London Paddington > Bristol TM - break of journey advice

[hatt55]

I would like to travel between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads this weekend, with a potential break of journey at Reading. Ideally, I would leave London Paddington on Friday evening (and I am happy to wait until Off Peak timing starts). My plan would be to stop at Reading and stay for 2 nights, leaving Reading to go back to Bristol Temple Meads on Sunday afternoon. My timings aren't fixed so, if possible, I wanted to maintain flexibility by not buying Advance tickets for a specific service.

Initially I had hoped that I could simply buy an Off Peak Single on Friday evening, break the journey at Reading, and continue the trip on Sunday afternoon after 2 nights in Reading using the same ticket. But, looking at the guidance page on this forum, I'm not sure if this would be allowed and perhaps hinges on what the definition of '2 days' is. This is confusing me a bit!

A couple of questions spring to mind (although if I'm misunderstanding things then perhaps these might be irrelevant):

1) How is '2 days' defined? Is it 48 hours from when I buy/use the ticket? Let's say this was 1930 on Friday, then I could happily get the train from Reading to Bristol before 1930 on Sunday and all would be fine. However, if it means that it is valid on just the day of purchase (Friday - day 1)) and the next day (Saturday - day 2), then I couldn't use it on Sunday.

2) Could somebody confirm when the Off Peak journey time starts for London Paddington to Reading? If I try and book a ticket for London to Bristol, Off Peak seems to be from 1900 onwards. If I try and book a ticket just from London Paddington to Reading then the 1743 train is the first Off Peak option.

I already have an Advance ticket to get from Bristol to London, so this just relates to a one way journey.

Any advice would be appreciated! If I can't just get an Off Peak Single to cover the whole trip, what might my cheapest alternative be?

Edit: Simplified Journey Details:

Overall Journey: London Paddington to BRI

Proposed Itinerary
Depart London: Friday PM (Off Peak is fine) to Reading
Depart Reading: Sunday PM to BRI

 

[30907]

A couple of questions spring to mind (although if I'm misunderstanding things then perhaps these might be irrelevant):

1) How is '2 days' defined?

As calendar days (plus till 0429 on Day 3, but that is irrelevant), so your plan doesn't work. You could use the return half of a Bristol-London ticket for an extended stopover, but that will probably cost you more, even allowing for getting a refund on your Advance ticket.

2) Could somebody confirm when the Off Peak journey time starts for London Paddington to Reading? If I try and book a ticket for London to Bristol, Off Peak seems to be from 1900 onwards. If I try and book a ticket just from London Paddington to Reading then the 1743 train is the first Off Peak option.

Bristol tickets and Reading tickets have different peak restrictions - Reading tickets can be used on some but not all evening peak trains, basically the slower ones.

If you have a contactless card and are prepared to wait till 7pm. that's your cheapest fare Paddington-Reading, £11.30.

 

[mangyiscute]

1) I am almost certain that this single ticket would not be valid on both Friday and Sunday, and you will, unfortunately, need to buy separate tickets for the journey. From what I can see, the cheapest option will be to use contactless from London to Reading, as off peak (not within 16:00-19:00) this costs £11.60 which is cheaper than even a single with a railcard, and it is valid on all services between Paddington and Reading including the fast GWR services, and then for the Sunday, buy a £33.60 single from Reading to Bristol - looking at advances here could save a decent amount of money.

2) the 17:43 is an Elizabeth line service from London to Reading, and these services are always off peak in the evening - unfortunately, they also take an hour rather than 25 mins. The peak period for trains leaving London Paddington is roughly 16:00 - 19:04 and this includes all fast and semi-fast services to Reading in this time. However, when using contactless, the peak calculation is to do with when you tap in, so as long as you tap the barrier before 16:00 or after 19:00, you will be charged the off peak fare

 

[hatt55]

Thanks for this. I ended up using the contactless option. Its been a while since i've done the London - Reading journey, so I didn't realise that that was now an option. Elizabeth Line is very impressive!

 

[mangyiscute]

Thanks for this. I ended up using the contactless option. Its been a while since i've done the London - Reading journey, so I didn't realise that that was now an option. Elizabeth Line is very impressive!

Yeah, it's nice having both options as standard paper tickets charge a lot for single and have cheaper returns, while contactless doesn't offer returns and therefore has cheaper singles and more expensive returns