Hello fares experts.
In the coming week I need to make a day return journey which is likely to either be Crewe-New Brighton or Wrexham-New Brighton or similar. I'll need to make it up as I go as usual - depending on the traffic coming from the south on the M6 or A49/A5 and what particular sort of mess the UK transport system is in today.
Either way, on either the outward or return leg (don't know in advance) I will need to go to a meeting in Liverpool city centre.
This means that rather than stay on the Wirral by changing at Birkenhead, I'll be going under the Mersey, around the loop and breaking my journey at Liverpool Central.
Trainsplit and the like seem to think it is fine to go via the loop on the obvious tickets for the above journeys.
However:
i) Is actually breaking the journey at Liverpool Central technically permitted*?
ii) Even if it is, is my suspicion that this is a recipe for entering a world of pain at the gateline well-founded? Doubly so given that I'll be on an e-ticket from Crewe or Wrexham or wherever it ends up being.
Were it not for Merseyrail being a pain in the backside to deal with (no e-tickets, no ToD at the relevant stations) I'd just fork out the rather swingeing extra £3.80 for a return from Hamilton Sq to Central to make the problem go away. *I'm not sure it does even then as Trainsplit leads to the gnomic https://classic.trainsplit.com/TicketDetails.aspx?FareDetailsID=1&RestrictionCode=&TicketCode=SDR&Route=01000&TicketDate=01/05/2023. This states:
Which in my opinion is definitively ambiguous by failing to say what you're not allowed to do while simultaneously half contradicting itself.
Thanks for any pointers.
In the coming week I need to make a day return journey which is likely to either be Crewe-New Brighton or Wrexham-New Brighton or similar. I'll need to make it up as I go as usual - depending on the traffic coming from the south on the M6 or A49/A5 and what particular sort of mess the UK transport system is in today.
Either way, on either the outward or return leg (don't know in advance) I will need to go to a meeting in Liverpool city centre.
This means that rather than stay on the Wirral by changing at Birkenhead, I'll be going under the Mersey, around the loop and breaking my journey at Liverpool Central.
Trainsplit and the like seem to think it is fine to go via the loop on the obvious tickets for the above journeys.
However:
i) Is actually breaking the journey at Liverpool Central technically permitted*?
ii) Even if it is, is my suspicion that this is a recipe for entering a world of pain at the gateline well-founded? Doubly so given that I'll be on an e-ticket from Crewe or Wrexham or wherever it ends up being.
Were it not for Merseyrail being a pain in the backside to deal with (no e-tickets, no ToD at the relevant stations) I'd just fork out the rather swingeing extra £3.80 for a return from Hamilton Sq to Central to make the problem go away. *I'm not sure it does even then as Trainsplit leads to the gnomic https://classic.trainsplit.com/TicketDetails.aspx?FareDetailsID=1&RestrictionCode=&TicketCode=SDR&Route=01000&TicketDate=01/05/2023. This states:
Description: | Anytime tickets allow you to travel at any time of the day. You may need to travel by a specific route or train company but the ticket will state this. You are allowed to break your journey. |
Break of journey: | Outbound: Break of journey is allowed. |
Which in my opinion is definitively ambiguous by failing to say what you're not allowed to do while simultaneously half contradicting itself.
Thanks for any pointers.