Bedforshire 50% discounted fares—available for EMR 1st class travel between Luton Airport Parkway and Bedford?

[lightbulb]

Hello all,

I've looked up the Central Bedfordshire website and the NRE website, and neither mentions the class of travel. Central Bedfordshire says:

A bus pass issued by Central Bedfordshire Council also allows you to rail travel for half the normal adult fare on the following rail services:

• Thameslink and Great Northern trains between Sandy, Biggleswade and Arlesey and any station as far as Hadley Wood, Crews Hill and Royston
• Thameslink and Great Northern trains between Bedford and Elstree & Borehamwood and stations in between
• East Midland trains between Bedford and Luton Airport Parkway
• London North Western trains on the Marston Vale line between Bedford and Bletchley

Discounts are valid from 10am on Mondays to Fridays and all day Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. You may purchase discounted tickets from any staffed ticket office (or from ticket vending machines by purchasing a child ticket.)

NRE says:

"Terms & Conditions

1. Holders of Concessionary Bus Permits issued by any Local Authority in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire can obtain a 50% discount on the following rail fares (Off-Peak Day Single; Anytime Day Single & Off-Peak Day Return) for journeys between any of the stations shown below, after 1000 Mondays to Fridays and all day Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.

2. Tickets with this discount may be purchased from any staffed ticket office (or from ticket vending machines by purchasing a CHILD ticket).

3. Combinations of tickets cannot be issued from ticket vending machines.

4. They are not available for on-line purchase.

5. The person using the ticket must carry their valid Concessionary Bus Permit with them throughout the journey and must show it on demand.

6. The £2.00 accompanied child flat fare tickets are valid with these fares.

7. This offer cannot be used in conjunction with any Railcards or with GroupSave.

8. The Concessionary Travel Scheme is to encourage permit holders to travel by train (rather than bus) on journeys within Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. Nevertheless, a discounted ticket to Elstree & Borehamwood / Hadley Wood / Crews Hill may be combined with an undiscounted ticket (including a Travelcard) from those stations. However the train must stop at Elstree & Borehamwood / Hadley Wood / Crews Hill for such a combination of tickets to be valid. A combination of tickets to / from Elstree & Borehamwood / Hadley Wood / Crews Hill is not valid on fast trains which do not stop at Elstree & Borehamwood / Hadley Wood / Crews Hill.

9. Customers wishing to use faster services to London (which do not stop at Elstree & Borehamwood / Hadley Wood / Crews Hill) are permitted to use the following combination of tickets:

Stations Bedford to Harpenden inclusive

An off-Peak Day Return (CDR) with 50% discount to St Albans combined with an Off-Peak Day Return / Travelcard from St Albans

St Albans

Customers starting their journey at St Albans who wish to use fast train services to London are not entitled to any discount."

Nowhere does it state that there is no discount on 1st class tickets, so can it be assumed that as there is no specific prohibition, 1st class tickets can be discounted by default?

 

[westcoaster]

Does normal adult fare not mean standard class.

 

[lightbulb]

Does normal adult fare not mean standard class.

No, I don't think it does. Normal means whatever is normal for an individual, so if I mostly travel 1st class, then that would be a "normal adult fare" in my case. I appreciate that your point was meant to indicate that Std class is considered by most people to be "normal", and was therefore the intention behind the rules, but the definition of "normal" differs from person to person.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Unfortunately, the KnowledgeBase page is no use on the matter either. Indeed, it states that discounted tickets aren't valid on EMR or LNER services. BRFares allows the relevant discount to be applied to both Standard and First Class tickets, but I'd have to check on a ticket machine to see if it would let me issue one for First Class.

 

[Haywain]

Unfortunately, the KnowledgeBase page is no use on the matter either. Indeed, it states that discounted tickets aren't valid on EMR or LNER services. BRFares allows the relevant discount to be applied to both Standard and First Class tickets, but I'd have to check on a ticket machine to see if it would let me issue one for First Class.

What discount code are you using?

 

[Paul Kelly]

Nowhere does it state that there is no discount on 1st class tickets

From your quote, it says it only applies to:

Off-Peak Day Single; Anytime Day Single & Off-Peak Day Return

Those are all standard class fares.

 

[Starmill]

It's interesting that there is such an inconsistency regarding the availability of the discount for travel on East Midlands Railway services.

 

[AlterEgo]

From your quote, it says it only applies to:

Those are all standard class fares.

Indeed, this seems pretty clear from the text.

No, I don't think it does. Normal means whatever is normal for an individual

No it doesn’t. Ridiculous to suggest that to be honest - by your logic, if someone “normally” travelled standard class they wouldn’t be allowed to avail of the offer to sit in first, yet you would. Bonkers.

 

[lightbulb]

I see your point: I should have expressed it better. "Normal" is not a word that ought to be used when defining rules, as it is open to interpretation. This could have been avoided by stating that the discount is not valid for use with 1st class tickets.

From your quote, it says it only applies to:

Those are all standard class fares.

Off-Peak Day Single, Anytime Day Single & Off-Peak Day Returns are examples of tickets which are available in both Std and 1st class. BRfares shows this in its descriptions: CDR refers to a Std class off-peak day return, and FCR refers to a 1st class off-peak day return, but they are still both off-peak day returns.

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

 

[CyrusWuff]

What discount code are you using?

Both SRS and SCC, per the KnowledgeBase page for the Beds and Herts Concessionary Scheme.

Having just checked it on our TIS, it also applies the discount for the First Class tickets.

 

[lightbulb]

Both SRS and SCC, per the KnowledgeBase page for the Beds and Herts Concessionary Scheme.

Having just checked it on our TIS, it also applies the discount for the First Class tickets.

Many thanks!

 

[Haywain]

Both SRS and SCC, per the KnowledgeBase page for the Beds and Herts Concessionary Scheme.

Having just checked it on our TIS, it also applies the discount for the First Class tickets.

I would hesitate to take that as gospel as our TIS applies the discount to season tickets as well.

 

[CyrusWuff]

I would hesitate to take that as gospel as our TIS applies the discount to season tickets as well.

That was my thinking too. In the absence of a staff brief, I'd defer to GTR as the owning TOC.