Actually, you're quite right.  I've gone back and double checked.  Does not work with static XML.  Same behaviour... transfer works, bridge fails. However I can definitely originate a call from the CLI over the same route ..... "originate sofia/gateway/mygate/12345678 &park" works great. That's what's really bugging me, if I can CLI originate to that number, if I can call that PSTN number from my FreeSwitch softphone, why on earth can't i do this simple bridge ! ;-(

So doing the bridge to the same number with static XML worked, but when bridging to the exact same endpoint with xml_curl you're getting a 503?