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BR All Year Rover

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yorksrob

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Well, the plot thickens !

So it was basically for industry bods when it disappeared in the noughties.
 
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Bald Rick

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That's surprising. The letter gave the impression it was being phased out.

Do you know how much it would have cost by then ?

One day I'll check my old Modern Railways, and find out. Thinking about it, it may even have been in the GBTT back then.

Incidentally, this will probably make you all sick, but some of us are fortunate to have such a pass. However I use mine almost exclusively for St Albans to London and nothing else.
 
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Starmill

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Incidentally, this will probably make you all sick, but some of us are fortunate to have such a pass. However I use mine almost exclusively for St Albans to London and nothing else.

I know someone who has very extensive free travel facilities, as a result of their long years of service at Crewe Works, who never travels anywhere by rail at all, and hasn't done for years!
 

yorksrob

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One day I'll check my old Modern Railways, and find out. Thinking about it, it may even have been in the GBTT back then.

Incidentally, this will probably make you all sick, but some of us are fortunate to have such a pass. However I use mine almost exclusively for St Albans to London and nothing else.

It makes sense to encourage management to go out and about on the network, experience "the product" and hopefully adopt best practice from elsewhere. I certainly wouldn't want those running the railway to go everywhere by car.

Is it frowned upon to use the pass too much for non-work activities?
 

SpacePhoenix

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A Berwick upon Tweed to London annual season does exist, with first class being £37760

Sent from my F3111 using Tapatalk

lol The current all line rovers appear to be either 7 days or 14 days long. The standard class one is £492 for an adult (no rail cards), times by 52 to get the cost for a year £25,584 and the 1st class one is £38,740 so for arond a grand more someone could get an all line rover instead of one for a single route.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/pr20780b0a0400020167ed620a7e504e.aspx

Subject to the restrictions shown below, the All Line Rail Rover (7 day) ticket allows unlimited travel on most National Rail services for 7 consecutive days.

It does not include the charge for seat reservations, where payable.

The All Line Rail Rover is also valid for travel on:

Caledonian Sleeper services in seated coaches (reservations compulsory) or in a berth with the payment of the appropriate supplement.
First Great Western Night Riviera Sleeper services in seated coaches (reservations recommended but not compulsory) or in a berth with payment of the appropriate supplement.
Ffestiniog Railway.

The All Lines Rail Rover is not valid for boarding or alighting train services operated by CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains, Virgin Trains or Virgin Trains East Coast before 10:00 Mondays to Fridays at the following stations:

Birmingham New Street
Bedford
London Euston
London Kings Cross
London St Pancras International
Luton
Luton Airport Parkway
Milton Keynes Central
Stevenage
Watford Junction

No restrictions apply on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.

The All Lines Rail Rover is not valid for travel on:

Eurostar
Heathrow Express
Heathrow Connect services between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow.
London Underground
DLR
London Trams
Private heritage railways (except Ffestiniog Railway)
Shipping services.


Participating train companies
Greater Anglia; Arriva Trains Wales; c2c; Caledonian Sleeper; Chiltern Railways; CrossCountry; East Midlands Trains; Great Western Railway; Hull Trains; TransPennine Express; Gatwick Express; Grand Central; Great Northern; Heathrow Connect; Island Line; London Midland; London Overground; Merseyrail; Northern; ScotRail; South West Trains; Southeastern; Southern; Stansted Express; TfL Rail; Thameslink; Virgin Trains; Virgin Trains East Coast;
 

JohnR

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I would imagine that an annual all-line rover would be less than 52 times the 7-day rover, in the same way an annual season is less than 52 times a 7 day season.

Using the same formula gets a total of £19,680. So you can see why they discontinued it. For £25k I'd expect no restrictions (other than a berth supplement in the sleepers).
 

ainsworth74

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lol The current all line rovers appear to be either 7 days or 14 days long. The standard class one is £492 for an adult (no rail cards), times by 52 to get the cost for a year £25,584 and the 1st class one is £38,740 so for arond a grand more someone could get an all line rover instead of one for a single route.

But there are time restrictions on the ALR that don't exist on the season ticket so depending on when you were planning on arriving in London this may not be suitable.
 
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How would they do so, out of interest ? would they pass it around between different people to collect cars ? I would have thought a photocard would sort out the issue (or maybe a specific business product, like corporate Metrocards in W Yorks).

Yes - that's what the guy told me. A photocard would have sorted the problem.
Many did get caught and lost their expensive ticket. He said that they often checked the pass carefully. He could not afford to lose his as he did not have a car.
 
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rg177

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But there are time restrictions on the ALR that don't exist on the season ticket so depending on when you were planning on arriving in London this may not be suitable.

In comparison to the Berwick-London season, the restriction would be that you can't arrive London before 10:00 on VTEC, which matters little considering that the first direct weekday service to London (Train 1Y14 which starts at Berwick at 06:00) arrives into London at 10:04.
 

