Britrail pass question

[DJ737]

Hi there
Planning a trip to the UK in JUL or Aug this year and i am considering a one month consecutive Britrail pass.

Prices are : 1st class A$1345/£928 & Standard A$899/£620

I will only need 1st on the following journeys :
Reading-Swansea O/W
Bristol-Plymouth RTN
Manchester-Glasgow O/W
Edinburgh-London KX O/W

Can I purchase 1st class upgrades on these jorneys with a 2nd class pass on the train and if so how much would they be?

Will it be cheaper to just get the 1st class Britrail and be done with it?

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia
over 30c for 13 days now :roll:

 

[yorkie]

These parts of our RailUK Fares & Ticketing Guide should help:

Excess: upgrade to 1st

If bought from ticket office or on board with no opportunity to pay before boarding:
For Season Tickets, Rovers, Rangers & BritRail the FULL difference between the appropriate Standard Class and First Class (Single or Return) fares for the journey being made is charged.

It's not clear what would happen if you sat in 1st when there was opportunity to pay before boarding and asked for an on-board upgrade. I suspect most TOCs would be happy to sell the upgrade to a Britrail holder, but don't try this with TOCs such as FCC (they would possibly prosecute!) not that it would ever be worth going First Class with them anyway!

You can calculate the difference between fares using a site such as brfares.com, usually by comparing SOS and FOS fares for each applicable journey.

For travel on a weekend:

Weekend 1st Supplements

 

[Yew]

For a few journeys, it may be cheaper to buy 'Advance Purchase' tickets instead of the supplement. It is important to note that these are not valid on any train other than they are reserved on, but on the other hand are dirt cheap. And even if you do miss your train, you would still have the britrail pass valid for standard class travel

 

[Cheds]

If you buy the Britrail pass from here and pay in sterling the prices are a good bit less......

http://www.visitbritainshop.com/wor...ets/product/britrail-gb-consecutive-pass.html

Sterling 475 standard/715 first.

Good eh?

 

[bb21]

There is currently an offer for BritRail at the official website. You get an extra day's free travel with any pass purchased between 15th March and 15th April. You might find it useful.

If you are travelling at the weekdays on those journeys, you might as well buy the First Class passes. The upgrades are likely to be expensive for journeys of that sort of distance and the premium of First Class passes over Standard Class ones is not huge.

If you are travelling at the weekend, upgrades can be had for £25 or less per journey but the service is not always worth it.

 

[DJ737]

Hi there

Thanks for the replies.

I think I might go with the Visit Britain UK site as with the exchange rate at the moment it is cheaper than railplus.com.au

The A$ / £ exchange rate is good at the moment for visiting the UK
Using my personal index of the price of essentials
Smokes (20) £9.50 and a pint in the local pub £6.30 :cry:

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia

 

[reb0118]

Smokes (20) £9.50 and a pint in the local pub £6.30 :cry:

Is this what you pay in Aus for beer 'n' fags?

 

[DJ737]

yes hock:

 

[reb0118]

Well try to visit Newcastle. Paid £1.55 a jar in the Bigg Market. Can't remember the pub, can't remember getting home, don't think I made it home that night!

Had at least one pint in each of the following Edinburgh, Train, Carlisle, Wetheral, Hexham, Prudhoe, Wylam, Newcastle (lots), Train, Edinburgh (on shorts by then!), apart from Edinburgh all pints were less than £3. Carlisle was £2 (it was a posh drink for Carlisle).

Don't smoke but think fags are just under £8 for 20.

You'll defo get value for money for your vices here.

 

[DelayRepay]

Don't smoke but think fags are just under £8 for 20.

You'll defo get value for money for your vices here.

Don't buy your fags from a WH Smiths shop on a railway station. They add at least £1 to the price charged elsewhere.

 

[DJ737]

G'day

Another question : Britrail passes apparently have to be validated at a station, If boarding at an unmanned station ie : Elsenham after 1300 or Lamphey (always) as these are my usual starting points for UK train trips, can on train staff validate a Britrail Pass?

