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London to Reading off peak return validity

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MontyP

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I am travelling to Reading from Paddington for the football on Tue evening - what is the validity for off-peak day return from Paddington? National Rail shows the cheapest return (£20.70) valid on 18.07 and 18.19 but not 18.14/18.22 (which are £49!) What are the specific rules? I don’t want to make an expensive mistake by getting on an invalid train.
Thanks
 
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yorkie

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MontyP said:
I am travelling to Reading from Paddington for the football on Tue evening - what is the validity for off-peak day return from Paddington? National Rail shows the cheapest return (£20.70) valid on 18.07 and 18.19 but not 18.14/18.22 (which are £49!) What are the specific rules? I don’t want to make an expensive mistake by getting on an invalid train.
Thanks
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NRE, and all booking sites, will show the trains which are valid with that fare.

The 1807 and 1819 are OK because they call at Twyford or Maidenhead. Trains which are non-stop to Reading, or which call at only Slough before Reading, are usually barred in the restriction data and therefore would not be valid.

(Note that the Rail Delivery Group suggest that this is too complicated, so in future you would either need to pay the full Anytime price for flexibility or you would have to purchase a ticket that is valid on one specific train, if their proposals ever see the light of day; see: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...res-especially-day-returns-to-increase.178399 )
 
ForTheLoveOf

ForTheLoveOf

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MontyP said:
Thanks for this - a very useful site!
Click to expand...
Of course, it is possible to take one of the non-stop Reading services if you wish, for far less than the cost of an Anytime Day Return for £49. But it isn't possible, AFAIK, to do it for less than £20.70 anyway (well, legitimately), so if you happy to take a one-stop service then you can save a fair amount without being inconvenienced too much.
 
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alistairlees

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JonathanH

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yorkie said:
(Note that the Rail Delivery Group suggest that this is too complicated, so in future you would either need to pay the full Anytime price for flexibility or you would have to purchase a ticket that is valid on one specific train, if their proposals ever see the light of day; see: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...res-especially-day-returns-to-increase.178399 )
Click to expand...

This will happen anyway with the extension of Oyster / Contactless to Reading. You would have to assume that the peak fare will apply for a blanket 1600-1900 (although it will be a bit different as presumably what counts as a peak train will depend on the initial touch in elsewhere in London). I doubt there will be 'advance' fares for Paddington to Reading. Either way, that £20.70 becomes something like £35.
 
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Hadders

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It would be useful to know exactly where the OP is travelling from. Is s/he really starting at Paddington or are they coming from elsewhere and changing at Paddington?

Also, it would be good to know if the OP has a season ticket this might be relevant.
 
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