Can someone explain how this route is valid? (Colchester Area)

Hello,
I want to travel from Walton-on-the-Naze (WON) to Ipswich (IPS) via Clacton-on-Sea (CLT).

Trainsplit gives a WON to IPS Anytime Day Single (£8.25 with 16-25 Railcard) as valid on route:

WON - Thorpe-le-Soken - Clacton-on-Sea - Colchester - IPS

The Mapped route (EA) only shows Colchester to Ipswich, can someone possibly explain how this means that going via Clacton is valid?

Any help much appreciated,
Cheers,
- Jack

Here's my thinking - hopefully a routeing data guru can confirm or reject this - there is no common routeing point, so you are required to first take the shortest route to the origin routeing point (Colchester) [does the +3miles allowance apply to the local part of the journey?]. The double back between Thorpe-le-Soken and Clacton adds 9.5 miles so would not be expected to be permitted. However, there is no distance in the National Rail Timetable for trains that run directly between Hythe and Colchester without going via Colchester Town, so perhaps Trainsplit is unable to evaluate whether your planned itinerary is the shortest so is allowing it anyway.

If you ask Trainsplit to go via both Clacton and Colchester Town the through ticket is not offered as the distance can be evaluated.

I'm seeing the same result - I don't know why it's being offered for this journey - it would be interesting to find out.

jawr256 said:

...The double back between Thorpe-le-Soken and Clacton adds 9.5 miles so would not be expected to be permitted. However, there is no distance in the National Rail Timetable for trains that run directly between Hythe and Colchester without going via Colchester Town, so perhaps Trainsplit is unable to evaluate whether your planned itinerary is the shortest so is allowing it anyway.

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The distance data used by journey planners shows Thorpe-le-Soken to Clacton as 4.62 miles ( ie 9.24m over ) so I don't think that can be it.

JB_B said:

The distance data used by journey planners shows Thorpe-le-Soken to Clacton as 4.62 miles ( ie 9.24m over ) so I don't think that can be it.

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But what about Hythe to Colchester (not via Colchester Town), which is another part of the route in question?

jawr256 said:

But what about Hythe to Colchester (not via Colchester Town), which is another part of the route in question?

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Sorry - I should have read your post properly. That's just under 2m ( a very close match to railmiles ) so I don't think it can be that.

JB_B said:

Sorry - I should have read your post properly. That's just under 2m ( a very close match to railmiles ) so I don't think it can be that.

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No worries - thanks for looking that up. That's me out of ideas.

Just done some experimenting - Trainsplit offers a through ticket for the following:

• Walton-on-the-Naze to Colchester via Clacton-on-Sea (avoiding Colchester Town)
• Walton-on-the-Naze to Colchester Town via Clacton and Colchester [even more circuitous! noting Colchester has no routeing point group]

but not for:

• Walton-on-the-Naze to Colchester Town via Clacton-on-Sea (not via Colchester)
• Walton-on-the-Naze to Colchester via Clacton and Colchester Town

which suggests it must be something to do with routes using the direct Hythe-Colchester link.

Really, it doesn't matter whether it is or isn't valid, as you are being issued an itinerary by a verified ticketing website. That itinerary forms a part of your contract, and the TOC(s) (Train Operating Compan(ies)) cannot dispute this. Whether this happens in practice is another question entirely, but you cannot be penalised for following a given itinerary...

Thanks all for the feedback, much appreciated