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Day Ranger/Rover from Brighton

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JonathanH

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Are there any day ranger or rover tickets that cover Brighton and the South Coast?
https://www.southernrailway.com/tickets/ticket-types-explained/daysave

DaySave train ticket – For unlimited Off-Peak travel

Our Rover train ticket is the perfect way to save money if you’re planning on doing lots of travelling outside of rush hour times. A DaySave ticket gives you unlimited Off-Peak travel on all Southern Railway services and is available online.

When can I use my DaySave train pass?
The DaySave ticket is an Off-Peak ticket. This means you can use it at any time on Saturdays, Sundays and even on Bank Holidays for those day trips out. During the Monday to Friday period your train day pass is not valid before 10:00, or on trains that leave the following stations between 16:15 and 19:15:

East Croydon
Victoria
London Bridge
Clapham Junction
Your DaySave ticket is valid for one day and can be used for Standard Class travel only. These tickets are not valid on Gatwick Express, Thameslink, Great Northern or services from any other train operator.

Appears to now be £21 for a day's travel when booked online.

If on the south coast for a bit longer, a 7-day season ticket between Weymouth and Birchington (ie Margate) routed via Barnham is £97.40. Alternatively Beaulieu Road to Wye (eg fare cluster from Southampton to Ashford) is £73.30.
 
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david1212

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Do note that the DaySave ticket must either be bought at least 3 days in advance in person from the tourist information centres at Eastbourne, Lewes, Seaford and Hastings or online then collected from a Southern managed station at least 3 days in advance or else 5 days ahead to be posted.

DaySave details
 

Steddenm

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Thanks. I've looked at those before. It says on the B&H Bus website you can buy them from the bus driver in the Brighton Central Zone area yet no driver has heard of them.
 

David Goddard

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A bit of a famine area as far as traditional style rovers or rangers are concerned. There used to be a "Downlander" which you could buy and print online but that disappeared a while back. That included buses in Eastbourne and I think Seaford.

Personally think there would be a bit to be gained for Southern if there was a "South Downs" or similar type product, maybe covering the coast line and branches to Portsmouth and Hastings, and as far up as Three Bridges (Redhill ideally but Southern seem to get worried if anyone pays a penny less than they should to get within few miles of to Gatwick).

Admins before anyone shoots me I appreciate this probably belongs in speculative ideas but as it was appropriate to this topic I thought would mention here too.
 

JonathanH

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Personally think there would be a bit to be gained for Southern if there was a "South Downs" or similar type product, maybe covering the coast line and branches to Portsmouth and Hastings, and as far up as Three Bridges (Redhill ideally but Southern seem to get worried if anyone pays a penny less than they should to get within few miles of to Gatwick).

Admins before anyone shoots me I appreciate this probably belongs in speculative ideas but as it was appropriate to this topic I thought would mention here too.
What is wrong with Southern Daysave for this purpose? It covers the whole Southern network.

The low-cost long distance returns on the Southern network go all the way up to Merstham so I'm not sure what your point is about Redhill / Gatwick (from the south).
 
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David Goddard

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What is wrong with Southern Daysave for this purpose? It covers the whole Southern network.
Apart from the following presumably minor points of inconvenience below then there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Southern DaySave at all.

*Off-Peak DaySave tickets can be purchased in person from the tourist information centres at Eastbourne, Lewes, Seaford and Hastings or online at www.southernrailway.com.
*DaySave tickets must be purchased a minimum of 3 days in advance if using Ticket on Departure from a Southern managed stations.
*If the journey starts from another train operators station, the tickets will need to be posted and therefore must be booked at least 5 days before the date of travel.
*Not valid on any other Train Operators services (inc Thameslink)
*No railcard discounts available

You cant just have a week's holiday in Brighton, get up one morning and think "I know, I will have a day out on the train today".
 

JonathanH

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You cant just have a week's holiday in Brighton, get up one morning and think "I know, I will have a day out on the train today".
Not with a ranger ticket but the fares for longer-distance travel on the Southern network outside London remain excellent value from Brighton, particularly with a railcard and with break of journey opportunities and the ability to make some circular journeys.

Brighton to Horsham is £9.50 with a railcard, Brighton to Redhill is £10.00, Brighton to Ashford, Portsmouth or Southampton is £11.55 with a railcard. Even subject to the £13 weekday restriction on the Network Railcard, that is still good value.
 

richardderby

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actually, you can buy Southern day saves from bus drivers at Brighton and Hove on the day for the pricely sum of £20 which includes all day bus travel too!


Thameslink do one too!!
 

JonathanH

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actually, you can buy Southern day saves from bus drivers at Brighton and Hove on the day for the pricely sum of £20 which includes all day bus travel too!


Thameslink do one too!!
That still only offers a return train journey though, rather than the opportunity to use any train for the day. It is not obvious to me that it is a good deal unless going to London.
 

JB_B

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Presumably because it's such a good deal and undercuts alot of walkup fares.

I think it might just be because the 1-stop travel shop in Brighton has stopped selling rail tickets altogether ( see https://www.buses.co.uk/1-stop-travel-shop ).

I don't know why or when that happened but it's a shame - I always found staff there very helpful with rail.

actually, you can buy Southern day saves from bus drivers at Brighton and Hove on the day for the pricely sum of £20 which includes all day bus travel too!


Thameslink do one too!!

They say they can sell "Southern Saver" or "Thameslink Saver" on the bus (which, as @JonathanH says, looks like it will be poor value for some journeys) but not - I'm fairly sure - the much more flexible DaySave tickets.
 
