Excessing a Off Peak Return, To Travel From a Different Station.

[Assos]

On Friday, I travelled from Cheltenham Spa to Aylesbury. I bought a Off Peak Return, routed NOT LONDON, with a 16-25 railcard. Today due to engineering works between Aylesbury and Princes Risborough, I decided to return from Tring station instead, again avoiding London.

I arrived at Tring station about 13:20 with the train due at 13:30, handed over my return portion and railcard and explained what I wanted to do. The clerk, proceeded to look up the relavent fares. I was informed that the cheapest fare from Tring to cheltenham was about £60, so would be about £40 once the price of my original ticket had been deducted. At this point I asked about the railcard discount, and the price reduced by a further £20 so I paid exactly £20.95.

I agreed to pay this, as although it seemed rather expensive considering my original fare was £23.25 and the fare from Milton Keynes (a 20 minute journey from Tring and a £5.50 Cheap Day Single) is £23.65, believing I would write and query it later, having looked up the fares myself - which in hindsight I probably should have done before getting to Tring. The clerk proceeded to issue the excess and I was told to go via Milton Keynes and Birmingham.

I was issued with an excess to Off Peak Single, Routed +RDG STRD INC LDN. I thought this slightly odd seeing as my original ticket was routed NOT LONDON.

Once I got on the train at Tring, I loaded NFM04, and looked up the fares from Tring to Cheltenham, to find that there are no ANY PERMITTED or NOT LONDON fares. The only routings available are +RDG STRD INC LDN, with a Off Peak Return at £44.90, inc Railcard discount and +LONDON with a Off Peak Return at £48.20 inc Railcard discount.

If my assumptions are correct neither of these tickets would be valid via Birmingham, as is the route I am taking and National Rail suggests - although appears unable to provide any pricing for. What is the procedure the clerk should take when I want to excess to a route that doesn't exist.

Also, I'm unsure that I've been charged the correct price for the excess given, as I understand it when working out an excess on one portion of a return ticket, you should halve the price of both the original and new tickets, then take the price of the original ticket away from the price of the new one.

Applying that method to my ticket:

The original price was: £23.25
The price of the new ticket is: £44.90

£44.90 / 2 = £22.45
£23.25 / 2 = £11.63
£22.45 - £11.63 = £10.82

Is this correct and if so, do I have any recourse to get the discrepancy refunded? Also, why is National rail showing routes that there are no fares available for?

 

[yorkie]

Strictly speaking, I think they can refuse to issue an excess (and they will in future when they get told off if you complain!) if you are on a completely different route.

For example, say I have a ticket from York to Leeds, I can excess it from Poppleton to Leeds. But I can't excess it to a York to Thirsk.

When changing the origin/destination the type of excess is "Over distance", but you are actually on a completely different line.

The ticket office staff use their discretion with an excess. The TOC could say you should have bought a new ticket up to the point where your old one became valid (Birmingham). You would, in any case, have been better off doing this, as a Tring to Birmingham (Ldn Midland only) is only £13.20 CDR (5p less for a single). They may refund you the difference (providing you didn't use Virgin from MKC) and tell the ticket clerk off for issuing an excess, but then you may struggle to get excesses from Tring in future!

Sometimes it can be cheaper to buy a new ticket to join up with the other ticket, while on other occasions it can be cheaper to excess.

In this case it cost you more as you paid a premium to use an expensive ticket valid via London, and then you didn't go via London. So it was a bad choice. It's a shame there is no cheap fare from Tring, but you could split somewhere to make it cheaper, but the clerk isn't allowed to offer splits unless no through fare exists. I believe that if no through fare for the route you want is available, then they should offer a split ticket, providing you make it clear that you want to go via that route.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

This sort of 'Excess fare' actually comes under 'Deviation from the route on the ticket - to a new destination'. Although not strictly accurate, it is the closest option.

In this case the clerk should have offered the cheapest valid single or return fare to cover the part of your journey not covered by the ticket you hold. This may have been cheaper than your excess, which to me suggests the clerk didn't realise the difference.

However I'm not sure you could claim a refund, because it is your responsibility to check the ticket is appropriate for your journey, that said, they may decide that because the clerk was in error you can have the difference without an admin fee charged. They may enquire which services you actually used, if the conductor/guard stamped the ticket this may tell them the train you used.