The trains you can use when you have an Off-Peak ticket depend on the restriction code applying to your ticket.
. Shame it takes a panel of experts to understand these things!
I suppose one reason is that it helps prevent the reuse of tickets, especially in view of the fact that the return portion of the ticket is valid for a month (and that, due to fares regulation, this length cannot be shortened for the vast majority of Off-Peak Returns). If the ticket is Zifa'd or the conductor writes the date on the ticket, there is effectively no way of using the ticket on another day without a very compelling explanation. This prevents (attempted) reuse that is sometimes very prevalent as a form of commuting - after all, you cannot claim to have broken your journey as otherwise you'd be liable to pay an excess fare.It seems absurd that they apparently don’t care what time you travel on this ticket, but code 8A says you must not break your journey (except for the usual permitted reasons).
What on earth is the rationale behind that?
I have no intention of breaking my journey but I’m bemused by the lack of logic. Okay I know this is the railway!
Yes. No Anytime tickets have BoJ restrictions, by definition. No Off-peak ones are supposed to either.
There have been proposals to make all Off Peak tickets restricted until a certain time such as 0930, to make things simpler.Thanks so much everyone, that’s really helpful
Yes that's just the date you started using it; it's still valid for break of journey at any number of stations en route, up to the expiry date on the ticket.
Not enforceable though as there is plenty of documentation to demonstrate Anytime fares are unrestricted. In the event of a contradiction, the most favourable term to the customer must prevail.
This is an 8A ticket remember!
Correct, but we have previously heard of some TfW conductors taking umbrage to breaks of journey, so I would tread carefully.
Blanket time restrictions make sense for local services in metropolitan areas, no doubt this is the only railway experience of the people who propose them. On the other hand as soon as you get into restriction codes you are just confusing the passenger (and a lot of staff judging by some of the comments here) with jargon.
In other words, either increasing the cheap fares (e.g. Off-Peak Day Returns) or decreasing the expensive fares (e.g. Anytime Returns). Hmm, I wonder which option is more likely to happen!
I think the idea is that you would book your return journey separately, as mentioned in the thread on that subject.
Feel free to create a thread with your proposals on how this could be achieved. Good luck finding something that would tick all boxes and be deemed acceptable to all parties.
Please respond in context rather than taking senteces in isolation, my previous paragraph had already said that I didn't agree with the idea.
No, and indeed if someone buys from a ticket machine or ticket office where they might not even be told that the NRCoT apply, let alone what the restriction code is or what the time and BoJ restrictions are, then I agree that this is an utterly farcical situation where such restrictions cannot justifiably be enforced.
I agree. It's unfortunate that so many of these unknowns never get resolved, because it leads to uncertainty for a lot of people who want to do perfectly legitimate and understandable things like breaking their journey with a flexible walk-on ticket.
