[x-posted to uk.transport.london, for the attention of Londoners
interested in a cheapo escape for the day!]

On Jul 10, 4:17*pm, Paul Harley wrote:
This might be of use/interest to some people:

"On Friday 10 July, Green Britain Day, Southern will be offering a
wide range of Southern Advance single tickets at a staggering 90%
discount, compared to the normal 40% currently available when tickets
are booked online in advance of travel. This means that some tickets
to London can be bought for as little as 50p! Tickets can be bought
on-line on the day only for travel up to three months ahead."

http://www.southernrailway.com/main.php?page_id=707

If anyone is planning a journey on Southern in the next few months,
you could get some *really* cheap travel!

Wow! Thanks for the heads up. (Missing out on stuff like this is what
happens when you have a filter set up to file all those promotional
emails into a folder that's out of sight!)

I'm guessing that Southern want to promote...
(a) their new booking system - which is the much accliamed (on here)
WebTIS booking engine which has been used for the past nearly two
years by GNER then NXEC, and
(b) their relatively newish range of Advance tickets.

FWIW, I've just taken a speculative punt and bought a load of tickets
for a weekend day trip from London down to Brighton, all at just 75p
each so £1.50 for a round trip! I'm sure I'll be able to muster up
interest from one quarter or another in a little jaunt to the seaside!

"Mizter T" wrote in message

[x-posted to uk.transport.london, for the attention of Londoners
interested in a cheapo escape for the day!]

On Jul 10, 4:17 pm, Paul Harley wrote:
This might be of use/interest to some people:

"On Friday 10 July, Green Britain Day, Southern will be offering a
wide range of Southern Advance single tickets at a staggering 90%
discount, compared to the normal 40% currently available when tickets
are booked online in advance of travel. This means that some tickets
to London can be bought for as little as 50p! Tickets can be bought
on-line on the day only for travel up to three months ahead."

http://www.southernrailway.com/main.php?page_id=707

If anyone is planning a journey on Southern in the next few months,
you could get some *really* cheap travel!

Wow! Thanks for the heads up. (Missing out on stuff like this is what
happens when you have a filter set up to file all those promotional
emails into a folder that's out of sight!)

I'm guessing that Southern want to promote...
(a) their new booking system - which is the much accliamed (on here)
WebTIS booking engine which has been used for the past nearly two
years by GNER then NXEC, and
(b) their relatively newish range of Advance tickets.

FWIW, I've just taken a speculative punt and bought a load of tickets
for a weekend day trip from London down to Brighton, all at just 75p
each so £1.50 for a round trip! I'm sure I'll be able to muster up
interest from one quarter or another in a little jaunt to the seaside!

And there was me thinking a £10 DaySave was good value for money...
Have just booked an unbelievable £1.50 return fare from Harrow to
Eastbourne in August (with free first class ticket delivery and no
credit card surcharge) -- simply amazing!

Mizter T wrote:
[x-posted to uk.transport.london, for the attention of Londoners
interested in a cheapo escape for the day!]

On Jul 10, 4:17 pm, Paul Harley wrote:
This might be of use/interest to some people:

"On Friday 10 July, Green Britain Day, Southern will be offering a
wide range of Southern Advance single tickets at a staggering 90%
discount, compared to the normal 40% currently available when tickets
are booked online in advance of travel. This means that some tickets
to London can be bought for as little as 50p! Tickets can be bought
on-line on the day only for travel up to three months ahead."

http://www.southernrailway.com/main.php?page_id=707

If anyone is planning a journey on Southern in the next few months,
you could get some *really* cheap travel!

Wow! Thanks for the heads up. (Missing out on stuff like this is what
happens when you have a filter set up to file all those promotional
emails into a folder that's out of sight!)

I'm guessing that Southern want to promote...
(a) their new booking system - which is the much accliamed (on here)
WebTIS booking engine which has been used for the past nearly two
years by GNER then NXEC, and
(b) their relatively newish range of Advance tickets.

FWIW, I've just taken a speculative punt and bought a load of tickets
for a weekend day trip from London down to Brighton, all at just 75p
each so £1.50 for a round trip! I'm sure I'll be able to muster up
interest from one quarter or another in a little jaunt to the seaside!

I fly from Gatwick quite often and was prepared to buy a big bunch of
London - Brighton tickets (50p each) cutting my journey short at
Gatwick. But no need... Southern are actually selling Advance tickets
London to Gatwick! Why why why why why can't the same sort of thing
happen on the Stansted line (even on the Stratford stopper)? Prices on
that route keep going up and up while Gatwick, arguably the more
important airport, remains quite reasonable.

Cheers

Steve M

In article ,
(Steve M) wrote:

I fly from Gatwick quite often and was prepared to buy a big bunch
of London - Brighton tickets (50p each) cutting my journey short at
Gatwick. But no need... Southern are actually selling Advance
tickets London to Gatwick! Why why why why why can't the same sort
of thing happen on the Stansted line (even on the Stratford
stopper)? Prices on that route keep going up and up while Gatwick,
arguably the more important airport, remains quite reasonable.