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia

 

[barrykas]

Another question : Britrail passes apparently have to be validated at a station, If boarding at an unmanned station ie : Elsenham after 1300 or Lamphey (always) as these are my usual starting points for UK train trips, can on train staff validate a Britrail Pass?

Nope. It can only be done at a station, as part of the validation process involves applying a station stamp in the designated space on the pass.

The official line given in The Manual is that it can be used to board at an unstaffed station on the condition that it's validated at the next staffed station. (By which I'm assuming they mean the first point of changing trains/alighting, rather than literally the next staffed station!)

 

[Haywain]

Hi there
Planning a trip to the UK in JUL or Aug this year and i am considering a one month consecutive Britrail pass.

Prices are : 1st class A$1345/£928 & Standard A$899/£620

I will only need 1st on the following journeys :
Reading-Swansea O/W £59.00
Bristol-Plymouth RTN £164.00
Manchester-Glasgow O/W £89.00
Edinburgh-London KX O/W £59.50

Can I purchase 1st class upgrades on these jorneys with a 2nd class pass on the train and if so how much would they be?

Will it be cheaper to just get the 1st class Britrail and be done with it?

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia
over 30c for 13 days now :roll:

Reading-Swansea O/W £59.00
Bristol-Plymouth RTN £164.00
Manchester-Glasgow O/W £89.00
Edinburgh-London KX O/W £59.50

If it helps, this is what your upgrades could cost, based on the difference between full standard class (SOS/SOR) and full first class fares (FOS/FOR) for the journeys. Total is more than the difference between the passes. As stated above, you could do these cheaper in various ways, but obviously part of the pleasure of having the Britrail pass is removing the inconvenience of having to pay for other bits and pieces along the way.

There's also an assumption here that my mental arithmetic is up to scratch!

 

[jb]

I find it a bit difficult to imagine an itinerary over a month that makes a consecutive Britrail worth it, but not an extra 250 quid for First.

I live outside the UK and cannot wait for a free month time-wise to emerge (not happening any time soon).

 

[Tibbs]

Well try to visit Newcastle. Paid £1.55 a jar in the Bigg Market. Can't remember the pub, can't remember getting home, don't think I made it home that night!

Had at least one pint in each of the following Edinburgh, Train, Carlisle, Wetheral, Hexham, Prudhoe, Wylam, Newcastle (lots), Train, Edinburgh (on shorts by then!), apart from Edinburgh all pints were less than £3. Carlisle was £2 (it was a posh drink for Carlisle).

Don't smoke but think fags are just under £8 for 20.

You'll defo get value for money for your vices here.

Based on my experience, it's much harder to make it home alone than it is to wind up at some random's place if you're drinking in the Bigg Market, it does depend on your standards, mine are very very low....

Or getting home after an encounter behind some bins.

 

[Requeststop]

I recently did a BritRail Pass (First Class) 8 day tour of the UK at the end of the Low Season in February, buying my ticket on line via my Thailand home address. US$420-430. Worth every penny even though many of my planned journeys did not have first class.

However, the flexability of the pass made alternative journeys very reasonable. The downside was that on some long distance journeys very uncomfortable. (ATW Cardiff-Manchester for one - No first class and a difficulty to book a decent seat at a moments notice) but others, boarding instantly on long distance was an absolute bonus (VR Glasgow-Euston and GA Liverpool Street - Norwich) just to mention a couple of rides.

Can train staff validate the ticket? - Yes

Validation at small stations do happen, mine was validated at Carmarthen for example.

What happens at stations when boarding or de-training? well you show your pass to the attendant and they manually pass you through the barriers.

