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Doubling back

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RailMad

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Hi

Looking at Google Maps, the fastest journey on an anytime single to get home is Paddington-Taplow is via Maidenhead (GWR from PAD to MAI, then TfL Rail from MAI to TAP). Is this allowed on my ticket type?

Thanks!
 
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Watershed

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Not unless you can find a booking engine that will sell you an Anytime Day Single going via Maidenhead.

It's 1 mile and 60 chains from Taplow to Maidenhead, so the double back is 3 miles and 40 chains. Therefore it isn't permitted under the 'shortest route + 3 miles' rule. It's also not a mapped route, as Maidenhead fails the fares check.

As long as you don't exceed the maximum journey time, you could travel via Maidenhead with a contactless card, and you would be charged £11.60 - less than the £12.10 Anytime Day Single to Taplow. That said, the paper ticket is still cheaper if you have a Railcard or other discount.
 

RailMad

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Not unless you can find a booking engine that will sell you an Anytime Day Single going via Maidenhead.

It's 1 mile and 60 chains from Taplow to Maidenhead, so the double back is 3 miles and 40 chains. Therefore it isn't permitted under the 'shortest route + 3 miles' rule. It's also not a mapped route, as Maidenhead fails the fares check.

As long as you don't exceed the maximum journey time, you could travel via Maidenhead with a contactless card, and you would be charged £11.60 - less than the £12.10 Anytime Day Single to Taplow. That said, the paper ticket is still cheaper if you have a Railcard or other discount.
Thanks for the reply. I'm using a railcard, so would I need a paper ticket from Paddington to Maidenhead, and then travel to Taplow on that same ticket?
 

Watershed

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Thanks for the reply. I'm using a railcard, so would I need a paper ticket from Paddington to Maidenhead, and then travel to Taplow on that same ticket?
If you have a PAD-MAI single you can't do PAD-MAI-TAP. Your ticket would have expired when you arrived at MAI.

You could do the double back if you had a PAD-MAI return ticket, or a PAD-MAI single and a MAI-TAP single.

As you can see, if you want to double back, it is probably simplest and cheapest to use contactless even if you have a Railcard.
 

yorkie

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Agreed, if you want to travel via Maidenhead you're better off using Contactless (forgoing the Railcard discount).
 

Nottingham59

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When I try planning the journey from Paddington to Taplow, the direct stopping service takes 38 minutes. If you miss the stopper, you can sometimes catch it up by taking a fast train to Slough, and changing there. But I can't see any combination that is faster via Maidenhead. Perhaps I am missing something?
 

MarlowDonkey

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I can't see any combination that is faster via Maidenhead. Perhaps I am missing something?
There are peak hour services that run non-stop to Maidenhead. Up and down trains are often timetabled to cross at Maidenhead to improve connections to the Marlow branch.
 

Paul Kelly

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A full-price contactless single from Paddington to Taplow (£6.40) is cheaper than a railcard-discounted anytime day single (£7.95). So assuming this is really a single journey, I can't see any reason not to just use contactless. I concur with MarlowDonkey that this route only works out quicker when using the evening peak trains from Paddington that run fast to Maidenhead.

Edit: silly me - if travelling in the evening peak the more expensive contactless fare of £11.60 will apply. So now I see where the dilemma is.
 

Non Multi

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The peak contactless fare is directional, so in the evening peak eastbound, Mai-Tap has the off peak fare of £1.50.
Anytime Single (or Return) ticket with discount for Pad-Mai, then contactless card for the Mai-Tap leg.
 

MarlowDonkey

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Anytime Single (or Return) ticket with discount for Pad-Mai, then contactless card for the Mai-Tap leg.
Are there any contactless readers on the platforms? This would be potentially of benefit to passengers to or from the Marlow branch.
 

Kite159

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Just be careful which platform at Maidenhead is used by the GWR as platform 1 (mainline) doesn't have access to platform 4 without going via barriers. Although I would imagine most will use platform 3. (looking at RTT only the 16:50 Paddington - Didcot & 17:36 Paddington - Penzance are booked to use platform 1)
 

Non Multi

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Are there any contactless readers on the platforms? This would be potentially of benefit to passengers to or from the Marlow branch.
I've never seen any installed. Same issue as Greenford, in that you have to go to downstairs to the barriers to touch in.
 