Trouble is, the discounted tickets seem to be Southern-only unlike the
NXEC online discounts and Virgin which include connections from Cambridge,
sometimes at huge discounts. So, from Cambridge to Gatwick, a Network card
discounted Off-Peak through return is cheaper, even though I can get £3
singles between Victoria and Gatwick.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Jul 10, 7:30*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:00:38 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:

[x-posted to uk.transport.london, for the attention of Londoners
interested in a cheapo escape for the day!]
FWIW, I've just taken a speculative punt and bought a load of tickets
for a weekend day trip from London down to Brighton, all at just 75p
each so £1.50 for a round trip! I'm sure I'll be able to muster up
interest from one quarter or another in a little jaunt to the seaside!

Well done Mizter T - you've just sorted out the venue for the next group
event for either ukr or utl. *What day are we going? * ;-)

eeek!

;-)

FWIW, I did check the system at 1am after rocking back in last night,
and the super-discounted cheapo fares were no longer on offer (though
the promotional page as linked to in the OP's post was still up,
though that might have just been the result of it being stuck in a
cache somewhere - it's gone now).

Earlier in the evening, after buying the first batch of tickets which
I'd described, I thought I'd try and buy another batch - I wasn't
quite sure of what date would be best for my compadres, and given they
were all so cheap I thought I might as well get some for an alternate
date.

However by now it was obvious that word had got around (that Money
Saving Expert website had perhaps latched onto it) and tickets were
being snapped up left right and centre - either that, or I'd just got
lucky first time round - anyway each time I thought I'd secured the
requisite tickets, I'd click on "buy now" and find myself on a screen
with some red text, with words to the effect of 'sorry, there are no
more reservations available on your selected train any more, go back
and search again' - essentially the booking engine was not keeping
synchronised with reality, and was still offering tickets that had
already gone.

I'm guessing that some people probably procured cheapo tickets for
potential day trips for the next three months running! (I was of
course checking for what I suspect was a particularly popular route,
i.e. London to Brighton.) Anyway after a bit of frustrated searching I
realised I'd been sucked into the bargain-obsession black hole, where
one loses all perspective! So I managed to wrench myself away from the
75p ticket challenge, as I had to be elsewhere.

More to the point, I also realised that instead of shelling out for a
bucket load of tickets that may never get used, there was a really
good alternative option on offer, if one's willing to plan ahead - and
that's Southern's *Group* DaySave ticket which costs £20:
http://www.southernrailway.com/main.php?page_id=189

This allows for up to four travellers to travel together anywhere on
Southern during off-peak times (basically after 10am weekdays, with
weekday evening restrictions for travel *from* London termini stations
and East Croydon - but no restrictions at the weekend and on bank
holidays of course). It does need to be booked seven days in advance,
but there's none of the hassle of having to catch specified trains or
even decide on exactly where one's going.

Comparing Southern's Advance tickets to DaySave - both the £10 DaySave
solo ticket and the £20 DaySave Group ticket - and DaySave actually
comes out pretty well too. For yesterday's promotion, the tickets were
priced at 50p, 75p and £1.25 - all very dirt cheap. But these actually
translate to the normal prices of £3, £4.50 and £7.50 - and if you
look you'll see there aren't actually that many tickets priced at £3.
Therefore, for a return trip you're likely looking at 2x £4.50
tickets, so £9 for each traveller - in which case why not just buy a
DaySave solo or group ticket with all the added flexibility and
freedom that brings.

Where Southern Advance tickets might prove useful is for trips during
the morning peak as DaySave cannot be used before 10am - there are,
for instance, a number of contra-peak Advance tickets on trains out of
London in the morning peak. (In the evening peak leaving London
termini, DaySave cannot be used 16:45 and 19:15 - but there don't
appear to be any Advance tickets available in that window anyway, well
Advance tickets are available on one train I can see - the 18:49
Victoria to Brighton - but big deal!)

Another potential advantage of Southern Advance is that they can -
like all 'normal' Advance tickets - be purchased up until 6pm the
previous day, as opposed to the seven days in advance requirement for
purchasing DaySave. (That is, only if there's any Advance fares still
available for these morning trains of course!)

So one could even use a Southern Advance ticket purchased a day or two
in advance to escape London during the morning peak and get to
Brighton, and then buy a DaySave ticket on the day there - as DaySave
is actually available for purchase on the day but *only* in Brighton
at two outlets - the tourist office and the One Stop Travel Shop (but
only the main one in the Old Steine, not the one in Brighton station).
One would then have the freedom of the Southern network and would be
in Brighton, able to take advantage of the 10am start time of the
DaySave ticket to get further out along the coast, for a walk or a
visit somewhere, before heading on elsewhere should one feel so
inclined.

Of course, the other big advantage of Advance tickets is obviously
when one is only making a one way trip - or at least not a return day
trip!