On train, when asked for your ticket, I showed the pass and I was acknowledged. Once on ATW on Bridgend to Barry, the conductor clipped my ticket. On an Liverpool Street - Norwich service, there was a trainee conductor/guard, and his trainer/mentor very politely asked if his trainee could have a close look at the ticket. From Norwich to Ely, I was asked to produce my passport to prove my ticket. This was the only time I was asked to present proof of purchace and identity. (I still have a UK Passport)

Other than these instances, I was nodded through the whole of the UK rail system at major and minorr stops From London to Fishguard, through the South Wales Valleys, up to Leeds and Carlisle, the whole of the West Coast of Scotland from Stranraer up to Mallaig including all the branches and across Norfolk and Suffolk.

A BritRail Pass is well worth the cost (for me in Low season 1st Class) and I have no hesitation to urge others overseas like myself to go for it!

I'd just add one thing, plan your journeys well in advance and make space for delays and (blush) oversleeping. I was fortunate in that I made space for delays/ errors.

 

[bb21]

Can train staff validate the ticket? - Yes

No, they can't, or at least not supposed to. How do they stamp the ticket if on the move?

Validation at small stations do happen, mine was validated at Carmarthen for example.

As long as the passenger explains clearly what it is and which bits need to be filled in, I have always found staff helpful in validating a pass, even at remove locations.

On train, when asked for your ticket, I showed the pass and I was acknowledged. Once on ATW on Bridgend to Barry, the conductor clipped my ticket.

It could have been worse. One of my passes was repeatedly stamped by subsequent guards after the first one did so, and ended up with no free space around one of the edges plus a good few on the inside.

From Norwich to Ely, I was asked to produce my passport to prove my ticket. This was the only time I was asked to present proof of purchace and identity. (I still have a UK Passport)

I have noticed that at Euston, Virgin's manual barriers tend to ask for proof of identity. Aside from that, only some isolated cases where I was asked to demonstrate that the ticket belonged to me.

I'd just add one thing, plan your journeys well in advance and make space for delays and (blush) oversleeping. I was fortunate in that I made space for delays/ errors.

I always thought this is the best thing about a Rover ticket, in that I can alter my plans when this sort of things happen.

 

[DJ737]

G'day

One more question on the Britrail pass, How does delay compensation work?

Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia

 

[barrykas]

One more question on the Britrail pass, How does delay compensation work?

In exactly the same way as it does for passengers travelling on normal tickets, though I'd guess that any compensation due would be paid by cheque instead of Rail Travel Voucher.

Alternatively, you can go via the issuing agent and they'll pass it on to ACP Rail, who carry out the day to day operations on ATOC's behalf. They'll then contact the relevant TOC for authorisation to make the refund.

 

[John @ home]

How does delay compensation work?

In exactly the same way as it does for passengers travelling on normal tickets

This still leaves lots of room for interpretation over the price which had been paid for the delayed journey.

For example, last year I was delayed by more than 1 hour (but less than 2 hours) on a Taunton - Bournemouth journey while using a £42 Freedom of Severn & Solent 3-in-7 day Rover. The £7 travel voucher I received appears to have been calculated:

• Divide the price by the number of days of validity (£42 / 3 = £14)
• Assume 2 journeys per day. (£14 / 2 = £7)
• Pay the appropriate proportion of the 'fare' for that journey. (100% of single journey = £7).

This calculation was acceptable to me for the 126-mile Taunton - Bournemouth via Southampton journey. I had in fact travelled Bournemouth - Taunton by a different route earlier that day. But I would have been annoyed if 2 journeys per day had been assumed for a journey over 250 miles.

 

[crispy1978]

Try a day trip to France whilst on your travels, and stock up on your smokes whilst over there - they will be cheaper there - if you can use rolling tobacco, cheaper still!

 

[bb21]

The are not paid out in cheque if you directly apply to the train companies from my experience. They are paid out in RTVs. I have not tried the ACP route so cannot comment on that.

The calculation varies. Some train companies treat it as a season ticket and calculate compensation accordingly, while others calculate the compensation based on the prices of various single journey tickets (single or return). The amount is anyone's guess for any particular journey.