Just when I thought UK rail fare pricing couldn't get any more inexplicable ...

[Alex321]

My wife wanted to go from Oban to Helensburgh but had no option but to buy a ticket for Dumbarton 8 miles further on. The train stopped at Helensburgh Upper and she got off to be told passengers were only supposed to board there and not alight. She got off on the understanding she would not do it again.

There was a time when some of the London Paddington - South Wales had a similar thing at Reading. If you wanted to travel to Reading, you were supposed to catch one of the local trains.

 

[ColinJ]

Doesn't always give the best result. For a trip to Stoke on Trent later in the year, that website (and the Trainline & Greater Anglia's) gave me various options routing through Birmingham, Leicester, Derby & London, varying from £100 to £130 return. None of them offered the simple routing of Felixstowe - Peterborough (GA), Peterborough - Nottingham (East Midlands Railway) on one ticket from GA then Nottingham to Stoke on Trent with EMR on a second ticket for £65 return.

So far TS has always saved me a lot of money, but there is definitely something weird going on with your journey! I tried it the first time and got the price range that you mentioned. I told it that it must go via Peterborough and messed about with a few other settings and got the price down to 70-something with an extra change, and still more than the price you found. And why didn't it find that combination without prompting?

I might query it tomorrow and see if they can explain what is going on.

 

[mustang1]

Airlines often do something similar, except that they tend to come after you in such circumstances.

Yes I read about this a while.backnand thought it was bizarre. Then I watched a video about why the fare is structured that way and it all made sense to me. However, then next day I forgot (like I usually do) about the details of the video and now I don't understand it again.