"Mizter T" wrote in message

On Jul 10, 7:30 pm, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:00:38 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:

[x-posted to uk.transport.london, for the attention of Londoners
interested in a cheapo escape for the day!]
FWIW, I've just taken a speculative punt and bought a load of
tickets for a weekend day trip from London down to Brighton, all at
just 75p each so £1.50 for a round trip! I'm sure I'll be able to
muster up interest from one quarter or another in a little jaunt to
the seaside!

Well done Mizter T - you've just sorted out the venue for the next
group event for either ukr or utl. What day are we going? ;-)

eeek!

;-)

FWIW, I did check the system at 1am after rocking back in last night,
and the super-discounted cheapo fares were no longer on offer (though
the promotional page as linked to in the OP's post was still up,
though that might have just been the result of it being stuck in a
cache somewhere - it's gone now).

Earlier in the evening, after buying the first batch of tickets which
I'd described, I thought I'd try and buy another batch - I wasn't
quite sure of what date would be best for my compadres, and given they
were all so cheap I thought I might as well get some for an alternate
date.

My booking involves two very tight changes in each direction (eg, five
minutes at Clapham Junction and Brighton) -- does anyone know the policy
if I miss one of these because the incoming train was late? The tight
changes were generated by the booking engine -- had I been selecting
trains individually, I'd have allowed longer, especially at CJ.
Obviously it's up to me to show up in good time for the first train of
each journey.

In message , at 11:38:21 on
Sun, 12 Jul 2009, Recliner remarked:
My booking involves two very tight changes in each direction (eg, five
minutes at Clapham Junction and Brighton) -- does anyone know the policy
if I miss one of these because the incoming train was late? The tight
changes were generated by the booking engine -- had I been selecting
trains individually, I'd have allowed longer, especially at CJ.

In theory they will let you catch a subsequent train. Having some sort
of evidence from the late train's crew might help (although I'm not sure
what you do if it's OPO).

On my upcoming "round Britain" trip the booking engine has given me one
change of five minutes and another of seven (and several others in the
15-20 minute range). At my on risk I've arranged one change of zero
[staying on the same train while switching from one ticket to the next
at York] and one change of an hour and twenty minutes [Glasgow].

When I did a similar trip a few years ago (on a Britrail pass) I missed
a couple of connections that should have worked, and therefore got home
two hours late (due to twice having to wait for the next hourly
service).

Of course, when travelling on Advance Purchase tickets I suppose one
isn't allowed to "break" the journey (even if forced to do so by a late
running train) so you'd be trapped on the station itself, short of
blagging one's way out to use "station facilities" and then wander off
into the town, like I did last time when stuck at Carlisle for 55
minutes.

Trying to do a "sensitivity test", if I miss the 08.08 at Doncaster, my
next chance to get to Edinburgh (with Natex) is 10.35 !! Argh!!!

I wonder if they'd let me on an XC as far as York, to catch a better
Natex from there?

[But even if they did, I'd miss my Scotrail train to Glasgow by 2
minutes, so would they let me stay on board the Natex as far as Glasgow
(where it is coincidentally headed), or insist I got off to find the
subsequent Scotrail train (probably the only half-hourly one all day)?]
--
Roland Perry

"Recliner" wrote in message
news

My booking involves two very tight changes in each direction (eg, five
minutes at Clapham Junction and Brighton) -- does anyone know the policy
if I miss one of these because the incoming train was late? The tight
changes were generated by the booking engine -- had I been selecting
trains individually, I'd have allowed longer, especially at CJ. Obviously
it's up to me to show up in good time for the first train of each journey.


Grab the next Southern train and tell whoever checks the tix what happened,
if you're asked. They're unlikely to query anything unless the delay means
you stray onto a peak service where AP tix wouldn't have been sold. It's
probably a good idea to take a printout of the itinerary with you, although
it should be obvious from the reservation stubs what you're trying to do.

If it's major disruption grab the next train regardless of operator. I got
caught up in the Victoria flooding chaos last Tuesday on a journey from
Brighton to London Bridge with a Daysave ticket in my pocket. The platform
staff at East Croydon told me it wouldn't be a problem if the first London
Bridge train was an FCC service (it wasn't).

D A Stocks

"Roland Perry" wrote

Trying to do a "sensitivity test", if I miss the 08.08 at Doncaster, my
next chance to get to Edinburgh (with Natex) is 10.35 !! Argh!!!

Can't you get the 0917 NXEC Doncaster to Newcastle, and change there for the
1059 NXEC to Edinburgh?

Peter

In message , at 16:08:07 on
Sun, 12 Jul 2009, Peter Masson remarked:
Trying to do a "sensitivity test", if I miss the 08.08 at Doncaster,
my next chance to get to Edinburgh (with Natex) is 10.35 !! Argh!!!

Can't you get the 0917 NXEC Doncaster to Newcastle, and change there
for the 1059 NXEC to Edinburgh?

That would keep me with NXEC, although I'd be 1:20 late getting to
Edinburgh, and just miss the 12.30 to Glasgow, leaving me an impossible
5 minute connection to get from Queen St to Central for my trip home
(unless the lateness compensation kicks in there as well).
--
Roland Perry