• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Leicester to Birmingham off peak times

Status
Not open for further replies.

Badger

Member
Joined
17 Oct 2011
Messages
617
Location
Wolverhampton
On Monday I purchased an off-peak return from Leicester to Birmingham, £10.65 (16-25 railcard). I caught the 18:16 and the guard told me I was too early for that ticket.

As I'm travelling at the same time tomorrow, what time is this ticket valid? There are signs in the station saying XC day returns aren't valid at a certain time, but since they specifically said day returns, I assumed (wrongly) open returns were fine.

It's the out portion I'm concerned about.

The cross country website tells me this ticket is valid on the 18:16, in fact it appears to be valid on every journey after 9:30 (which is what I had assumed). I did buy it from the TVM however, not from the cross country website.

If this is the case, is there something I can print out to back myself up with the guard?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

SickyNicky

Verified Rep - FastJP
Joined
8 Sep 2010
Messages
2,772
Location
Ledbury
A Leicester to Birmingham Off Peak Return (which is, I think, the ticket you had) has condition 2V:

Code:
OUTWARD & RETURN JOURNEYS     
By any train except those     
scheduled to depart before    
0930.

It is valid at any time after 9.30am. The restriction details are available from the National Rail website here http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/pdfs/SVR_2V.pdf

Did the guard let you travel on the ticket or did you have to pay an excess?
 

SS4

Established Member
Joined
30 Jan 2011
Messages
8,589
Location
Birmingham
The SVR has Restriction Code: 2V

2V said:
OUTWARD & RETURN JOURNEYS
By any train except those
scheduled to depart before
0930.

Evidently this is a valid for your journey

edit: dang too slow :(
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Additionally the CDR has code BX

Code:
OUTWARD/RETURN
By any train except those
timed to depart Mondays to
Fridays before 0930 or between
1530 and 1815

So the 1816 would also be fine on a CDR
 

Badger

Member
Joined
17 Oct 2011
Messages
617
Location
Wolverhampton
Thanks, if I have to quote that to the guard where is it from?

Edit: I have confused myself, sorry. It was the 1516 not the 1816 (which would be why he brought it up I assume). It was definately not a cheap day return.
 

bb21

Emeritus Moderator
Joined
4 Feb 2010
Messages
24,151
Leicester - Birmingham Off-Peak Return is a rip-off for actually doing that journey with. See your PM.
 

dvboy

Established Member
Joined
6 Sep 2011
Messages
1,937
Location
Birmingham
this thread is a great example about how different off peak restrictions for different tickets do nothing but confuse the passenger
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
If this is the case, is there something I can print out to back myself up with the guard?
Guards normally carry Avantix machines (and if they don't, they can't charge you a new ticket - unless they issued a UFN instead!) and these machines have the restrictions. Simply ask the guard politely to look up what the restriction is.

However, I have a better suggestion that will deal with the issue longer-term.

Write to XC explaining what happened. Make it polite and concise, with no criticism of the guard, but make it clear that you would like additional training for guards so that the issue does not happen again. You could ask for a date by when the training will be complete.

I believe there are issues with XC giving poor training to guards and we need to ensure XC address that. If XC are giving guards incorrect information, I don't blame the guards, it's down to XCs appalling management (as evidenced in other threads and on their ridiculous backfired Facebook Q&A session where many of the Qs had no A, and many of the As were incorrect).

I am very happy to proof read a letter for you, don't hesitate to send me a PM.

If a satisfactory answer is not received, the matter can be escalated to Passenger Focus.
 

Badger

Member
Joined
17 Oct 2011
Messages
617
Location
Wolverhampton
In this case he let it slide as me making an honest mistake (I didn't want to say that just in case anyone tried that one on (but as it happens it was his mistake not mine)); but given I'm travelling at the same time it's likely to be the same guard so I wanted to be sure. But thank you, if it happens again and I actually have to buy a new ticket I will do as you say.

Given that bus drivers around here don't know what tickets their buses vend, I'm not surprised that guards can get confused about what tickets are valid, to be honest.
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
Guards change rosters regularly so it may be a different guard on a different day.

Sadly other people will be given the same incorrect information by that guard (unless he picked on you - unlikely!) and this may continue for some time if it is never reported. Hopefully someone will report it one day to stop further inconvenience and confusion to passengers.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top