ChiefPlanner

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It makes sense to encourage management to go out and about on the network, experience "the product" and hopefully adopt best practice from elsewhere. I certainly wouldn't want those running the railway to go everywhere by car.

Is it frowned upon to use the pass too much for non-work activities?

As BR management trainees we were given an all stations standard class valid for 2 years , mine was endorsed "also available in rear cabs on freight or parcel trains" - we were encouraged to get out and about , keep a log - and raise issues observed. Mine was very well used - and I still have it somewhere.
 

yorksrob

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Yes - that's what the guy told me. A photocard would have sorted the problem.
Many did get caught and lost their expensive ticket. He said that they often checked the pass carefully. He could not afford to lose his as he did not have a car.

Given the issues with forged tickets these days, I should imagine they would still have to be careful.
 

ainsworth74

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In comparison to the Berwick-London season, the restriction would be that you can't arrive London before 10:00 on VTEC, which matters little considering that the first direct weekday service to London (Train 1Y14 which starts at Berwick at 06:00) arrives into London at 10:04.

Huh, I dunno why but I thought that that train arrived earlier in London than 1000. In that case yes, as long as I'm never going to need to arrive before 1000 (for instance by driving to Newcastle to get an earlier train from there to London) then I'd go for the ALR.
 

rg177

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Huh, I dunno why but I thought that that train arrived earlier in London than 1000. In that case yes, as long as I'm never going to need to arrive before 1000 (for instance by driving to Newcastle to get an earlier train from there to London) then I'd go for the ALR.
You might be thinking of the option of changing at Newcastle for the Scotsman which arrives at 09:40 having run non stop from Newcastle to London.

It passes the direct service at Darlington, running down the fasts while the direct one sits there from 07:25 to 07:31.

On Saturdays though when it starts at Newcastle and doesn't have to hang around, then yeah it arrives at 09:54.
 

Bald Rick

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Is it frowned upon to use the pass too much for non-work activities?

Quite the opposite, for those of us with full travel facilities dating from pre 1996. The pass is valid for the trip from home to your normal place of work (and return), but that's it in terms of work; it is strictly not valid for trips 'on business'.

It is effectively an all line rover in your own time. However, I might use it in these circumstances on routes other than my work route 2-3 times a year. For where I need to go, and who (and what) I need to take with me, the convenience and speed of the car more than outweighs the cost of driving.
 
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Flying Snail

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It's a product I would aspire to but, priced appropriately, what would the market be?

Very wealthy enthusiasts with lots of time to recoup their investment.

Owners of very successful private companies, without a stock market listing hence limited corporate governance issues, who travel frequently on business but prefer the train to a Mercedes S-class and driver.

I think those potential markets would number a couple of hundred people nationally, at most, though there may be more solitary and rich rail enthusiasts than I estimate. Interesting topic.

Well if you were very wealthy then a non-UK home, preferably in a tax haven, and 12x monthly Britrail passes at c £10k (first class of course) would be an option.
 

higthomas

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One could of course make use of a very literal wording of the NRCOT and the ALR restrictions and combine it with a Zone 1-2 Travlecard valid from Finsbury Park to Kings cross. There you go, got yourself a virtually unlimited ticket. :P
 
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EbbwJunction1

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"The cost of this was £650 second class and £1,000 for first, which, using the Bank of England's inflation calculator would translate as £7,213.96 standard and £11,098.04 in first class today."

I'm wondering what would be the point of having a First Class ticket if you wanted to travel widely instead of just on a set route?

There are large areas (the Cardiff Valleys and Merseyrail spring to mind, but I guess that there are others) where there are no First Class services, so wouldn't you be paying for something that you couldn't have?
 

Polarbear

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"The cost of this was £650 second class and £1,000 for first, which, using the Bank of England's inflation calculator would translate as £7,213.96 standard and £11,098.04 in first class today."

I'm wondering what would be the point of having a First Class ticket if you wanted to travel widely instead of just on a set route?

There are large areas (the Cardiff Valleys and Merseyrail spring to mind, but I guess that there are others) where there are no First Class services, so wouldn't you be paying for something that you couldn't have?

Just to add a little context, in the days when this ticket was available, (and at that price), provision of 1st class was considerably more generous than is the case today.
 

the sniper

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This thread must have stirred some interest somewhere, as the Rail Deliver Group have recently put out a familiarisation retail brief about the existence of an 'All Line Rail Pass', valid for 12 months of unlimited travel. It's apparently only issued to 'clients of [RDG]'. There are currently only 45 issued. It's treated like a season ticket and needs to be accompanied by a standard photocard. If you go by the face of the ticket, iirc, it's priceless. ;)

There's a page on Knowledgebase for it.
 

yorksrob

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Just to add a little context, in the days when this ticket was available, (and at that price), provision of 1st class was considerably more generous than is the case today.

Plus, if you're going long distances, you're probably going to end up doing a lot of IC travel. I'm pretty sure that a large proportion of 1st gen DMU's had 1st class accommodation.
 
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