Experienced train travellers please help

[clearsommespace]

Do tickets for faster trains between cities cost more than the trains that stop everywhere?

We live abroad and I'm booking tickets for a UK trip. We have to travel from London to Birmingham by train.
Currently on the trainline site, only the slow trains are showing. The prices are very reasonable.
There are other trains which take under half the time because fewer stops but the tickets aren't available yet.
I've signed up for alerts but when they become available, are they likely to cost a lot more?
Thanks in advance

Lots of trains still being impacted by the strikes

www.thetrainline.com/trains/great-britain/industrial-action

If you look on the LNeR website, I think you can use your ticket on Avanti trains which appears to be the only operator today on that line (and they also have cancellations).

OP If you look on the rail company site for the route you’re planning to travel on they have the info for strike days. usually strike day tickets are valid day before and 5 days after.

I don’t think that can be quite right that Trainline booking removes the right to claim delay repay because that would be such a significant loss to consumer rights but I’d need to check it.

what I do personally to see how split ticketing costs work and for price comparison is to set up the ticket I want to book on Trainline. Then I set it up on the train company website and compare. Then if a split ticket is cheaper I actually buy it on the train company website because then you don’t pay a booking fee usually and if anything goes wrong you have a train company to call who have a legal duty towards you not a national website number to call.

if anyone finds all of this complicated, difficult to navigate to consumers and impossible to know if youre paying a fair price for travel- as well as a massive waste of personal admin time to organise- then remember this what privatised public services are like, we’re living the Tory privately operated dream on the railways right now. That is why the system is barely workable for passengers and partly why the staff are on strike. We get what we vote for on the railways.

@BananaSpanner

Thanks, that is really helpful. There are trains on which my ticket is definitely valid. Phew!

@DowningStreetParty
I am coming from France. It is definitely easier to have one interlocteur.
French railways have just begun opening up to competition 🤔
We will see where we are in 10 years!

Please can you point me to exactly where because I have looked and haven't seen anything spelling this out! Thank you!

The train splits at Northampton and only half of it goes ahead to Birmingham.

Hi, if you have Twitter I usually find that queries are responded to quite quickly on there. Others may also have asked similar questions today that may answer your query.

If you do have Twitter, maybe search London Northwestern Railway and go from there?

LNER and Avanti don't use the same line.

I wouldn't recommend booking via The Trainline. They add a booking fee, and you don't have the "Delay Repay" protection.

This is not true - yes there’s a booking fee but you definitely do get delay compensation. I use Trainline all the time and find it to be very good.

Also, Chiltern service is currently batshit until 9 Jan.

i check the journey via facebook messenger, which i find helpful

Trainline is a rip off.
Go via the National Rail website

ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search

@WeeFinbar
Thanks. I am not a Twitter user but I managed to find a link to this info:

Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 December 2022
Services will be in operation on the following lines only, between the hours of 0700 – 1900 only:
Lichfield Trent Valley – Birmingham New Street – Redditch / Bromsgrove (1 train per hour Lichfield - Bromsgrove and 1 train per hour Lichfield - Redditch)
Birmingham New Street – Wolverhampton – Crewe (1 train per hour)
Birmingham New Street – Wolverhampton (via local stations) (1 train per hour)
Birmingham New Street – Northampton – London Euston (1 train per hour Birmingham - Northampton, 2 trains per hour Northampton - London Euston)
Birmingham New Street - Birmingham International (1 train per hour via local stations)
West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway services will not operate on any other route on these days.

So looks like going via Northampton is inevitable, unless staff at the station tell me my ticket is valid on an Avanti train.

Thanks everyone! Mumsnet is brilliant!

I’m very sorry to hear about opening up of French railways up to competition clearsommespace
In the UK we often hold up the French train services as being efficient, affordable, clean, comfortable, reliable, modern, fantastic catering in the train, you name it. The few times I have travelled in France on local and cross country trains I have found that has been true. I’m sure the daily reality isn’t perfect but it seems like a great system from the visitor perspective.

The English rail system is sometimes barely functioning in comparison on every one of those measures. The Hatfield and Potters Bar rail tragedies exposed what happens when private companies didn’t do maintenance properly. So there has needed to be much greater government regulation and scrutiny since the original Conservative railways privatisation under the John Major government.

Apart from all that I hope that when you travel in the UK that you have a great experience. I have to say al of the passenger-facing staff on our line are unfailingly friendly and professional if we ever have needed help which I have really appreciated. They do a very hard job. And Scotland seem to have taken their railways back into public ownership this year, so we can see how that works out for them.

As a very frequent train traveller, both commuting & long distance (I don't drive), and I would never use The Trainline. I use that National Rail website to get an idea of likely routes & trains, then I go to each train operating company (TOC) and book my actual journey specifically with them.

It means you can get advice, and delay/cancellation compensation much more directly. And there's no booking fee, which I consider a complete rip off by The Trainline.