Fare questions from Basingstoke...

[SirBroccoli]

Hi all,

I'm planning to travel from Basingstoke to Guildford tomorrow and I need to arrive before 11am. I've noticed that instead of paying for a Off Peak Day Return costing £20, I can get an Off Peak Day Return to Ash costing £12.60 and 'break my journey' at Guildford. It looks like it's fine, maybe against the spirit of rail fares, but I just wanted to check.

Then on Friday, I need to get from Basingstoke to Vauxhall, then onwards to Beaconsfield at tea time and back to Basingstoke late in the evening. Again, I need to be at Vauxhall for before 11am. It would seem that in order to achieve this, I could do the following:

Basingstoke to Ash - Off Peak Day Return = £12.60
Woking to Beaconsfield - Off Peak Day Return = £15.30 (with Network Railcard)

Again, this feels fine, but wanted to check.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[yorkie]

Basingstoke is a routeing point or member of a routeing group.

Ash is associated with three RPs, one of which is Guildford.

However Guildford fails the fares check rule, so is not an appropriate routeing point for a Basingstoke to Ash fare.

I therefore don't see how you can conclude that Basingstoke to Ash would ben valid via Guildford.

 

[SirBroccoli]

Basingstoke is a routeing point or member of a routeing group.

Ash is associated with three RPs, one of which is Guildford.

However Guildford fails the fares check rule, so is not an appropriate routeing point for a Basingstoke to Ash fare.

I therefore don't see how you can conclude that Basingstoke to Ash would ben valid via Guildford.

I saw that Basingstoke to Ash was valid via Woking and Guildford, as per the fare priced at £12.60, and via the journey planner screenshot attached, so assumed that I could break my journey at Guildford.

Does the screenshot change your mind?

 

[yorkie]

No; I can assure you my methodology is correct.

That's a screenshot from a Worldline/Atos WebTIS website; they are notorious for getting this sort of thing wrong.

Enjoy it while it lasts; buying a ticket with an itinerary is evidence of a contract, so if you buy it, the ticket itself is valid as per the itinerary you are given.

That said, I am not sure I'd be wanting to try a break of journey at Guildford if the barriers are in operation; you could find this error is short lived if it gets reported. Then again, SWR are quite possibly reading this anyway. It'll be interesting to see how long it is before the error gets noticed and corrected.

 

[JonathanH]

£20 is certainly a lot of money for an off-peak day return from Basingstoke to Guildford. I note that an off-peak day return from Bramley to Guildford is £12.60 and Basingstoke is on the shortest route. Whether it works the barriers at Basingstoke is a different matter.

The difference here is that the £12.60 fares (Basingstoke to Ash / Bramley to Guildford) are set by GWR. GWR have not done the Super-off-peak / Off-peak price hike thing that SWR did.

 

[The Ham]

The classic split is at Farnborough, as:
Farnborough to Guildford is £6.50 and

Basingstoke to Farnbrough £8.40

Total £14.90

Whilst not as cheap as other options, there's no question on validity or gates not accepting the tickets.