
What a way to run a railway !