duo ticket validity.

[plugwash]

Last sunday, mum and I visited st helens. She has a TFGM old persons pass and a Senior railcard, I have a countycard. The cheapest option would have been to travel to St helens central via wigan, but the connections were horrible, so we decided to get the train From Stockport to Picadilly and then Picadilly to Earlestown and then catch a bus to St helens central. Since we both had area-based tickets (allowing non-stop splits) for the TFGM area and we weren't sure which station we would catch a bus back to we decided to buy tickets from Patricroft to St helens junction.

So I went to the Avanti TVM and entered the details, two passengers one senior railcard, Patricroft to St helens Junction and was offered a duot ticket, however I chose not to buy it as I wasn't sure of it's validity. It was listed as "any permitted" but something in the back of my mind was saying that "duo" was a northern specific ticket type.

 

[mikeg]

It started off as a Northern only ticket, but now is any permitted or whatever route, although it's only available on select flows priced by Northern (believe Abellio Greater Anglia also offers/offered them?).

In short, priced by Northern, can be used on any TOC subject to permitted routes.

 

[jfollows]

Be slightly careful.
When Northern is the fare setter for the "any permitted" ticket - as is the case for Patricroft to Saint Helens Junction - then the Duo ticket is available on any operator.
When Northern is not the fare setter for the "any permitted" ticket - as is the case for Liverpool to Manchester - then there is still a Duo ticket but it's restricted to NORTHERN ONLY along with a collection of other Northern-only tickets.

I use Duo tickets Wilmslow-Manchester frequently and they fall into the former category so they're valid on Avanti West Coast and Transport for Wales trains as well, so all is good.

So a Duo ticket, priced by Northern, may or may not be usable on other operating companies' trains, depending on who is responsible for pricing the "any permitted" ticket for the same route. Potential passengers who don't understand these things don't stand a chance!