• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Evesham to Banbury Routeing Question

Status
Not open for further replies.

ABB125

Established Member
Joined
23 Jul 2016
Messages
3,746
Location
University of Birmingham
Good morning,
Because I have nothing else to do, I'm looking at the valid routes between Evesham (EVE) and Banbury (BAN).
  • Using the routeing point calculator, Worcester and Oxford are valid origin routeing points, Banbury the only destination routeing point.
  • Using the "yellow pages", the permitted routes are: CB+GC, CS and HP+RF; these are, respectively, via Birmingham, via Oxford, and (the one I'm enquiring about) seemingly via Swindon.
Disregarding the fact that going Evesham-Worcester-Cheltenham-Swindon-Didcot-Oxford-Banbury seems rather a silly route, TOC journey planners don't seem to think this is a permitted route, and I'm inclined to agree. But, if it isn't permitted, why is the route shown in the guide? I've looked at the easements document, and the only thing I can find which may be relevant is easement 300364, "Customers travelling from Evesham and Pershore via Swindon may not travel via Worcester Shrub Hill. This easement applies in both directions.".
Am I missing something here? Many thanks for any advice.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Paul Kelly

Verified Rep - BR Fares
Joined
16 Apr 2010
Messages
4,130
Location
Reading
If you change at Worcester Shrub Hill it is prohibited by easement 300364 as you say "Customers travelling from Evesham and Pershore via Swindon may not travel via Worcester Shrub Hill. This easement applies in both directions." - why do you think that isn't relevant?

If you change at Worcestershire Parkway it makes puffs of smoke come out of the routeing guide because the first routeing point encountered is Cheltenham Spa, which is not associated with Evesham.
 

JB_B

Established Member
Joined
27 Dec 2013
Messages
1,411
If you want to follow the mapped route from Evesham to Banbury via Swindon on map combination HP+RF then from Evesham you'd need to start by reaching a Worcester Group member (ie Shrub Hill, Foregate St or Droitwich Spa ) by the shortest route(+3m) or a direct train and then you need to head south towards Ashchurch. I think the service pattern means that there's no way of doing that without passing through Shrub Hill which is excluded by easement 300364.

I would say that there is a permitted route running Evesham, Pershore, Worcestershire Parkway, Droitwich Spa (where the mapped part of the route starts), Worcestershire Parkway, Ashchurch, Cheltenham. Although the timetable doesn't support the whole journey, I think if you have a ticket that supports break of journey you should be able to break and then resume southbound at Parkway. I doubt that journey planners would recognize this, however.
 

ABB125

Established Member
Joined
23 Jul 2016
Messages
3,746
Location
University of Birmingham
If you change at Worcester Shrub Hill it is prohibited by easement 300364 as you say "Customers travelling from Evesham and Pershore via Swindon may not travel via Worcester Shrub Hill. This easement applies in both directions." - why do you think that isn't relevant?
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I thought it was irrelevant, rather that it's a bit confusing to have a mapped route that is immediately disallowed by the easement. My first thought would be, why bother including it in the first place, but I suppose if you're starting in Worcester then it is a valid route.
If you change at Worcestershire Parkway it makes puffs of smoke come out of the routeing guide because the first routeing point encountered is Cheltenham Spa, which is not associated with Evesham.
If you want to follow the mapped route from Evesham to Banbury via Swindon on map combination HP+RF then from Evesham you'd need to start by reaching a Worcester Group member (ie Shrub Hill, Foregate St or Droitwich Spa ) by the shortest route(+3m) or a direct train and then you need to head south towards Ashchurch. I think the service pattern means that there's no way of doing that without passing through Shrub Hill which is excluded by easement 300364.

I would say that there is a permitted route running Evesham, Pershore, Worcestershire Parkway, Droitwich Spa (where the mapped part of the route starts), Worcestershire Parkway, Ashchurch, Cheltenham. Although the timetable doesn't support the whole journey, I think if you have a ticket that supports break of journey you should be able to break and then resume southbound at Parkway. I doubt that journey planners would recognize this, however.
Changing at Parkway does seem to be a loophole, I'll see if I can make it work on a journey planner. EDIT: I can't seem to make it work, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not allowed! Having said that, I always check planned routes on a journey planner to see if they're valid, just in case.

Thanks both.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top