London to Chippenham - senior fares

[daniel78]

Hi, asking about this one for my Dad. He travels between London and Chippenham about once a work. He already has a senior railcard, but has just received his freedom pass today.

Is there any way he can use his freedom pass to reduce his fare further? Apparently it allows free travel on National Rail as far as West Drayton, so I'm trying to figure if there's some way of splitting a ticket from there. I think the train normally stops first at Reading, and if I remember rightly boundary extensions are only available within the Network Southeast region, so I've warned him I don't hold much hope. Thought it was worth a try here in case there's a trick I'm missing.

Thanks,
Dan.

 

[yorkie]

Yes, you could buy a ticket from West Drayton, and the train does not need to call there.

Thats fine the freedom pass is considered to be an off-peak season ticket see quote from The Manual below

The Manual
Extension Tickets for journeys starting from stations within the Concessionary Travel area:

It should be especially noted that a freedom pass is considered to be an ‘off-peak’ season ticket and through journeys to and from stations outside the Concessionary Travel area are permitted as follows:

• Upon pre-purchase of the appropriate single or return ticket, which should be either

a) a Travelcard Excess Fare from ‘Boundary Zone 6’,( see Note 1) or
b) a point to point ticket from the outermost station in Zone 6 to destinations where a Travelcard Excess Fare is either not available, or is priced higher (see Note 1), or
c) a ‘point-to-point’ ticket from Amersham, Dartford, Swanley, Watford Junction (see Note 2)
Note 1: A Freedom Pass used in combination with either a Travelcard Excess Fare or a ‘point-to-point’ ticket is only valid for a throughout journey NOT stopping at the station where the passenger changes from their Freedom Pass to a point-to-point ticket, when travel is on the services of a participating Train Company

 

[daniel78]

Thanks very much