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Cambridge-Pewsey return cheapest way
- Thread starter TheWalrus
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The Super Off Peak Return is £47.80.
The return journey can be made any time within 1 month and the only restrictions are in the morning peak on the leg of the journey between Pewsey and Paddington. There is no restriction from King's Cross to Cambridge.
If you leave Cambridge at, say, 0745, and leave King's Cross at, say, 1735, it would cost £32.50 for an Anytime Day return, or £37.00 for an Anytime return, and that only gets you to King's Cross, you then would have to get to Paddington and then on to Pewsey,. Therefore splitting is not economical for such a journey.
If you wanted to split, if you travel off peak and return the same day you could get the price down to £15.80 (£14 on weekends) to Liverpool St, then use PAYG to Paddington, then pay £23.00 for a Paddington to Bedwyn, then £4.50 Bedwyn to Pewsey. This saves about £4 and would take ages!
The time restrictions only apply on weekdays.
So this ticket is unrestricted between Cambridge and King's Cross, and then you can get any train from Paddington between 0935 and 1550, or after 1920.
The return journey can be made any time within 1 month and the only restrictions are in the morning peak on the leg of the journey between Pewsey and Paddington. There is no restriction from King's Cross to Cambridge.
If you leave Cambridge at, say, 0745, and leave King's Cross at, say, 1735, it would cost £32.50 for an Anytime Day return, or £37.00 for an Anytime return, and that only gets you to King's Cross, you then would have to get to Paddington and then on to Pewsey,. Therefore splitting is not economical for such a journey.
If you wanted to split, if you travel off peak and return the same day you could get the price down to £15.80 (£14 on weekends) to Liverpool St, then use PAYG to Paddington, then pay £23.00 for a Paddington to Bedwyn, then £4.50 Bedwyn to Pewsey. This saves about £4 and would take ages!
The time restrictions only apply on weekdays.
ooh, nice find- when I used the EC site, it was restricting the departure times from Cambridge heavily.
I doubt it would help much (not least the problem with few trains stopping at both Bedwyn and Pewsey) for this journey, but if your friend lives in Cambridge I can heartily recommend the Network Railcard- if they make five or six trips to London in a year it will have paid for itself.
I doubt it would help much (not least the problem with few trains stopping at both Bedwyn and Pewsey) for this journey, but if your friend lives in Cambridge I can heartily recommend the Network Railcard- if they make five or six trips to London in a year it will have paid for itself.
paul1609
Established Member
Southern and I suspect other operators interpret the "anytrain to connect" as exactly that ie anytrain that reasonably connects with a valid train from a London Terminal. That is why all the online route planners restrict the tickets from Cambridge to trains that connect with valid services beyond London.
Ive pointed this out to Yorkie several times but he insists on giving people advice that may result in a hefty excess or penalty fare.
I suspect it is much the same as his position on XC and Groupsave.
Ive pointed this out to Yorkie several times but he insists on giving people advice that may result in a hefty excess or penalty fare.
I suspect it is much the same as his position on XC and Groupsave.
DJ737
Member
G'day there
Looking at the EC website for next Wednesday, I get 09:20 ex Cambridge to Pewsey for £17.50 and return on the 19:34 ex Pewsey for £9.50 for a total of
£27.00.
Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia
Looking at the EC website for next Wednesday, I get 09:20 ex Cambridge to Pewsey for £17.50 and return on the 19:34 ex Pewsey for £9.50 for a total of
£27.00.
Cheers
DJ737
Melbourne, Australia
Unfortunately there is a huge gap for Pewsey services from Paddington between 0818 (valid on Off Peak) and 1106 (valid on Super Off Peak), hence why it didn't show early trains when looking for the Super Off Peak on a weekday. I stand by my post though.
On Saturdays the gap is the same, but of course there are no time restrictions.
If anyone attempts to issue Penalty Fare for travelling at an invalid time, they are unaware of the PF rules as a PF cannot be issued for that reason. Ask them to look up the restriction which has the text quoted above.
On Saturdays the gap is the same, but of course there are no time restrictions.
If anyone attempts to issue Penalty Fare for travelling at an invalid time, they are unaware of the PF rules as a PF cannot be issued for that reason. Ask them to look up the restriction which has the text quoted above.
paul1609
Established Member
Fraid that your opinion is not shared by most of the ex NSE TOCs though Yorkie and anybody following your advice is likely to have to pay a substancial excess. Whilst Pewsey is as you say a difficult case because of the scarcity of services. If you search Cambridge to Westbury you will see that the only services shown as valid from Cambridge via FGW on a Super Off peak is 09.20 and after. There is validity on the 07.20 because it connects with a SWT service from Waterloo.
Certainly on Southern and Southeastern with the advent of advantix guards will ask you which train you are travelling on beyond London. In the last 6 months I have had 2 guards check with their hq by mobile phones whether I was allowed to travel up to London on an off peak ticket with a forces railcard to catch a Virgin train departing in the peak from Euston. All this was done in a pretty friendly way but I have no doubt they would excess you to an anytime if your connection was unreasonable.
Certainly on Southern and Southeastern with the advent of advantix guards will ask you which train you are travelling on beyond London. In the last 6 months I have had 2 guards check with their hq by mobile phones whether I was allowed to travel up to London on an off peak ticket with a forces railcard to catch a Virgin train departing in the peak from Euston. All this was done in a pretty friendly way but I have no doubt they would excess you to an anytime if your connection was unreasonable.
paul1609: What do you class as a reasonable connection? It seems to be allowing about 50 minutes to get from Kings Cross to Paddington. Say you have a serious aversion to using the tube and instead want to take a leisurely walk. How long would that take? Furthermore, what if you wanted to insure against any delay on the arrival into Kings Cross? Surely that must be reasonable given the scarcity of services to Pewsey. I think I would see a TOC in court for allowing me less than 2 hours to cross London on that ticket.
paul1609
Established Member
MikeWh,
As I've pointed out all along its not my interpretation of the reasonable connection its the TOCs. I dont have any experience of FCCs interpretation. My experience with Southern and South eastern is that they will allow a degree of leeway certainly up to 2 hours to cross London would be acceptable. However these tickets are not as Yorkie is fond of saying unrestricted in the network Area and this is reflected in all the online journey planners
I obviously dont use Kings Cross inbound in the peaks but the barriers at St Pancras, London Bridge and Victoria certainly reject all Superoff peaks before 9.30 as "seek assistance".
It takes me about 50 mins to walk from Kings Cross to Paddington.
This is my last post on this topic.
Paul.
If you are travelling on a Saturday, check the tfl website in advance to check if the circle/Hammersmith & city lines will be running from Kings cross to Paddington. There have been several weekends recently when both lines were not running through Kings Cross and/or Paddington all weekend.
The 205 bus route goes to Paddington from kings cross - takes about 25 minutes. (though it took me over 60 minutes to get back to kings Cross one saturday in the summer - no circle line, Henley Regatta was on so everyone arriving back at Paddington were queuing for buses & the one-day International Cricket at Lords had just finished so all the bus stops at Baker Street were swamped.)
Normally rail tickets are not accepted on the bus but special arrangements may apply on the days the circle line is not running. (the last few weekends there were no dedicated replacement buses for the circle line so you had to use the normal service buses)
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