Would anyone know when bookings for trains and coaches can resume please?
I tried booking for a trip to London on 30 June 2021 and found GWR, The Trainline and National Express all returned as not bookable for that day.
Thanks in advance.
DK
------------- * Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest And Play! *
- 2025 - inc. FR & DE
- 2024 - 10/56 inc. FR & NL
- 2023 - 48 inc. FR
- 2022 - 49
- 2021 - 34
* Ex-tenter & solo female camper *
* Treat life events like a dog: If you can't eat it, play with it, or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away! *
Found the information I needed: operators are waiting for government announcement with regard to further lifting of Covid-19 restrictions from 17 May onwards.
DK
------------- * Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest And Play! *
- 2025 - inc. FR & DE
- 2024 - 10/56 inc. FR & NL
- 2023 - 48 inc. FR
- 2022 - 49
- 2021 - 34
* Ex-tenter & solo female camper *
* Treat life events like a dog: If you can't eat it, play with it, or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away! *
30 June is 12 weeks ahead today, Advanced tickets are usually released 12 weeks ahead.
Check the GWR website throughout this week and they should be released as tickets for the week before are available.
Using different websites is futile as they all use the same database and sell the same tickets. Avoid Trainline, you pay a fee and getting delay repay and refunds can be a pain. Booking direct with the operators makes it easier to claim.
Had no problem booking Citylink but not able to book on Scotrail when mainland Scotland on level 4. OK, journey was to hospital but I wasn't asked about reason for travel.
------------- " When I die I don`t want my life to flash before me in an instant, I want it to be a 3 hour epic !"
The Trainline is brilliant for planning the cheapest & quickest route with multiple operators. Ayrshire to an obscure station near Hull was “interesting”, 3 different operators going down the east coast & I came back on the gorgeous Settle to Carlisle line - 4 different operators. The fee was minimal.
As for ScotRail, the trains passing us on a very much reduced timetable are all running empty. No problem getting a seat!
Lots of apps are good for planning trips, by all means use them, I do. Splitticketing, Trainline, Trainpal, Trainsplit etc.
However, I always book through a train operating company website (Northern, LNER etc) not an agent (such as Trainline) to ensure a decent response if things go wrong, especially on multi change tickets with different operators.
I heard a lovely tale a few years ago from someone who had been on a train journey that entailed 3 changes and 4 different trains. When he sat down in his seat on his 4th train of the day, alongside him was the sandwich wrapper that he left on the seat on the 1st train.
Thing that gets me when looking up timetables is the hoops you have to climb through to get an actual timetable rather than the live "next departure" one. With trips to hospital in Glasgow, I have to consult (of late rapidly changing) bus, ferry and train timetables to figure out the best fit, so need the full timetables.
It's taking as long to sort a return trip to Glasgow now as it took me back in 1975 to plan travel from NE Essex to Lochmaddy on North Uist by train and ferry! A BR printed timetable was a wondrous thing!
------------- " When I die I don`t want my life to flash before me in an instant, I want it to be a 3 hour epic !"
As our train travel usually consists of 0 or 1 change, max. We always use Trainline. It takes seconds to book. Even better now we have our 'old gits' passes for one third off!
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 07/4/2021
The Trainline is brilliant for planning the cheapest & quickest route with multiple operators. Ayrshire to an obscure station near Hull was “interesting”, 3 different operators going down the east coast & I came back on the gorgeous Settle to Carlisle line - 4 different operators. The fee was minimal.
As for ScotRail, the trains passing us on a very much reduced timetable are all running empty. No problem getting a seat!
The Trainline are often not the cheapest, especially when they charge a handling charge on all bookings. Often the cheapest bookings can be found by going directly to one of the train operating companies..