London to Rye - off-peak restrictions

[cjohnson]

I'm planning on a trip from St Pancras to Rye via HS1, leaving on a weekday around 5.30pm and returning a couple of days later mid-afternoon. NRE suggests an off-peak return is suitable, and indeed the various booking sites will happily sell me the SVR for the 17:40 departure out of STP.

However, the ticket has restriction 4A (barring travel before 9:30 plus the FGW evening peak restrictions - not relevant here), which also notes "for travel to/from London St Pancras International on part of the outward or return journey please also refer to validity 7E & 9J", which says I can only travel on trains scheduled to depart St P "Between 09:01 & 16:29 (inclusive) and at or after 18:59."

So can I travel on the 1740 from STP with that SVR? If not would buying from and starting at Stratford Intl get round the evening 9J restriction (as my journey would then not involve "travel to/from London St Pancras International")?

 

[LexyBoy]

4A is the appropriate restriction here; 7E and 9J apply for journeys to or from the east midlands. The heading of 4A is a bit of a red herring for this journey - the only relevant part is the "after 0930" restriction.

 

[cjohnson]

4A is the appropriate restriction here; 7E and 9J apply for journeys to or from the east midlands. The heading of 4A is a bit of a red herring for this journey - the only relevant part is the "after 0930" restriction.

Thanks... but then again the heading for 4A says "LONDON TO THE NORTH COTSWOLDS AND THAMES VALLEY AREAS", so I'm not sure how much attention should be paid to the restriction headings as a lot of them appear to be completely meaningless!

 

[Paul Kelly]

So can I travel on the 1740 from STP with that SVR?

I agree with your interpretation that it's not allowed and that Jeppesen IPTIS (the booking engine that provides National Rail Enquiries with its journey planner) has interpreted the restrictions wrongly.

If not would buying from and starting at Stratford Intl get round the evening 9J restriction (as my journey would then not involve "travel to/from London St Pancras International")?

Yes, that would be fine as far as I can see. Under 7E/9J it's not allowed of course, as they refer to travel on trains scheduled to depart St Pancras, but you would have no need to refer to that if just looking at 4A, because it only refers to travel from St Pancras. Well spotted.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

7E and 9J apply for journeys to or from the east midlands.

Not sure about that although you may be right. But I thought getting "also see 7E/9J" added into the end of loads of other restrictions was Southeastern's sneaking way of banning loads of tickets (including many advances, whose restriction codes also reference 7E/9J) from HS1 trains in the morning and evening peaks.

 

[LexyBoy]

Not sure about that although you may be right. But I thought getting "also see 7E/9J" added into the end of loads of other restrictions was Southeastern's sneaking way of banning loads of tickets (including many advances, whose restriction codes also reference 7E/9J) from HS1 trains in the morning and evening peaks.

Oh, that could be. 7E I don't think can apply as travel is not "to or via" St Pancras, but 9J could apply (though would certainly be sneaky if so).

I know there was some debate about the validity of connexions onto HS1 from Liverpool St - IIRC it was confirmed as valid, so this could be an option if you're worried about validity. No restriction on Liverpool St or Stratford departures.

 

[island]

9J doesn't apply from Stratford Int I think as it says if your journey is not from/to/via the named stations, see 2V.

 

[LexyBoy]

I wonder how long before an update to some restriction text causes journey planners across the land to get stuck in an infinite loop of checking referenced restrictions?

 

[cjohnson]

Thanks all - looks like going from Stratford will get round the restriction (and saves a whopping 10p on the STP fare).

 

[barrykas]

As per LexyBoy's post, I would suggest that the reference to codes 7E and 9J is only relevant for journeys to/from Thameslink and EMT destinations, which is borne out by both Journey Planner (formerly RJIS) and FasTIS showing the Off-Peak Return as being valid on the 17:40 ex-St Pancras.

Cheers,

Barry

 

[yorkie]

It's also worth bearing in mind that if the journey was to/from an EMT destination beyond Bedford, for example Wellingborough to Rye, then it would be valid on any train on the London <> Rye portion of the journey anyway.

However the Network Area rule is not always understood & applied correctly by some booking engines either.

I would like to see simplification of restriction codes, but only if assurances were made that passengers would NOT lose out as a result. Sadly, too often Simplification is used as an excuse to impose further restrictions. It may not be the purpose of simplification but can be the result, even when not intended by ATOC, due to the actions of some rogue TOCs.

 

[paul1609]

I'm planning on a trip from St Pancras to Rye via HS1, leaving on a weekday around 5.30pm and returning a couple of days later mid-afternoon. NRE suggests an off-peak return is suitable, and indeed the various booking sites will happily sell me the SVR for the 17:40 departure out of STP.

However, the ticket has restriction 4A (barring travel before 9:30 plus the FGW evening peak restrictions - not relevant here), which also notes "for travel to/from London St Pancras International on part of the outward or return journey please also refer to validity 7E & 9J", which says I can only travel on trains scheduled to depart St P "Between 09:01 & 16:29 (inclusive) and at or after 18:59."

So can I travel on the 1740 from STP with that SVR? If not would buying from and starting at Stratford Intl get round the evening 9J restriction (as my journey would then not involve "travel to/from London St Pancras International")?

I use off peak tickets for this journey all the time including sometimes this train with no problem. (I live 5 miles north of Rye)
Theres also very cheap advance tickets from Victoria via Haywards Heath if you don't mind a 2 1/2 hour journey @ £4 -8 these are not very well publicised but theres pretty good availability if you can book a couple of days in advance.
Rye plusbus is quite good value as well although being a rural area services are not very frequent. I have 4 buses on saturday and none on sunday! but the area stretches as far as Tenterden and New Romney.
Rye has a lot of good pubs my favourites are the Ship and the Standard.