Hello, newbie here, but this looks like the sort of place where I might get an expert's opinion, so here goes...
Indeed! Welcome
Often, I'd break a return journey and spend a few hours in London and catch a later SWT service back, all without any problems.
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/advance_conditions.html
Advance T&Cs said:
Break of journey
You may not start, break and resume, or end your journey at any intermediate station except to change to/from connecting trains as shown on the ticket(s) or other valid travel itinerary.
The definition of Break of Journey can be found in
NRCoC.
16. Starting, breaking or ending a journey at intermediate stations
You may start, or break and resume, a journey (in either direction in the case of a return
ticket) at any intermediate station, as long as the ticket you hold is valid for the trains you
want to use. You may also end your journey (in either direction in the case of a return
ticket) before the destination shown on the ticket. However, these rights may not apply to
some types of tickets for which a break of journey is prohibited, in which case the relevant
Train Companies will make this clear in their notices and other publications.
If you start, break and resume, or end your journey at an intermediate station
when you are not entitled to do so, you will be liable to pay an excess fare. This excess
fare will be the difference between the price paid for the ticket you hold and the price of
the lowest priced ticket(s) available for immediate travel that would have entitled you to
start, break and resume, or end your journey at that station on the service(s) you have
used.
A ticket which entitles you to travel on the London Underground and/or
Docklands Light Railway does not entitle you to break and resume your journey at any of
the stations on these networks unless it is a Season Ticket or a Travelcard.
For the purposes of this Condition and Condition 11, you will be treated as breaking your
journey if you leave a Train Company’s or Rail Service Company’s stations after you start
your journey other than:
(i) to join a train at another station, or
(ii) to stay in overnight accommodation when you cannot reasonably
complete your journey within one day, or
(iii) to follow any instructions given by a member of a Train Company’s staff.
Break of journey is never allowed on Advance tickets.
Break of journey is always allowed on Anytime tickets (source:
National Rail Enquiries) and on the return portion of Off Peak tickets (source: The Manual), and for outward portions of Off Peak tickets it is sometimes not allowed (though the NRCoC requires such prohibitions to be "made clear", and it is dubious whether they are in some cases!)
Recently, on a return trip back to Southampton, I made the EUS-WAT connection in good time, so was able to board the half-hour earlier WAT-SOU service. On-board, the guard asked to see my reservations and pointed out that I had a mandatory reservation on the later train. Sure enough, looking at the reservations, I did indeed have a mandatory reservation for the connecting service. He was kind enough to not make a fuss about it, but said I should be aware of it for the next time.
So, my question is has this always been the case, or has it changed recently? I've not been able to track any information down about it. Any input on the matter would be gratefully received. I'm making another trip in a few days and I'd like to know where I stand.
Thanks in advance!
It's a can of worms.
Before SWT did their own Advance products (perhaps 2 years ago?), there was no reservation coupon issued on any SWT services.
However now that SWT do their own Advance products, some SWT services are what I call "semi-reserveable" which means that you get a coupon, with a train specified, but no actual seat reserved. This only applies for longer-distance services. This system is in place for several other TOCs (as discussed in the
SWT Seat reservations thread) including Arriva Trains Wales, Chiltern, London Midland, National Express East Anglia, ScotRail, SWT and Southern. Historically, many of these services operated by these TOCs have tended to not offer reservations and/or not offer Advance tickets, with Advance tickets historically only being available on former "InterCity" services (and connections). But now that Advance tickets are becoming the norm for any medium to long distance service, the TOCs that historically did not offer them, now want to offer such products but without the hassle that comes with providing an actual seat reservation.
Whether you are tied to a specific train on the connections leg, is highly debatable and numerous topics have discussed this issue (though most of them refer to when there is no train specified for the 'Connection' leg)
If you have a reservation for a 'connecting' service, and wish to take an earlier train, my advice in future would be to seek the guard before departure and ask first; you may find that the guard agrees to the request, after all, the intention appears to be (and certainly, historically
was) to restrict you to the 'InterCity'-type operators train, rather than tie you to specific connecting services. This would avoid any potential problems on board the train. If the guard says no, then I would advise against arguing, and not board the train.
Before 'Simplification',
some TOCs used to make it clear, e.g. a
York to Southampton Route: GNER & Connections had the following in the restriction code:
NFM95 (2007) said:
Valid on date, GNER train and
seats shown on the ticket,
plus connecting trains as
required.
That made it clear that it was only the GNER train that was specific, and connecting trains were not specific.
Now the rules have been made 'simple' and apply generically, the new wording on all Advance tickets is as follows:
NFM10 (2011) said:
If the 'Route' also states
'and Connections' travel is
allowed on appropriate
connecting trains where shown
on the ticket(s) or other
valid travel itinerary.
Now, the question as to whether or not taking an earlier train is "appropriate" is debatable. Also the earlier train is not shown "on the ticket(s) or other valid travel itinerary", however some people have argued that if you can get the
National Rail website to provide a valid travel itinerary for the trains you want to use (e.g. by using the 'Reduce transfer times through London' option), then that's okay.
I doubt we will ever see universal agreement on this issue.