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Jan Mayen

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Not with a ranger ticket but the fares for longer-distance travel on the Southern network outside London remain excellent value from Brighton, particularly with a railcard and with break of journey opportunities and the ability to make some circular journeys.

Brighton to Horsham is £9.50 with a railcard, Brighton to Redhill is £10.00, Brighton to Ashford, Portsmouth or Southampton is £11.55 with a railcard. Even subject to the £13 weekday restriction on the Network Railcard, that is still good value
The Southern priced season tickets from the likes of Margate to Weymouth route Barnham are excellent value. Not sure if they are valid via Redhill and Haywards heath or Horsham. Perhaps they could create a Rover ticket for the same price?
 

Ianno87

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The Southern priced season tickets from the likes of Margate to Weymouth route Barnham are excellent value. Not sure if they are valid via Redhill and Haywards heath or Horsham. Perhaps they could create a Rover ticket for the same price?

Why? It *is* a de-facto Rover ticket! (Though they might sell a few more if people were aware of its price and validity)
 

JonathanH

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The Southern priced season tickets from the likes of Margate to Weymouth route Barnham are excellent value. Not sure if they are valid via Redhill and Haywards heath or Horsham. Perhaps they could create a Rover ticket for the same price?
They are effectively "rovers". You certainly couldn't commute from Weymouth to Margate along the coast and do a job. It takes upward of eight hours to make the journey.
 

JB_B

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Are we sure about that? The Daysave fares listed here: https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=BTN&dest=QAS look just like normal fares that should be able to be issued normally from any ticket machine.

I've not looked at how their sale is suppressed but the ticket machines at Brighton have never offered this ticket ( AFAIK) - I happened to go that way today and double-checked - that still seems to be the case.
 

Iggy12a

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I've not looked at how their sale is suppressed but the ticket machines at Brighton have never offered this ticket ( AFAIK) - I happened to go that way today and double-checked - that still seems to be the case.
A few years ago when living in Portsmouth I bought the Daysave online, and had a go at collecting it at Portsmouth & Southsea. The collection reference I had been sent consisted of only 7 characters. The machine at PMS wouldn't accept a 7 character reference.
So I drove to Warblington, entered my 7 characters, and the Southern TVM instantly located my booking and printed the Daysave ticket.
 

Ianno87

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A few years ago when living in Portsmouth I bought the Daysave online, and had a go at collecting it at Portsmouth & Southsea. The collection reference I had been sent consisted of only 7 characters. The machine at PMS wouldn't accept a 7 character reference.
So I drove to Warblington, entered my 7 characters, and the Southern TVM instantly located my booking and printed the Daysave ticket.

I had that problem at East Croydon, but the booking could be retrieved by the booking office.
 

Hadders

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I seem to recall that a few years back a Fares Manager at Southern was very active on here and they explained that the reason Daysave tickets had to be purchased 3 days ahead and could only be collected from a Southern TVM is because each transaction has to be manually loaded into the TVM system.

EDIT - here are the relevent posts. Note that these were made over 8 years ago so I've no idea of the current position and whether these tickets can be collected from any TVM. GTR hadn't even been formed then, Southern was a separate TOC. It's also interesting to note the post about why Daysave tickets can't be sold at stations.


 
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alistairlees

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I seem to recall that a few years back a Fares Manager at Southern was very active on here and they explained that the reason Daysave tickets had to be purchased 3 days ahead and could only be collected from a Southern TVM is because each transaction has to be manually loaded into the TVM system.

EDIT - here are the relevent posts. Note that these were made over 8 years ago so I've no idea of the current position and whether these tickets can be collected from any TVM. GTR hadn't even been formed then, Southern was a separate TOC. It's also interesting to note the post about why Daysave tickets can't be sold at stations.


I think more recently (than 2012) it was largely because not all TVMs can be guaranteed to print these tickets correctly. At least that's what I remember from 2015. I have never that they have to be loaded manually into LSM, and don't know how you would do that.
 

Paul Kelly

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My understanding is that the restrictions on issue was because most TVMs can't handle rovers/rangers correctly. Hence my suggestion that now they are also in the database as normal return tickets, they might be able to be issued more normally, e.g. by a standard booking office machine if the clerk puts in "Any Southern Train" as the destination. Most of the anecdotes people have posted are a few years old and I wouldn't trust National Rail Enquiries to be up-to-date. So I don't think we have a definitive answer yet. As an aside, the Daysaves are still there in the database as rangers, but with slightly cheaper prices: https://www.brfares.com/!rovers?nlc=I444
 

Ianno87

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My understanding is that the restrictions on issue was because most TVMs can't handle rovers/rangers correctly. Hence my suggestion that now they are also in the database as normal return tickets, they might be able to be issued more normally, e.g. by a standard booking office machine if the clerk puts in "Any Southern Train" as the destination. Most of the anecdotes people have posted are a few years old and I wouldn't trust National Rail Enquiries to be up-to-date. So I don't think we have a definitive answer yet. As an aside, the Daysaves are still there in the database as rangers, but with slightly cheaper prices: https://www.brfares.com/!rovers?nlc=I444

But they can cope with Travelcards, which are basically the same thing (unless I'm missing something?)
 

paul1609

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This is just from memory and its many years since I used a Daysave but aren't they a "special offer" rather than a rover ticket. I seem to recall that this meant that they could only be retailed by Southern and that they could be withdrawn at anytime. There used to be allsorts of Daysaves Peak etc but I think that only the Off Peak ticket now remains.
 

Hadders

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I think it probably stems from when Rovers had different ticket stock and hasn’t been updated since the Common Stock was introduced
The post I linked to above says that the Daysave is classed as a Special Ticket under the TSA and so cannot be sold at stations.
 
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