Cheaper gNEr-only tickets between Edinburgh & Glasgow?

[David M]

Do the cheaper gNEr-only tickets for journeys between Edinburgh and
Glasgow still exist? It's not a journey I've made for a while..

gNEr's website expects me to register to find out this information, and
I really can't be bothered. Sure, registering is doubtlessly handy for
regular site users, but c'mon, since when did a shop *require* you to
register just to find out the price of something? I'm sure Uncle Jakob
would have something to say about that..

If these tickets do still exist, does anybody know if it's possible to
select Glasgow SUBWAY as a destination, or is this only possible for
the more expensive FirstScotRail/any-route tickets?


On a related note, for something that claims to be "*part* of the
*National Rail* network", FirstScotRail's winter holiday timetables are
being slightly economical with the truth when they allege that on
1 January there is "No service". Why is it that, unlike any other
purchase, you absolutely have to have detailed knowledge of how the
system works, in order to travel by rail?

Would it really kill ScotRail to have noted, as a helpful courtesy to
passengers, sorry, potential /customers/, that "A limited service
between Glasgow Central, Motherwell, Edinburgh and points south is
provided by gNEr on 1 January. See gNEr timetables for details."?

Every day that the rail network gives the impression of being
unavailable is another day towards passengers being forced onto the
slippery slope of car ownership and use, and subsequent decreased use of
the rail network.

[Alan J. Flavell]

Post by David M
Do the cheaper gNEr-only tickets for journeys between Edinburgh and
Glasgow still exist? It's not a journey I've made for a while..

As far as I know, "yes".

Post by David M
gNEr's website expects me to register to find out this information,
and I really can't be bothered.

I'd recommend that you use one of the following:

* http://www.traintimes.org.uk/ - which is an accessible interface to
the next one -

* http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

This one is OK for most purposes, but qjump has an extra feature which
I can't replicate on the notionalrail site.

* http://www.qjump.co.uk/ - this one is crabby if your browser
preferences are to accept only *session* cookies - it demands that you
accept at least one persistent cookie (a good browser will let you
toss these out afterwards).

The extra feature is that after you've been offered the quickest
routes and fares, you can take a link to search for cheaper, slower
routes. This will, for example, find you a GNER trip even at times
when it overlaps a faster scotrail trip.

All of these permit queries to be issued without having to register or
identify yourself in any way.

Post by David M
If these tickets do still exist, does anybody know if it's possible
to select Glasgow SUBWAY as a destination,

Not as far as I know. At any rate, neither of the above query engines
recognise that as a valid destination...

If you arrive off-peak (i.e after 09:30 on working days), you'd surely
get a better deal buying a £1.90 "Discovery" ticket (i.e off-peak
subway day pass) as a separate transaction ? - I've rarely had to wait
very long at the Subway ticket office.

good luck

[David M]

Alan J. Flavell wrote in free.uk.scotland.transport-railways
about: Re: Cheaper gNEr-only tickets between Edinburgh & Glasgow?

Post by Alan J. Flavell

Post by David M
Do the cheaper gNEr-only tickets for journeys between Edinburgh and
Glasgow still exist? It's not a journey I've made for a while..

As far as I know, "yes".

Thanks. Somebody on the "Scot-Rail" list also confirmed this, as funnily
enough they had been looking for the same thing around the same time!

Post by Alan J. Flavell

Post by David M
gNEr's website expects me to register to find out this information,
and I really can't be bothered.

* http://www.traintimes.org.uk/ - which is an accessible interface to
the next one -

Ah, I hadn't previously noticed that traintimes also scraped ticketing
information. Unfortunately, although it does find the magic £5.40
ticket, somewhere along the line something doesn't work and it's doesn't
seem possible to get the validity information out of it correctly.. :-(

Post by Alan J. Flavell
* http://www.qjump.co.uk/ - this one is crabby if your browser

Oh, I didn't realise QJump was still on the go..

Post by Alan J. Flavell
preferences are to accept only *session* cookies - it demands that you
accept at least one persistent cookie

Hmm. I've never understood (the scarily large number of) websites that
insist on setting dated cookies (especially session-like ones of short
duration) when all they really want is a session cookie..

Post by Alan J. Flavell
(a good browser will let you toss these out afterwards).

But of course :-)

Post by Alan J. Flavell

Post by David M
If these tickets do still exist, does anybody know if it's possible
to select Glasgow SUBWAY as a destination,

Not as far as I know. At any rate, neither of the above query engines
recognise that as a valid destination...

