I am trying to plan a trip to London beginning of October but for the life of me cannot get access to booking a train that far ahead, am I doing something wrong? surely people don't have to wait until 12 weeks before departure to plan a simple trip in this country?
I think Jeannie that is the way it goes. Once I wanted to book a cheap advanced single ticket to London, but couldn't get the cheap advanced single ticket back to Cornwall until that date got to 12 weeks.
RP
It's been "12 weeks prior to travel" for years. Such a pain when you are trying to plan ahead!
Being in the industry, the reason you can only book 12 weeks in advance is due, so I have been reliably informed, down to Network Rail. They are who we lease the tracks from, therefore we are beholden to them telling us about engineering works. The major jobs are planned well in advance but the odd jobs pop up unexpectedly so can be scheduled in within 3 months. Week-ends are a bit of a no-no for travel as all companies tend to have some sort of engineering going on then.
The other complaints we get about booking cheap tickets is that 'I don't plan my life 3 months in advance' so they moan they can't get cheap tickets! We can't win either way! 🙂 Please pm me if you want any tips nearer the time for ticketing advice.
Please pm me if you want any tips nearer the time for ticketing advice.
Thanks all for replies, So it looks like I should be able to book from July for beginning of October. Serewen I will certainly pm you for any advice, thanks. Thing is you know it is hopeless trying to plan, we have seen a lovely houseboat and it is obviously popular, I can see what will happen, we will then be able to book the journey but then the houseboat won't be available. I thought I will try Easyjet, cheap flights but can't get any info up for October with them either, eee my goodness what a to do :046:
It's been a problem for me too. There have been times I have wanted to book a flight at a far away airport about 9 months before I go but not even been able to find out what times the trains are running until 12 weeks before. Then I've worried that there wouldn't be a train to get me there on time.
Timetables change in May and December. Always check travel times if you go on a week-end as engineering can be posted on the Wednesday prior to the week-end. Please don't blame the train companies, it's down to Network Rail! 🙂
p.s. in my experience it's rare for there to be huge time changes as it would cause too many complications with train paths.
Hi Serewen we have seen an ad in our local paper about £11 train journey to London (do you know anything about them?) I wonder if they are restricted to certain days/hours? I notice they also have £7 to Edinburgh. All sounds good eh :p
Hi Jeannie, usually the train operator in your area will have the details on the £11 tickets. Sometimes they are only particular to a certain area. We have an issue with London Midland running specials that you can only buy from them. The general public don't understand we aren't all the same company. Most train companies will do advance tickets that can start reasonably cheaply but they are date and time specific. Quite often we can book someone outwards but the return date isn't open. The customer then has to decide if they can afford to leave the cheap outward ticket incase they can't get one to come back! Or buy the cheap one and hope to get one later to return. We groan as well as the customer.
Don't always use a company like Trainline. Try the specific train operators website for your area. Ours doesn't have a booking fee and they are slightly cheaper than we can sell at the booking office.
Ah thanks for replying Serewen, I will check out the Northern Echo on Thursday see what it is all about. 🙂