Strange train pricing (again).

[Brandane]

I was looking at train fares from my local station to Lockerbie (southern Scotland, on the west coast main line) as I am thinking about doing a ride from there to home over the weekend coming.
A single to Lockerbie was coming in at £23.60

On checking fares to Carlisle, the next stop south on the same line, the cheapest fare comes in at £20.30. Then it struck me - the fares are both for the SAME train! (Edit - the 0906 from Glasgow central, arriving Lockerbie 1007 and Carlisle 1028)

No prizes for guessing what I will be doing, if I decide to go ahead and do this ride....

 

[User33236]

Just bear this tale in mind:-

https://conversation.which.co.uk/travel-leisure/petty-train-fines-for-getting-off-early/

 

[Cycleops]

Try using https://www.thetrainline.com/ for cheaper fares.

 

[Brandane]

Just bear this tale in mind:-

https://conversation.which.co.uk/travel-leisure/petty-train-fines-for-getting-off-early/

Interesting . But IIRC there are no barrier checks at Lockerbie, so unless the train guard manager is there to physically stop me getting off, then they better be able to run faster than I can ride!
Edit - It's Trans Pennine trains, not Virgin, so they don't have your bike locked away being held to ransom!

 

[Brandane]

Try using https://www.thetrainline.com/ for cheaper fares.

On this occasion, TL is coming up with exactly the same fares as Scotrail.

 

[Bollo]

It's the exchange rate between Scottish and English pounds.

 

[Crackle]

Lockerbie: Brandane, nae, we don't want him, put the fare up
Carlisle: He's not on the list, let him in.

 

[Brandane]

It's the exchange rate between Scottish and English pounds.

It's the desperation to get us big spending, generous Scots over the border into England.

 

[robjh]

If you buy a Carlisle ticket but get off at Lockerbie, I daresay you wouldn't have any problems at the station - the National Rail site says it has no ticket gates so it's unlikely anyone would try to look at your ticket there - but if your train is a Virgin West Coast electric train then the conductor/guard has to unlock the bike compartment for you, and you could conceivably have some explaining to do there. Some of the Virgin WC trains are operated by diesel units where you load and unload the bike yourself, so no problem, but I know of no way of finding out which type of train would operate a particular service on a particular day.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It's the desperation to get us big spending, generous Scots over the border into England.

Big spending? So you will be going for the more expensive fare?

 

[Brandane]

If you buy a Carlisle ticket but get off at Lockerbie, I daresay you wouldn't have any problems at the station - the National Rail site says it has no ticket gates so it's unlikely anyone would try to look at your ticket there - but if your train is a Virgin West Coast electric train then the conductor/guard has to unlock the bike compartment for you, and you could conceivably have some explaining to do there. Some of the Virgin WC trains are operated by diesel units where you load and unload the bike yourself, so no problem, but I know of no way of finding out which type of train would operate a particular service on a particular day.

Just edited my post above to say it's a Trans Pennine service so the bike stays with you in the passenger carriage. Which obviously makes my escape plan easier .

 

[Brandane]

Big spending? So you will be going for the more expensive fare?

No; and I won't be going to England either. But that doesn't alter the fact that it is a ploy by TP express to tempt us across the border.....

 

[Cycleops]

It's the desperation to get us big spending, generous Scots over the border into England.

There are also some ‘careful’ spenders south of the border too. They say a Yorkshireman is like an Aberdonion with the generosity squeezed out.

Wait until you’re sixty then you can really start making some savings.

 

[Brandane]

Wait until you’re sixty then you can really start making some savings

It'll be like pensions though - they'll have moved the goalposts by the time I get there; and that's now less than 5 years away .

 

[Cycleops]

That would be a shame. Last time I was over I got a first class ticket from London to Sheffield for sixteen quid, one way, combining my senior rail card and Trainline.