• Booking engines with via option

    From Clive Page@3:633/10 to All on Monday, April 27, 2026 18:21:12
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line. But, to my surprise, not many booking engines
    still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent. Without that
    it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh, which I guess
    is faster but not what I want. And I don't want to book advanced
    tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option
    - where have they gone?


    --
    Clive Page

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Tweed@3:633/10 to All on Monday, April 27, 2026 17:40:35
    Clive Page <usenet@page2.eu> wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line. But, to my surprise, not many booking engines still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent. Without that
    it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh, which I guess
    is faster but not what I want. And I don't want to book advanced
    tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option
    - where have they gone?



    The EMR website will do it. You have to enter a simple query on their front page first. Then when you get the results page there?s the option to add a
    via or avoid station. If you scroll down to the bottom of the results
    there?s a link to display more ticket types. The primary set of results
    likes to emphasise Advances.

    Trainsplit has a more sophisticated set of options. You can set it to
    provide only flexible fares if you want to avoid Advance tickets.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Roland Perry@3:633/10 to All on Monday, April 27, 2026 18:52:55
    In message <n59k8gFlde5U3@mid.individual.net>, at 18:21:12 on Mon, 27
    Apr 2026, Clive Page <usenet@page2.eu> remarked:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line. But, to my surprise, not many booking
    engines still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent.
    Without that it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh,
    which I guess is faster but not what I want. And I don't want to book >advanced tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to >connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option
    - where have they gone?

    Use one which still has it!! Like trainsplit.com
    --
    Roland Perry

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Tweed@3:633/10 to All on Monday, April 27, 2026 17:59:06
    Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
    Clive Page <usenet@page2.eu> wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line. But, to my surprise, not many booking engines
    still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent. Without that
    it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh, which I guess
    is faster but not what I want. And I don't want to book advanced
    tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option
    - where have they gone?



    The EMR website will do it. You have to enter a simple query on their front page first. Then when you get the results page there?s the option to add a via or avoid station. If you scroll down to the bottom of the results
    there?s a link to display more ticket types. The primary set of results
    likes to emphasise Advances.

    Trainsplit has a more sophisticated set of options. You can set it to
    provide only flexible fares if you want to avoid Advance tickets.



    I?ve just looked at the LNER website. They have a via/avoid checkbox on the front screen.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Allan@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 10:37:29
    On 27/04/2026 18:21, Clive Page wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line.ÿ But, to my surprise, not many booking engines still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent.ÿ Without that
    it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh, which I guess
    is faster but not what I want.ÿÿ And I don't want to book advanced
    tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option
    - where have they gone?
    If you want to oblige a booking site to route you over the S&C, I
    believe one of the cunning ways of doing the "via" is to set via Appleby
    (not Dent).

    (No other inside information as to why this might be, only reading this periodically over the years on various S&C information, and since Settle station is just over my back wall, I've never really had to test this
    theory in anger, so to speak)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Certes@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 11:00:02
    On 28/04/2026 10:37, Allan wrote:
    On 27/04/2026 18:21, Clive Page wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line.ÿ But, to my surprise, not many booking
    engines still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent.
    Without that it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh,
    which I guess is faster but not what I want.ÿÿ And I don't want to
    book advanced tickets separately or may get caught out if services
    fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via
    option - where have they gone?
    If you want to oblige a booking site to route you over the S&C, I
    believe one of the cunning ways of doing the "via" is to set via Appleby (not Dent).

    (No other inside information as to why this might be, only reading this periodically over the years on various S&C information, and since Settle station is just over my back wall, I've never really had to test this
    theory in anger, so to speak)

    Perhaps the planner speeds up its work by caching journeys between pairs
    of commonly used routing points[1], and Appleby is one but Dent isn't.

    [1] not necessarily those the Routing Guide uses for ticket validity

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Roland Perry@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 11:12:00
    In message <n5bdepF1iqbU1@mid.individual.net>, at 10:37:29 on Tue, 28
    Apr 2026, Allan <invalid@invalid.invalid> remarked:
    On 27/04/2026 18:21, Clive Page wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the >>Settle and Carlisle line.? But, to my surprise, not many booking
    engines still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent.? >>Without that it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to
    Edinburgh, which I guess is faster but not what I want.?? And I don't >>want to book advanced tickets separately or may get caught out if >>services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via
    option - where have they gone?

    If you want to oblige a booking site to route you over the S&C, I
    believe one of the cunning ways of doing the "via" is to set via
    Appleby (not Dent).

    Yes, that's the necessary rune.

    (No other inside information as to why this might be, only reading this >periodically over the years on various S&C information, and since
    Settle station is just over my back wall, I've never really had to test
    this theory in anger, so to speak)

    Back in around 2006, I decided to challenge myself to do an all-day trip
    from Nottingham to Scotland and back, for ?50. This involved a lot of
    manual split-ticketing.

