Rail Search Engines Not Always Right

[denis567]

I travel from Selby to Great Malvern on a frequent basis. My route is always, Selby to Doncaster
Doncaster to Birmingham New Street
Birmingham to Great Malvern

Last weekend I had the occasion to returm home on a Sunday and due to there being no direct trains from Bimingham to Doncaster on a Sunday, I could not use my usual route.
All the companies advised I travel as follows;-
Great Malvern to Birmingham New Street
Birmingham to Manchester Piccadilly
Manchester to Selby
It was only by chance that I found out that there was a train leaving Birmingham 2 minutes after the Manchester one, which would take me to York.
This was much better as York is only 15 miles from Selby and there was a connection that got me into Selby 12 minutes sooner than if I had gone via Manchester.
My question is, why did all the search engines (and I tried several) not give the York train as an option?

[jno]

did you try nationalrail.co.uk? That's supposed to be the officialish one

[mushroom25]

that's because the journey planner's connection algorithm disallows the short connection margin at York between the train from Birmingham, and the train to Selby.

[spudqueen]

I once got a train from Preston to Liverpool. The timetable I'd used on-line said I had to change trains at St Helens, but I had a hunch, which proved correct, that the train I was already on went into Liverpool Lime Street, just where I wanted to go. So goodness knows why it said to get out and wait 20 minutes for another train!

[denis567]

Mushroom25, I think you are probably right, there was only about 12 minutes transfer time at York, so if the arrival had been late, I might have missed the connection.
On the day however, the Birmingham to York train was on time, so I had plenty of time to catch the Selby train