I sent the following using National Rail Enquiries Online's feedback form:

"""
I have a few questions on the journey planner. First, would it be 
possible to use three-letter station codes when planning journeys just 
like one can in other areas of the site? This would make using the site 
easier.

Secondly, I live in Cambridge and sometimes must travel to London. Why 
aren't travelcard fares listed on this web site?

Third, why can't the journey planner be faster? In ticket offices there 
is instantaneous lookup of what we request here.

Thank you for your attention to these questions and suggestions.
"""

Their reply:

"""
Thank you for your email.

The provision of 3 letter code input on the journey planner is being 
considered for a future update. The current update has been mostly cosmetic.

We are unable to show Travelcard prices as these cannot be purchased 
from all online retailers. If this facility is extended across the 
retailers we will be able to update to include these fares.

The journey planner has to collate information from various data sources 
across the internet to give you the correct information. Generally, rail 
industry systems will download a copy of the timetable database daily to 
the local machine. This accounts for the difference in speed between the 
systems.

We trust that this information is of assistance to you.
"""

Personally, I don't understand the Travelcard price issue. I can call 
them on the phone and get a price quote, although I don't think I can 
order Travelcards through telesales. They could provide the pricing for 
information only, at least.

As far as the speed of responses, that might make sense when asking 
about travel today (although I still think it is too slow), but when 
asking about travel in a month, there can't be too much new information 
to "collate" together.
-- 
Michael Hoffman

On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 12:36:56 +0100, Michael Hoffman
<cam.ac.uk@mh391.invalid> wrote:


>We are unable to show Travelcard prices as these cannot be purchased 
>from all online retailers.


1. I fail to see why that is in any way relevant to an enquiry
service.
2. Aren't all the online ticket purchasing facilities in the UK now
Trainline-based, and therefore (as the new version of the software
supports ODTCs) do allow the purchase of ODTCs?

I suspect the correct answer is "we can't be bothered to (pay to)
upgrade to the latest version of the Trainline software which will
support these tickets".

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.