Why doesn't that surprise me.. <sigh> :-(

Has anyone out there bought a ticket to Glasgow SUBWAY yet? Has there
been much publicity for it?

(Next question, can you buy a ticket /from/ Glasgow SUBWAY to somewhere
else (I would suspect not: have SPT even got their act together yet to
achieve the staggeringly-complex <ahem> task of selling Roundabout Glasgow
tickets at all Subway stations yet?))

Post by Alan J. Flavell
If you arrive off-peak (i.e after 09:30 on working days), you'd surely
get a better deal buying a £1.90 "Discovery" ticket (i.e off-peak
subway day pass) as a separate transaction ? - I've rarely had to wait
very long at the Subway ticket office.

I know, but it's always good to buy obscure tickets just to skew the
stats. Sadly, my years of buying Southside -> Charing Cross tickets to
show demand for CrossRail (it would have been genuinely useful to me at
the time) haven't yet paid off.. ;-)


However, given the nature of my trip, I suspect I'll only be making the
one Subway trip during opening hours: from Buchanan Street to Party :-)

(However, this does beg the question as to why the Subway day ticket
isn't also offered as a bolt-on option. You'd almost think that there
were people employed by SPT/ScotRail/ScotExec whose remit was to dream
up as many 'innovative' ticket types specially designed to be /almost/,
but not quite, useful.. At least they are _trying_ to innovate, I
suppose.)

[Alan J. Flavell]

Post by David M
(Next question, can you buy a ticket /from/ Glasgow SUBWAY to
somewhere else

Basically "no", not from Subway ticket offices; but I think you can
buy combined tickets from an SPT outlet, e.g the one at Hillhead
Subway station.

Post by David M
(I would suspect not: have SPT even got their act together yet to
achieve the staggeringly-complex <ahem> task of selling Roundabout
Glasgow tickets at all Subway stations yet?))

If they have, then they must be keeping it a close secret...

Pathetic, really, isn't it?

Post by David M
However, given the nature of my trip, I suspect I'll only be making the
one Subway trip during opening hours: from Buchanan Street to Party :-)

Understood. And from the WWW chatter, I think I've worked out who
you are, too ;-)

[Barry Salter]

Post by David M
Do the cheaper gNEr-only tickets for journeys between Edinburgh and
Glasgow still exist? It's not a journey I've made for a while..
gNEr's website expects me to register to find out this information, and
I really can't be bothered. Sure, registering is doubtlessly handy for
regular site users, but c'mon, since when did a shop *require* you to
register just to find out the price of something? I'm sure Uncle Jakob
would have something to say about that..
If these tickets do still exist, does anybody know if it's possible to
select Glasgow SUBWAY as a destination, or is this only possible for
the more expensive FirstScotRail/any-route tickets?

If through ticketing is available, it should be possible to add with the
GNER only tickets.

Looking on QJump, the Edinburgh - Glasgow fares are as follows:

Cheap Day Single: £5.40 (GNER Only)/£8.10 (Any Permitted)
Cheap Day Return: £5.50 (GNER Only)/£8.20 (Any Permitted)
Standard Day Single: £7.70 (GNER Only)/£9.40 (Any Permitted)
Standard Day Return: £10.70 (GNER Only)/£15.60 (Any Permitted)
First Day Single: £11.50 (GNER Only)/£13.50 (Any Permitted)
First Day Return: £18.50 (GNER Only)/£26.00 (Any Permitted)

HTH,

Barry

[Ian McMillan]

Post by Barry Salter
Cheap Day Single: £5.40 (GNER Only)/£8.10 (Any Permitted)
Cheap Day Return: £5.50 (GNER Only)/£8.20 (Any Permitted)
Standard Day Single: £7.70 (GNER Only)/£9.40 (Any Permitted)
Standard Day Return: £10.70 (GNER Only)/£15.60 (Any Permitted)
First Day Single: £11.50 (GNER Only)/£13.50 (Any Permitted)
First Day Return: £18.50 (GNER Only)/£26.00 (Any Permitted)

These fares are absolutely ludicrous!

My girlfriend and I are staying over in Edinburgh tomorrow - she has a
season ticket to Glasgow, so will be penalised for an overnight stay by
having to buy two singles (we will be going GNER, and not just because of
the price).

I also feel ripped off with a Saver return from Troon to Edinburgh coming in
at a whopping £20.50.

Maybe I'm just too used to SPT subsidised fares :-)