    I took the first train from Nottingham to Grantham, then boarded
    whatever the ECML TOC was called that week for Edinburgh, with tickets
    split at perhaps York. I had the whole of the front four carriages to
    myself.

    Then a hop from Waverley to Queen Street, walk to Central and a ticket
    to Leeds "via Appleby", with "plus connections" to Nottingham. It was
    late, so I missed the timetabled change at Carlisle by about a minute.
    Never mind, it has several good pubs to while away 50 minutes.

    At Leeds onto a direct Northern train to Nottingham (via Wakefield and Sheffield, but you don't need to specify either).

    I think I got back to Nottingham Midland about 9pm, so almost 18hrs in
    total.

    Might be interesting to see what such a trip would cost today. General inflation would suggest that ?90 should suffice, but will it?
    --
    Roland Perry

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Roland Perry@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 11:18:02
    In message <10sq0f1$31r28$4@dont-email.me>, at 11:00:02 on Tue, 28 Apr
    2026, Certes <Certes@example.org> remarked:
    On 28/04/2026 10:37, Allan wrote:
    On 27/04/2026 18:21, Clive Page wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via
    the Settle and Carlisle line.? But, to my surprise, not many booking >>>engines still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent. >>>Without that it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to
    Edinburgh, which I guess is faster but not what I want.?? And I
    don't want to book advanced tickets separately or may get caught out
    if services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via
    option - where have they gone?

    If you want to oblige a booking site to route you over the S&C, I
    believe one of the cunning ways of doing the "via" is to set via
    Appleby (not Dent).

    (No other inside information as to why this might be, only reading
    this periodically over the years on various S&C information, and
    since Settle station is just over my back wall, I've never really had
    to test this theory in anger, so to speak)

    Perhaps the planner speeds up its work by caching journeys between pairs
    of commonly used routing points[1], and Appleby is one but Dent isn't.

    [1] not necessarily those the Routing Guide uses for ticket validity

    The precise "via" stations, where Chesterfield is famous one, are
    specified in the *fares* manual.
    --
    Roland Perry

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Clive Page@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 11:21:44
    On 27/04/2026 18:59, Tweed wrote:
    Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
    Clive Page <usenet@page2.eu> wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line. But, to my surprise, not many booking engines >>> still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent. Without that
    it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh, which I guess
    is faster but not what I want. And I don't want to book advanced
    tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option
    - where have they gone?



    The EMR website will do it. You have to enter a simple query on their front >> page first. Then when you get the results page there?s the option to add a >> via or avoid station. If you scroll down to the bottom of the results
    there?s a link to display more ticket types. The primary set of results
    likes to emphasise Advances.

    Trainsplit has a more sophisticated set of options. You can set it to
    provide only flexible fares if you want to avoid Advance tickets.



    I?ve just looked at the LNER website. They have a via/avoid checkbox on the front screen.


    Well using Firefox I can't see that checkbox. But I just tried
    Microsoft Edge and the via checkbox is there. I suppose a previous
    search has set some cookie which has personalised the interface in a
    unwanted way.


    --
    Clive Page


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Certes@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 11:47:14
    On 28/04/2026 11:21, Clive Page wrote:
    On 27/04/2026 18:59, Tweed wrote:
    Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
    Clive Page <usenet@page2.eu> wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line.ÿ But, to my surprise, not many booking
    engines
    still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent.ÿ Without that >>>> it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh, which I guess >>>> is faster but not what I want.ÿÿ And I don't want to book advanced
    tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option >>>> - where have they gone?

    The EMR website will do it. You have to enter a simple query on their
    front
    page first. Then when you get the results page there?s the option to
    add a
    via or avoid station. If you scroll down to the bottom of the results
    there?s a link to display more ticket types. The primary set of results
    likes to emphasise Advances.

    Trainsplit has a more sophisticated set of options. You can set it to
    provide only flexible fares if you want to avoid Advance tickets.

    I?ve just looked at the LNER website. They have a via/avoid checkbox
    on the
    front screen.

    Well using Firefox I can't see that checkbox.ÿ But I just tried
    Microsoft Edge and the via checkbox is there.ÿÿ I suppose a previous
    search has set some cookie which has personalised the interface in a unwanted way.

    Try a private browsing window (ctrl+shift+P in Firefox). If that works
    then consider carefully culling cookies for that site, being careful to preserve any that are useful.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Charles Ellson@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 18:32:20
    On Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:21:44 +0100, Clive Page <usenet@page2.eu>
    wrote:

    On 27/04/2026 18:59, Tweed wrote:
    Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
    Clive Page <usenet@page2.eu> wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line. But, to my surprise, not many booking engines >>>> still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent. Without that >>>> it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh, which I guess >>>> is faster but not what I want. And I don't want to book advanced
    tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option >>>> - where have they gone?



