News:

Welcome to the WM Buses in Photos Forum! New and existing members are kindly reminded to respect and abide by the Forum Rules that are in place here.

Main Menu

Arriva are complete and utter rip off merchants!

Started by Tony, April 05, 2014, 10:09:24 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Tony

I have got to go to Newcastle upon Tyne sometime in the near future (at least NX are paying thankfully).

Any train arriving in Newcastle before 12:30 requires an anytime return priced at £211

Birmingham - Sheffield Anytime return is £82.50
Sheffield -   Newcastle Anytime return is £88.50

Saving £40 with exactly the same validity (return anytime within as month).

Isle of Stroma

Save even more with alternate routes, splitting at either Manchester or Grantham will save you a further 20 notes or so ;-)

the trainbasher

Have you tried checking for advances?

Or if 2 of you are travelling together on the same service a two together railcard?


All opinions and onions mentioned on here are mine and not those of any employer, current, past, present or future, or presented as fact, unless I prove it otherwise.

BU07 LGO

It would be cheaper to go off peak the day before and stop in a Travelodge and return off peak?

Tony

Quote from: the trainbasher on April 06, 2014, 12:28:09 AM
Have you tried checking for advances?

Or if 2 of you are travelling together on the same service a two together railcard?

Yes, of course I have, but Arriva NEVER put there cheapest advertised advances on any useful train, I haven't EVER managed to find one of there cheapest advertised advances on ANY train even 3 months in advance! An as I said in the original post the cheapest fare is £211 - no advances whatsoever on any morning arrival. As i am only going for the day the cheapest way of doing it is actually anytime day return to Derby, then off-peak day returns Derby-Sheffield; Sheffield-York; York-Newcastle which comes to a total of £108.

Arriva Cross-Country are the only train company I really dislike. The difference between when Virgin ran it and Arriva is untrue

Isle of Stroma

As you know, it depends on when you travel & how much notice you have before you need to book.

Maybe a better 'two fingers to Arriva' option is:
VT advance B'ham-Carlisle from £33 (book before day of travel) or £85 off peak (bookable on day) +
Carlisle-Newcastle £8 (advance) or £31 (on day)

Rail fares are a complete minefield, before individual toc's start playing the system. A few years back, I was asked to do a day at Bath Spa, by splitting my tickets at Cheltenham, I saved 50% of the advertised through fare. Like you, my employers were picking up the tab, but I failed to see why they should be milked, particularly as I was travelling on EXACTLY THE SAME TRAINS as the full fare option.

Tony

Quote from: dave47549 (no longer NEL111P) on April 06, 2014, 12:58:45 PM
As you know, it depends on when you travel & how much notice you have before you need to book.

Maybe a better 'two fingers to Arriva' option is:
VT advance B'ham-Carlisle from £33 (book before day of travel) or £85 off peak (bookable on day) +
Carlisle-Newcastle £8 (advance) or £31 (on day)

Rail fares are a complete minefield, before individual toc's start playing the system. A few years back, I was asked to do a day at Bath Spa, by splitting my tickets at Cheltenham, I saved 50% of the advertised through fare. Like you, my employers were picking up the tab, but I failed to see why they should be milked, particularly as I was travelling on EXACTLY THE SAME TRAINS as the full fare option.

Hi Dave, I don't know whether you know the little trick when heading to the South West! Instead of just splitting tickets at Cheltenham as you did so the second half is priced by First not Arriva, book the ticket to Cheltenham as a Bromsgove to Cheltenham ticket. Because no trains from Bromsgove go down to Cheltenham there is an easement in the routing guide allowing doubling back via Birmingham. It is cheaper than the Birmngham to Cheltenham ticket and the off-peak is valid on earlier trains!

andy

There is a phone app called 'Tickety Split' which tells you the best places to split your fares on walk up fares to avoid costly one leg tickets. Ticket Office staff are also experts at doing this and will always calculate it for you if they don't have a queue out the door.

To be fair it isn't only XC that have extortianate point to point fares, they all do it. You have to know where to split, which of course is a joke but the rules allow it so it is them that are at fault.

You are correct though Tony that XC are the worst for offering decent value advance fares, particularly on routes where they have no competition. DB obviously cant make any money in Germany so they make up for it here. The lucrative thing about the XC franchise is that there are so many routes where there is next to no competition.

This is why I laugh when people slag LM off so much. They have their problems but in terms competitive fares they can't be faulted.

Tony

Quote from: andy on April 06, 2014, 07:36:32 PM
There is a phone app called 'Tickety Split' which tells you the best places to split your fares on walk up fares to avoid costly one leg tickets. Ticket Office staff are also experts at doing this and will always calculate it for you if they don't have a queue out the door.

