If I buy my daughter an APEX ticket from Chester to Brighton, assuming she travels on the correct train from Chester to London, is she obligated to catch the reserved train from London to Brighton.?
ie - can she spend a few hours mooching around London then catch any train to Brighton ?
Many thanks
MC
If there is a (counted place) reservation for a particular service between London and Brighton marked on the ticket, yes. If there isn't a reservation, ie travelling by Thameslink, then some delay in London might be admissible.
However, by strict definition of the terms of advance tickets, a break of journey, ie delaying the south of London part of the journey is not allowed.
I've never tested it but I do wonder whether a very observant revenue official could call someone up on the connecting service if they saw that the journey north of London was much earlier in the day.
You might find it cheaper to split the tickets anyway depending on the time of travel as the pricing of the cheapest level of advance fares for the Chester to London portion is not now available for a through journey south of London.