Breaking Journey - more than 1 night

[Betty]

Hi

Nothing bought yet so this is entirely hypothetical...

Looking at getting an off peak open return (with YPRC) from Truro to Bangor on 31st December (leaving 12.29).

The return journey would be made at a valid time, etc, according to my ticket and within a week....however, this is a holiday trip to see half of the family & I was wondering what is to stop me coming back via Reading, and spending 2-3 nights there with the other half of the tribe, before resuming my journey???

I can see BoJ allows an overnight stay en-route, but how likely is it that the rail staff would know that I have spent more than one night in Reading?

Cheers!

 

[Crossover]

If I have understood correctly, if the return is valid for a month, you may break journey as much and for as long as you want up until the end date of the return on the ticket. All returns I believe allow BoJ

This is fine provided you are on a valid route (not detouring off the permitted) and don't double back at any point

On iPod at the moment so not able to check further but I'm sure someone will clarify as to whether my advice is correct

 

[Betty]

Thank you. This is my hunch as well..... I have travelled along this route before so it must be valid. I have even had to change at Reading before to do this journey, though only once or twice....

 

[island]

Welcome to the board. Just a few notes on how not to annoy the pedants here, the standard abbreviation for 16-25 Railcard is Y-P, there's no such thing as an "off-peak open return" (it's just "off-peak return"), and we don't normally put a . or : in times (so 1229 rather than 12.29).

All that aside, you are entitled to break your journey on the return half of (almost) all off-peak return tickets (only London Midland tries to restrict break of journey on return legs, and there are people who believe the restriction to be unenforceable). Therefore, there is nothing to stop you from doing any of that, once you complete travel by 0429 on the day after the valid until date on your ticket. If you are worried that a guard/ticket inspector will think your ticket has already been fully used, then ask any guard who marks your ticket to annotate that it has been used as far as Reading.

I haven't checked that Reading is a valid route for this journey, but I'm assuming it is.

 

[Betty]

I am loving the rail forum etiquette advice - thank you!!! I apologise for any annoyance caused I am, indeed, new at this. (I just couldn't find the answer anywhere!)

So...let me get this right.....I will look forward to fully using my BoJ rights on my off-peak return journey with Y-P from Truro to Bangor at 1229

Any worries and I'll ask them to mark my ticket with the journey-so-far info as you've suggested.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[SickyNicky]

Yes - Truro to Bangor via Reading is permitted by map WE+MW.

Incidentally, the off-peak return ticket takes restriction 8X which allows break of journey in both directions and peak time travel as long as you don't travel before 5am

edit: also of vague interest, if you wanted to go 1st class and needed to travel before 9.30am the fare would be a staggering £640.