Travel enquiries

Over the Christmas period, we've been busy getting things sorted for the wedding. (Only 6 months now - suddenly it gets closer!)
We've settled on visiting the Island of Bute on the West coast of Scotland, and booked our accomodation, but not the transport yet. You see, we thought it would be nice to travel by train, and so I visited the national rail website to enquire about the journey from home from Wemyss bay (the closest station to the ferry port to Bute).
Well, firstly they couldn't give me any information, as they only have details for the next three months, so then I entered a false date to still try and get the details.
Success, I thought. It gave me a list of stations to visit; a journey to Derby, then a journey to Birmingham then a journey to Lancaster, then a journey to Glasgow, then a journey to Wemyss Bay. Forget the hotel - this would take the entire holiday visiting all these locations. And the cost of this magical mystery tour?  Over £250.
So I tried one more time. And this time, I asked for details in stages. One journey to Birmingham (it can't be avoided unfortunately!), followed by one journey direct to Glasgow, and then a final one to Wemyss Bay. The cost - around £170.
So the national rail website, designed to make booking a journey easier, quoted me a more expensive, less direct route than me sorting it out myself! I'm not impressed - and I wonder how many people just accept the results that the search query throws back at them?