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Anytime Return Tickets

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BingBong50

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Do Anytime Return Tickets allow you to break the journey on the outbound where the break of journey is overnight?

My trip would be:

East Croydon - Brighton
1 night stay
Brighton - Cooden Beach
Cooden Beach - Brighton (Same day)
2 night stay
Brighton - East Croydon.

So could I just purchase an Anytime Return ticket to Cooden Beach or do I have to buy two separate tickets - East Croydon - Brighton return and Brighton - Cooden Beach?
 
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Merseysider

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There is no Anytime Return from ECR to Coodon Beach, but you may wish to look into nearby stations.

For example, Gatwick Airport to Coodon Beach does have a £35.40 Anytime Return, but there will probably be cheaper alternatives.
 

BingBong50

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Ok - Thank you.

It's looking as if my cheapest option will be:

East Croydon - Gatwick Airport - Anytime Return - £7.40
Gatwick Airport - Cooden Beach - (Via Brighton) Anytime Return - £23.35 (Both with Disabled Railcard Discount)

Would appreciate help to check if this is correct so I ask for the relevant tickets. Find it very confusing that there is no Anytime Return from East Croydon - Cooden Beach.
 

30907

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IF you are able to travel after 0930 on day 1 and 0900 on day 2, then it is slightly cheaper to use an Offpeak Return ECR-BTN and Offpeak Day Return BTN-COB.

(Note: it is allowable to break your journey overnight at BTN on an Offpeak Return ECR-COB if you cannot complete your journey in one day; however, I would expect to be challenged using it, so I don't advise it!)

There are no Anytime (period) Return fares on many routes around London - they are particularly open to fraudulent use - and Gatwick is the exception (for obvious reasons).
 

BingBong50

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Much appreciated - I will stick to the Anytime option splitting ticket at Gatwick as I don't fancy being challenged.
 

Haywain

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Much appreciated - I will stick to the Anytime option splitting ticket at Gatwick as I don't fancy being challenged.
You may still be challenged about using the Anytime Return after an overnight break if journey. The fact that it is permitted does not mean that you won’t be challenged.
 

Skimpot flyer

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Ok - Thank you.

It's looking as if my cheapest option will be:

East Croydon - Gatwick Airport - Anytime Return - £7.40
Gatwick Airport - Cooden Beach - (Via Brighton) Anytime Return - £23.35 (Both with Disabled Railcard Discount)

Would appreciate help to check if this is correct so I ask for the relevant tickets. Find it very confusing that there is no Anytime Return from East Croydon - Cooden Beach.
Total price £30.75
Yet, up here in glorious Hertfordshire, a period return from Welwyn North to Cooden Beach with railcard is £28.20. Admittedly, you couldn’t use it on Day 2 for the Brighton to Cooden Beach leg, but it would be valid for the other bits. If I bought a Brighton to COB single with Railcard discount (£9.25), the total paid would be about 25% more for a journey taking in a far far greater mileage.
The vagaries of ticket pricing amaze me!
 

30907

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Total price £30.75
Yet, up here in glorious Hertfordshire, a period return from Welwyn North to Cooden Beach with railcard is £28.20. Admittedly, you couldn’t use it on Day 2 for the Brighton to Cooden Beach leg, but it would be valid for the other bits. If I bought a Brighton to COB single with Railcard discount (£9.25), the total paid would be about 25% more for a journey taking in a far far greater mileage.
The vagaries of ticket pricing amaze me!
That is an Offpeak Return. As mentioned upthread, this is also available from ECR (£21.05, so 25% cheaper for about 30% less mileage). However, the OP prefers the Anytime option costing 45p more.

You may still be challenged about using the Anytime Return after an overnight break if journey. The fact that it is permitted does not mean that you won’t be challenged.
That's true, but there's, with no argument about what "being unable to complete the journey" means.
 

BingBong50

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So the trip was completed ok with the combination of Anytime Return from East Croydon to Gatwick and Anytime return from Gatwick to Cooden Beach. Both pairs of tickets had a date range on them for both Outward and Return. Interestingly the East Croydon to Gatwick pair stated "Valid via any permitted route" but the Gatwick to Cooden Beach did not. On arrival at Brighton on Day 1 the ticket would not allow me out of the barriers and I think the error code that showed on the display was 105. The wide gate was open though and unattended so I just went through but it made me anxious as to whether I was travelling on a valid ticket and didn't want to encounter any problems so I went to the Brighton station ticket office to check. They just said "You should be ok" which didn't reassure me very much. Anyway on Day 2 my same outbound ticket did allow me back through the barriers at Brighton to travel to Cooden Beach. The ticket was inspected on the train and not questioned but the OBS did write the date on the ticket. Again on Day 2 travelling back to Brighton the barriers would not let me out but I just showed it at the wide gate and was waved through. I think the error code was again 105. The rest of the travel was fine to completion of trip.

All a bit confusing and I'm still not convinced I was using valid tickets for the route and overnights etc.
 

Hadders

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Barriers are not ‘smart’ and often reject valid tickets. Just ask to be let out manually.
 

plugwash

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My experience (admittedly fairly limited) as that as soon as you do something unusual such as breaking your journey, traveling short or making an interchange on an unusual route that requires passing through barriers, you have a high chance of getting rejected by automated barriers and having to be let-through manually. AIUI the information that can be encoded on the ticket is very limited and the barriers aren't very smart either, so unless a barrier is explicitly set up to permit something it will probably reject it.
 

Haywain

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the information that can be encoded on the ticket is very limited and the barriers aren't very smart either,
The barriers can only handle the information that is on the mag stripe. This is a major reason for most of the rail industry wanting to do away with mag stripe tickets.
 
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