To be fair it isn't only XC that have extortianate point to point fares, they all do it. You have to know where to split, which of course is a joke but the rules allow it so it is them that are at fault.

You are correct though Tony that XC are the worst for offering decent value advance fares, particularly on routes where they have no competition. DB obviously cant make any money in Germany so they make up for it here. The lucrative thing about the XC franchise is that there are so many routes where there is next to no competition.

This is why I laugh when people slag LM off so much. They have their problems but in terms competitive fares they can't be faulted.

I know most of the splits myself when I used to be in the Pavilions Travel shop and we used to be a Rail ticket agency. One good one for day trips to the North East is the Cheap day Return Birmingham-Lincoln which is only £27, valid after 08:30 and what a lot of people don't realise is valid via Doncaster. It is a ticket from the old Central Trains days who were very good on fares and introduced day return fares on all their routes, even over 50 miles which is the normal limit for CDRs

Isle of Stroma

Quote from: Tony on April 06, 2014, 01:37:41 PM
Hi Dave, I don't know whether you know the little trick when heading to the South West!

Tony, yes. ISTR you reminded me of it at the time. Decided against it anyway as I was heading west on the first service (05:00 to Cardiff (?), was on works time & didn't want any additional hassle. Trying to sleep on the subsequent 150/2 between Cheltenham & Bath is difficult enough as it is!

richie

Quote from: Tony on April 06, 2014, 09:28:09 AM
Quote from: the trainbasher on April 06, 2014, 12:28:09 AM
Have you tried checking for advances?

Or if 2 of you are travelling together on the same service a two together railcard?

Yes, of course I have, but Arriva NEVER put there cheapest advertised advances on any useful train, I haven't EVER managed to find one of there cheapest advertised advances on ANY train even 3 months in advance! An as I said in the original post the cheapest fare is £211 - no advances whatsoever on any morning arrival. As i am only going for the day the cheapest way of doing it is actually anytime day return to Derby, then off-peak day returns Derby-Sheffield; Sheffield-York; York-Newcastle which comes to a total of £108.

Arriva Cross-Country are the only train company I really dislike. The difference between when Virgin ran it and Arriva is untrue

I used cross country on 3 separate occasions last year twice to Newcastle and once to York. Every journey was an experience. At least on 2 occasions I got a refund on 50% of my ticket price due to the delay.

windy miller

Several people in the past suggested to me that a 'cheap' fare is available for a trip to doncaster...by booking a day return to Lincoln, and opting to go via Doncaster. I can't see the sense in allowing a 'permitted ' route via Donny as there are so many other options available... eg B'ham-Nottingham. and nott'm to lincoln... Or even birmingham-sheffield then sheff to Lincoln? I seem to remember looking at the (weekday) time restrictions for these 'off peak' XC services and I don't think I found any cheap options.... saturdays maybe?. but almost certainly NOT favourable during the week.  I have usually booked a cheap D/return from New St to Burton on trent  @09.47am  which cost me around £7.75 with a railcard, then a derbyshire wayfarer tickt (senior disc) :-\ at £ 5.80 to Sheffield/retn, and an anytime rtn from sheffield to Doncaster for £3.90.  I'm pretty sure that booking ANY rtn ticket on a weekday to Lincoln would almost certainly cost more than £18?
Mind the Gap.....?:-)

bususer12

Evening all,

I am calling out for the experience on here to help me save a few quid.

Looking to go to Newcastle from Birmingham New Street on 1st Aug, returning 2nd/3rd. Cheapest Ive found is splitting at  Carlisle, but wondered if anyone knew any better ticketing. I have looked and the BHM to Lincoln return that is valid via Doncaster seems to have shot up

Tony

Quote from: bususer12 on July 07, 2015, 08:46:32 PM
Evening all,

I am calling out for the experience on here to help me save a few quid.

Looking to go to Newcastle from Birmingham New Street on 1st Aug, returning 2nd/3rd. Cheapest Ive found is splitting at  Carlisle, but wondered if anyone knew any better ticketing. I have looked and the BHM to Lincoln return that is valid via Doncaster seems to have shot up

The Birmingham-Lincoln cheap ticket is a day return which is why you cannot find it for your journey. Just splitting the peak return at Doncaster saves a lot of money.

Oozells

Just over 10 years ago I was going from Birmingham to Manchester for £13 return! Now you can't even get a single for that price. I hate Cross Country Trains with a passion. They've done nothing to keep the trains looking nice on the inside. Bring back Branson - I can't believe we've got over 4 more years of this!

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk