SWR 'bashing' on the Great West Way Discover East

Hello all,

Stumbled across this I assume relatively new ranger the other day. At £69 its valid on Padd - Swindon/Newbury/Westbury but also Waterloo - Westbury via Salisbury.

Obviously one can use this to bash the 387s and IETs for haulage (though a Thames Valley ranger would cover that) but could you also use it for 450/444 haulage between Waterloo and Woking or Basingstoke?

It only mentions valid on the Salisbury route from or to Waterloo, so is it just valid on 159's or is it because tourists are likely to use it to Salisbury direct for Stonehenge etc that they aren't expecting anyone to use it as a rover between Basingstoke and Waterloo (presumably you can't use it on Reading - Basingstoke GWR shuttles?)

Just wondering about using one of these to spend half a day doing GWR 800s and 387s, then the other half doing Waterloo to Woking or Basingstoke on Desiros that I still need.

Also interesting to note you can do some bus routes like the X5 from Swindon towards Pewsey etc, interesting to know if the Go South Coast Salisbury Reds driver of the X5 would know what the ticket is.

I've had a couple of instances with rangers valid on local buses and they have no idea what I'm showing them!

Valid down as far as Salisbury or Westbury on SWR from Waterloo, but not Reading-Basingstoke. See here for map and details.

ForTheLoveOf said:

Valid down as far as Salisbury or Westbury on SWR from Waterloo, but not Reading-Basingstoke. See here for map and details.

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Have I guessed correctly that as with normal tickets that this rover is not accepted on Heathrow Express?

I cannot see anything on the linked map saying whether it is or not, but it shows the diverging route to the airport from Paddington. Obviously it will be accepted on the Heathrow Connect/TfL Rail/London Crossrail trains that run to Heathrow.

The week long version of this looks like great value. Can't seem to find any time restrictions though? Assume it isn't valid on peak services?

autotank said:

The week long version of this looks like great value. Can't seem to find any time restrictions though? Assume it isn't valid on peak services?

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Not valid during peak times - https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/tickets-railcards-and-season-tickets/great-west-way

Passes are valid from 09:20 - 00:00 on a chosen day of travel, except for departures from Paddington 16:40 - 19:16 inclusive Monday – Friday (not public holidays).

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Interesting that it is valid on all Reading Buses services but only selected routes for other operators, Oxford by bus but not by train.

JonathanH said:

Not valid during peak times - https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/tickets-railcards-and-season-tickets/great-west-way



Interesting that it is valid on all Reading Buses services but only selected routes for other operators, Oxford by bus but not by train.

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Interestingly, it has ticket restriction code W1 which does allow evening peak travel out of Paddington. There's a pricing manager out there without much sense.

In addition, the GWR site says that "Many local trains have Standard Class accommodation only. This has been accounted for in price of the First Class Passes [...] Holders of Adult / Child Standard Class passes or tickets may travel in First Class accommodation on payment of the difference between the First Class and Standard Class full fare of the journey being made."

What first class passes? It's a standard class only product.

Don't even get me started on the confusing map. The terms and conditions here are a mess.

So in theory you could use it to travel between Waterloo and Basingstoke all day on Class 444/450's? Just an oyster to get across from Paddington to Waterloo (or make the most of the rover and go from Paddington to Basingstoke via Westbury for the mileage)

I need quite a lot of 444's and almost all the 800's for the 'red pen' which made me think this might be a useful rover doing half on the GWR and the rest of the day on SWR

Personally if I was using this on Reading Buses I'd print out the page that say's it's valid on the network, as I can imagine a driver not knowing anything about it, it's just as bad as a normal bus rover where a driver goes 'no, not valid on this bus' which then out comes the printed out PDF leaflet which says that it is!

adrock1976 said:

Have I guessed correctly that as with normal tickets that this rover is not accepted on Heathrow Express?

I cannot see anything on the linked map saying whether it is or not, but it shows the diverging route to the airport from Paddington. Obviously it will be accepted on the Heathrow Connect/TfL Rail/London Crossrail trains that run to Heathrow.

Click to expand...

Interesting I've just looked at the map as posted above, yes it does have Heathrow, but I found this on GB Rail Rover site which mentions the operators it's valid on is Great Western Railway and South Western Railway. That's it, so with Heathrow Connect now part of TfL, and Heathrow Express being their own operation, how can it be valid to Heathrow??

Personally if I was using this on Reading Buses