Is Leamington Spa to Oxford via Haddenham & Thame Parkway a permitted route?

[iotac]

I am able to produce an itinerary from Leamington Spa to Oxford via Haddenham & Thame Parkway on Chiltern railway's website and also national railway enquiry's journey planner, on a single ticket from LMS to OXF. But some other train operator's website doesn't allow this, e.g. cross country. So I want to know whether LMS to OXF via HDM is a permitted route according to routeing guide? (To be honest, I don't think it is a reasonable route.)

Some notes and possible arguments:
1. The route does not include a doubling back. It does include a segment Bicester North-HDM-Bicester Village, but this is not a doubling back since the definition is passing the same *station* twice.

2. In the routeing guide, LMS to OXF uses the map SM, which does not seem to include the OXF-BIT link. But I also notice that there's a negative easement:

700913 Circuitous Route
Customers travelling to Kings Sutton or Banbury from or via Oxford may not travel via Haddenham & Thame Parkway. This circuitous route easement applies in both directions.

This might suggest that if there weren't this easement, the route from BAN to OXF via HDM would be permitted. But BAN to OXF also uses the map SM, which does not include the OXF-BIT link. Also this easement does not extend to northern of BAN.

3. The off-peak single price from LMS to HDM is 22.70, more expensive than that from LMS to OXF, which is 21.30.

 

[Watershed]

I am able to produce an itinerary from Leamington Spa to Oxford via Haddenham & Thame Parkway on Chiltern railway's website and also national railway enquiry's journey planner, on a single ticket from LMS to OXF. But some other train operator's website doesn't allow this, e.g. cross country. So I want to know whether LMS to OXF via HDM is a permitted route according to routeing guide? (To be honest, I don't think it is a reasonable route.)

It's a mapped route under the Routeing Guide and hence permitted. You are also entitled to rely on the itinerary offered by a journey planner, irrespective of the Routeing Guide.

1. The route does not include a doubling back. It does include a segment Bicester North-HDM-Bicester Village, but this is not a doubling back since the definition is passing the same *station* twice.

Correct. There is no Bicester Routeing Point (Group), therefore you are in compliance with all of the rules around tracing mapped routes if you go via HDM. It's far from the only example where this sort of lengthy "double back" (but which doesn't actually involve passing through any station twice) is permitted.

2. In the routeing guide, LMS to OXF uses the map SM, which does not seem to include the OXF-BIT link. But I also notice that there's a negative easement:
This might suggest that if there weren't this easement, the route from BAN to OXF via HDM would be permitted. But BAN to OXF also uses the map SM, which does not include the OXF-BIT link. Also this easement does not extend to northern of BAN.

That's correct, the easement only bars BAN-OXF via HDM, not other journeys. I'm sure the easement can easily be changed to make it "customers travelling to or via Kings Sutton or Banbury" though... We know that Pricing Managers etc. read this forum, so if you don't want this to happen you might want to report this thread and ask for it to be deleted!

On the issue of the OXF-BIT link - again, neither BIT nor BCS are Routeing Points. Therefore the presence or absence of it on a Routeing Guide map has no impact on validity.

3. The off-peak single price from LMS to HDM is 22.70, more expensive than that from LMS to OXF, which is 21.30.

The cost of the fare to an intermediate point is not relevant in terms of the validity, although it's obviously a litmus test for whether TOCs are likely to take umbrage to the route you're taking.

Fares are only used in the Routeing Guide for the purposes of the fares check, which is used to determine appropriate origin and destination Routeing Points. As Leamington and Oxford are both Routeing Points, there is no need to undertake a fares check.

 

[iotac]

On the issue of the OXF-BIT link - again, neither BIT nor BCS are Routeing Points. Therefore the presence or absence of it on a Routeing Guide map has no impact on validity.

Thank you for your thorough explanation, especially for the part about routeing guide maps and routeing points!

That's correct, the easement only bars BAN-OXF via HDM, not other journeys. I'm sure the easement can easily be changed to make it "customers travelling to or via Kings Sutton or Banbury" though... We know that Pricing Managers etc. read this forum, so if you don't want this to happen you might want to report this thread and ask for it to be deleted!

I have never thought about this before, but this makes sense. Though this detour does not make much sense to me, someone who travels from LMS to HDM might be able to exploit it I will report and ask for this thread to be deleted.