    The EMR website will do it. You have to enter a simple query on their front >>> page first. Then when you get the results page there?s the option to add a >>> via or avoid station. If you scroll down to the bottom of the results
    there?s a link to display more ticket types. The primary set of results
    likes to emphasise Advances.

    Trainsplit has a more sophisticated set of options. You can set it to
    provide only flexible fares if you want to avoid Advance tickets.



    I?ve just looked at the LNER website. They have a via/avoid checkbox on the >> front screen.


    Well using Firefox I can't see that checkbox. But I just tried
    Microsoft Edge and the via checkbox is there. I suppose a previous
    search has set some cookie which has personalised the interface in a >unwanted way.

    Have they by any chance selected a colour for the check box which the
    "wrong" browser makes practically invisible ? I get that with some of
    my organisation's MS forms tick boxes. Possibly toggling the browser
    into night mode might show that up.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Certes@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 18:39:52
    On 28/04/2026 18:32, Charles Ellson wrote:
    On Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:21:44 +0100, Clive Page <usenet@page2.eu>
    wrote:

    On 27/04/2026 18:59, Tweed wrote:
    Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
    Clive Page <usenet@page2.eu> wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the >>>>> Settle and Carlisle line. But, to my surprise, not many booking engines >>>>> still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent. Without that >>>>> it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh, which I guess >>>>> is faster but not what I want. And I don't want to book advanced
    tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to connect. >>>>>
    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option >>>>> - where have they gone?

    The EMR website will do it. You have to enter a simple query on their front
    page first. Then when you get the results page there?s the option to add a >>>> via or avoid station. If you scroll down to the bottom of the results
    there?s a link to display more ticket types. The primary set of results >>>> likes to emphasise Advances.

    Trainsplit has a more sophisticated set of options. You can set it to
    provide only flexible fares if you want to avoid Advance tickets.

    I?ve just looked at the LNER website. They have a via/avoid checkbox on the >>> front screen.

    Well using Firefox I can't see that checkbox. But I just tried
    Microsoft Edge and the via checkbox is there. I suppose a previous
    search has set some cookie which has personalised the interface in a
    unwanted way.

    Have they by any chance selected a colour for the check box which the
    "wrong" browser makes practically invisible ? I get that with some of
    my organisation's MS forms tick boxes. Possibly toggling the browser
    into night mode might show that up.

    I use the snappily named "Dark Background and Light Text" add-on, which
    saves my retinas from burning out but does occasionally make a few
    elements invisible with the default settings. That may apply here.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Anna Noyd-Dryver@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, April 29, 2026 15:00:48
    Certes <Certes@example.org> wrote:
    On 28/04/2026 10:37, Allan wrote:
    On 27/04/2026 18:21, Clive Page wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line.ÿ But, to my surprise, not many booking
    engines still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent.
    Without that it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh,
    which I guess is faster but not what I want.ÿÿ And I don't want to
    book advanced tickets separately or may get caught out if services
    fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via
    option - where have they gone?
    If you want to oblige a booking site to route you over the S&C, I
    believe one of the cunning ways of doing the "via" is to set via Appleby
    (not Dent).

    (No other inside information as to why this might be, only reading this
    periodically over the years on various S&C information, and since Settle
    station is just over my back wall, I've never really had to test this
    theory in anger, so to speak)

    Perhaps the planner speeds up its work by caching journeys between pairs
    of commonly used routing points[1], and Appleby is one but Dent isn't.

    [1] not necessarily those the Routing Guide uses for ticket validity


    My guess is it's the tipping point which removes the likelihood of the
    planner sending you out to the chosen via point and then back to Leeds to continue your journey via the faster route.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Clive Page@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, April 30, 2026 11:40:41
    On 27/04/2026 18:21, Clive Page wrote:
    I'm about to try to buy a ticket from King's Cross to Glasgow via the
    Settle and Carlisle line.ÿ But, to my surprise, not many booking engines still have a 'via' option to force a route e.g. via Dent.ÿ Without that
    it keeps wanting me to go from King's Cross to Edinburgh, which I guess
    is faster but not what I want.ÿÿ And I don't want to book advanced
    tickets separately or may get caught out if services fail to connect.

    I'm sure most of the TOC's booking engines used to present a via option
    - where have they gone?

    To my surprise the Scotrail.co.uk booking engine which had lost it's
    "via" option last week, has it again this week. Possibly a side effect
    of some cookie that I inadvertently accepted but perhaps just a bug that
    they fixed.


    --
    Clive Page


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)