Horizon22

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The only feasible trains that make are time difference (according to Google Maps) are the 1650, 1720 and 1820 departures from Paddington. The 1736 must have a bad connection with TfL and is only marginally better than the 1743 Reading stopper. The 1751 also makes no saving. If a booking engine allowed you to make these trains it would be 28 minutes versus 38 minutes. However this is indeed a doubling back that wouldn't be allowed on a ticket sale and you have the extra complication of a railcard, so this is an odd case.

Just be careful which platform at Maidenhead is used by the GWR as platform 1 (mainline) doesn't have access to platform 4 without going via barriers. Although I would imagine most will use platform 3. (looking at RTT only the 16:50 Paddington - Didcot & 17:36 Paddington - Penzance are booked to use platform 1)

As you say the only feasible train using P1 is the 1650, I believe the others all cross outside Maidenhead.

I also had a look at fast to Slough and onwards to Taplow, but again the connection isn't there. In the peak most Worcester trains don't stop at Slough, and other "fast" services don't really compensate.
 
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MarlowDonkey

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The only feasible trains that make are time difference (according to Google Maps) are the 1650, 1720 and 1820 departures from Paddington.
Someone who was a regular peak hour commuter from Taplow could avoid having to dash to and from the barriers by having a Maidenhead based season. On season tickets, doubling back is automatically permitted.

Fifty years ago, the 1721 which was the Henley through train called at Taplow anyway.
 

Haywain

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Someone who was a regular peak hour commuter from Taplow could avoid having to dash to and from the barriers by having a Maidenhead based season. On season tickets, doubling back is automatically permitted.
Someone with a Maidenhead to London season travelling from London to Taplow via Maidenhead would not be doubling back, they would simply be making a journey that is permitted by the season ticket allowing unlimited travel between the stated locations.
 

nlogax

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Someone with a Maidenhead to London season travelling from London to Taplow via Maidenhead would not be doubling back, they would simply be making a journey that is permitted by the season ticket allowing unlimited travel between the stated locations.

Arguably worth paying the extra £108 per year for.
 

Kilopylae

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I'm not 100% sure that I understand that post. Are you saying Season Tickets aren't subject to the routing guide or that you can have diifferent routes with a Season Ticket?
Season tickets let you go in both directions, so a Paddington to Maidstone season ticket would be valid to go from Paddington to Maidstone and then to Taplow. This is in contrast to a single ticket, which does not allow doubling back, or a return ticket, where you must use the outwards portion first and can only use each portion once.
 

Wallsendmag

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Thats really not what doubling back is. That's just using the ticket. Doubling back in this instance would be something like going to Reading on a flyer and catching a stopper from there.
 

MotCO

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Season tickets let you go in both directions, so a Paddington to Maidstone season ticket would be valid to go from Paddington to Maidstone and then to Taplow. This is in contrast to a single ticket, which does not allow doubling back, or a return ticket, where you must use the outwards portion first and can only use each portion once.

Maidstone?? :lol: :lol:
 
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Paul Kelly

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Thats really not what doubling back is. That's just using the ticket. Doubling back in this instance would be something like going to Reading on a flyer and catching a stopper from there.
Depends on whether you say it's one journey (Paddington to Taplow doubling back from Maidenhead) or two journeys (Paddington to Maidenhead followed by Maidenhead to Taplow). If the latter, I agree that it's not doubling back.
 

infobleep

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Depends on whether you say it's one journey (Paddington to Taplow doubling back from Maidenhead) or two journeys (Paddington to Maidenhead followed by Maidenhead to Taplow). If the latter, I agree that it's not doubling back.
For the purposes of claiming delay repay would it not count as one journey?
 

Paul Kelly

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But can you double back when paying contactless?
Yes definitely; I think you can take any route you want as long as you stay within the contactless area and don't go over the maximum journey time. This is the general principle for Oyster and contactless within the London zones and I can't see how it would be different when traveling outside the zones. As the journey under discussion is quite a bit shorter than the usual journey time for Paddington to Taplow, hitting the maximum journey time certainly won't be a problem here!
 
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