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London to Ipswich

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w blocker

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Hello there,

Long time lurker,first time poster.

I am going from London to Ipswich soon. I am travelling mid afternoon and coming back late evening. Advances are out because I can't be sure which trains I am getting. The cheapest walk-up fare I can see for Liverpool St - Ipswich is £31.90. Howvever, after fiddling around a bit, I came up with the following two fares:-

Finsbury Park - Newmarket £21.00 Off-peak day return +Any Permitted B1 FCC

Stratford London - Newmarket £24.00 Off-peak day return +Any Permitted B1 FCC

I know I can break the journey on both legs, but are these tickets valid via Ipswich.

Thanks in advance.

W Blocker
 
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yorkie

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Amazingly, the Stratford one is, on map EA (but you can't double back into Liverpool St, so get one of the ones that calls Stratford or change at Shenfield), however book it online and get reservations as you will probably find that it is queried and you are challenged. Also print a copy of map EA.

This only saves money if returning the same day, as the Off Peak Return (SVR) from Stratford London (SRA) to Newmarket (NMK) costs £32.90, this is £1.20 more than from SRA to IPS. However no Off Peak Day fare exists to Ipswich, as like the Midland Main Line, it is a glorified outer suburban line priced as if it's a premium high speed line yet is so slow that they assume people won't do day returns for journeys greater than about 50 miles! :|
 

w blocker

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It is just the day return I want so I'll do all that and save myself £8.

Ta very much.
 

A60K

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Amazingly, the Stratford one is, on map EA (but you can't double back into Liverpool St, so get one of the ones that calls Stratford or change at Shenfield), however book it online and get reservations as you will probably find that it is queried and you are challenged. Also print a copy of map EA.

This only saves money if returning the same day, as the Off Peak Return (SVR) from Stratford London (SRA) to Newmarket (NMK) costs £32.90, this is £1.20 more than from SRA to IPS. However no Off Peak Day fare exists to Ipswich, as like the Midland Main Line, it is a glorified outer suburban line priced as if it's a premium high speed line yet is so slow that they assume people won't do day returns for journeys greater than about 50 miles! :|


In the same general area, what about tickets from Southend to Norwich - there are cheaper Not London and more expensive +Any Permitted routings for this. Routing Guide states to use either London or map EA.

Obviously the Not London requires map EA and using the S'end Victoria line changing at Shenfield to avoid doubling-back. The +Any Permitted would seem to allow either c2c from S'end Central to London Fenchurch Street, then Tube to Liverpool Street, and NX to Norwich - or, using the London routing shown in the RG, NX from S'end Vic to London Liverpool Street and then NX out again to Norwich. Is this the case?

 

yorkie

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Obviously the Not London requires map EA and using the S'end Victoria line changing at Shenfield to avoid doubling-back. The +Any Permitted would seem to allow either c2c from S'end Central to London Fenchurch Street, then Tube to Liverpool Street, and NX to Norwich - or, using the London routing shown in the RG, NX from S'end Vic to London Liverpool Street and then NX out again to Norwich. Is this the case?
You are asking if the "LONDON" routeing option (allowing the map choices from origin to London plus the map choices from London to destination) overrules the "no doubling back" rule?

Probably not. The RG states "If combining maps gives a route code with a repeated map, for example WX+LM+CS+LM, that would not be permitted because it breaks rule 5 of the route tracing procedure that a map once left cannot be returned to." You would be using map EA twice. If you only use EA once then you would break the "no doubling back" rule if you went from Shenfield to London and back to Shenfield again.

So I conclude that Southend to Norwich + Any Permitted is only allowed for travel into London if using the c2c route.

However if someone was on the wrong route, then I don't see what could be done about it, they cannot be given a penalty fare, and the excess can't be anything other than £0.00 and how would either inspector know what you were doing unless you admitted it? The inspector on the Southend-London train can't be sure you are not going to go via Cambridge, and the inspector on the London-Norwich train can't be sure you went via Billericay.
 
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