A bit of oddness with the online rail journey planner...
 

Evening all! First post, so be gentle...

I'm aiming to go from Hockley to Lowestoft via Shenfield on the 8th August, arriving about 10.30am. If I enter these journey details into either the National Rail journey planner, it'll tell me that I need to catch the 07.35 from Hockley.

That seems fine, but closer inspection reveals that that would give me just four minutes to make the connection at Shenfield, so even slight delay to the first leg of the journey could cause me to miss the 08.02 Lowestoft train.

Here's the part that seems odd to me : even though there are a couple of Hockley>Shenfield trains *before* the 07.35, including the 07.19 which would give me a comfortable 15-minute connection with the 08.02, the journey planner won't show them to me. If I click the "earlier journey" button, it gives me a much earlier Hockley>Shenfield train that connects with a much earlier Shenfield>Lowestoft train.

Does anyone know why this is? Is it just because the journey planner is designed only to show the shortest connection for each query?

Secondly, I'm aiming to get the cheapest advance-purchase return ticket (£12), which as I understand it, requires that I use specific timetabled trains rather than any service. What happens if you've got such a ticket and delays cause you to miss a connection? Surely they don't make you buy a new ticket... do they?

Any advice greatly appreciated :)

Hello Gareth,
The National Rail journey planner is full of glitches like the one you have found. Not only are some of the routes and times silly but some of the fares that it comes up with are guaranteed to make your hair curl :D
Talking of fares. I would have thought that it would be very difficult to get a cheap ticket at that hour of the day on any of the commuter services going into London. We have quite a few younger lads on the forum who do a fair bit of travelling so hopefully they will be able to offer you some advice when they come on-line.

Believe it or not, I can get two advance-purchase singles, starting on the 07.35, and it works out at £12. If I get a saver return, it's £36. The one railway website even points out that two singles may be cheaper than a return.

The price difference seems to be squarely down to the fact that the two singles are for travel on specified timetabled services only, whereas the return allows travel on any services.

Hi Gareth,
I have just had a quick look at the ONE website. I typed in the journey that you are planning on 8th August and the cheapest single fare option it came up with on the 07:35 was £27.50 for a "Standard Open Single". The £6.00 "One Standard Advance Single 1" was shown in the list but was not actually available for that particular train (or any others that I could see up to 09:56)
Maybe I was doing something wrong?:(

I've just found another glitch with that site.

I entered the following journey details:

Edenbridge to Arundel via Redhill

The journey details it came up with sent me to Barnham and then back to Arundel, which I thought was a bit illogical because I would have gone through Arundel before arriving at Barnham. :confused:

Are there any other forum members who have experienced a similar situation?

Eurostar,
Were you planning a journey on Sunday 28th October by any chance as that is the only date when I can get the "Journey Planner" to route me through Barnham?
According to the National Rail website, the direct line between Three Bridges and Billingshurst is closed for scheduled engineering work on that date so I assume that's why the "Journey Planner" is coming up with the alternative route via Barnham.

I found out about the engineering work too but can't understand why it's sending to Barnham and back to Arundel when I've already been through Arundel.

On Sunday 28th October the "Journey Planner" sends you via Haywards Heath, Hove and Worthing to Barnham so you don't actually pass through Arundel. This avoids having to use the replacement bus service between Three Bridges and Billingshurst. Trains are still operating between Barnham and Billingshurst which allows you to reach Arundel from the south.

I see what it's doing now