Peak Restriction easement during strike period/general grace period?

[galwhv69]

Hi,
I need to travel from Euston to Birmingham tomorrow, and back on Sunday afternoon, for rail replacement work. When travelling to Birmingham, I would usually buy a £19.10 16-25 railcard discounted Super Off Peak single. However, as my final destination is Wolverhampton, and I start early on Saturday, getting the 1923 departure (first valid train after 1900?) would not be the best option. I cannot travel on the 1556 or earlier, as I have other commitments. My best option would be the 1856 service. In general, is there a 5 minute grace period for off peak times like on Oyster? Or potentially a peak time easement during the strike period this week?
Thanks

 

[jfollows]

The time restrictions are absolute, because otherwise they would be too vague - you're either allowed to use a service or you're not. It would be madness otherwise.
Avanti's more expensive ticket (£30.35) has no time restrictions tomorrow, Friday.
Your ticket's restrictions, which you know, are Monday-Saturday

Not valid for travel on services timed to depart the origin station on the ticket after 15:59 and before 19:01 in either direction.

 

[plugwash]

As I understand it.

There is no 5 minuite grace period on regular rail tickets. The reason oyster/contactless PAYG has such grace periods is because oyster works the opposite way round to normal rail ticketing. With normal rail ticketing it's up to you to buy the right ticket for your journey. With oyster/contactless you just touch in and out and the system decides what to charge you. The grace periods are an attempt to reduce compliants due to imprecise clocks and/or due to the time difference beween touch in/touch out and actually boarding the train.

I have not heard of any easements being officially put in place for strike days, given the fact that TOCs are trying to discourage travel on strike days it seems unlikely they would do so.

 

[Haywain]

I would usually buy a £19.10 16-25 railcard discounted Super Off Peak single.

The slightly more expensive Off Peak Return at £25.70 has no afternoon time restrictions.

 

[Watershed]

Hi,
I need to travel from Euston to Birmingham tomorrow, and back on Sunday afternoon, for rail replacement work. When travelling to Birmingham, I would usually buy a £19.10 16-25 railcard discounted Super Off Peak single. However, as my final destination is Wolverhampton, and I start early on Saturday, getting the 1923 departure (first valid train after 1900?) would not be the best option. I cannot travel on the 1556 or earlier, as I have other commitments. My best option would be the 1856 service. In general, is there a 5 minute grace period for off peak times like on Oyster? Or potentially a peak time easement during the strike period this week?
Thanks

The only reason for the grace period on Oyster is that it allows people time to get to the platform for the first post-09:30/19:00 etc. service and allows for a small margin of error in case passengers or readers have their clocks set incorrectly.

There is no such grace period with 'normal' tickets as they are generally based on scheduled departure times and you will be let through in time for the first valid departure. I don't think this is unreasonable to be honest - there has to be a cut-off somewhere.

Where the industry is acting far more unreasonably, in my view, is its refusal to put in place a simple, blanket easement allowing travel at any time and on any operator and route during dates that are affected by strikes (i.e. the strike dates themselves and the day after, due to the later startup). You haven't directly been impacted by the strikes, obviously, but you nevertheless raise a valid issue.

 

[plugwash]

Where the industry is acting far more unreasonably, in my view, is its refusal to put in place a simple, blanket easement allowing travel at any time and on any operator and route during dates that are affected by strikes (i.e. the strike dates themselves and the day after, due to the later startup). You haven't directly been impacted by the strikes, obviously, but you nevertheless raise a valid issue.

I can kind of see both sides of this one.

On the one hand it does feel pretty mean to have to pay more for a worse service.

On the other hand, the reality is that on strike days the railway has less capacity than usual so offering what are essentially discounts doesn't seem the brightest idea.

 

[Starmill]

You're entitled to pay the difference between what you have already paid and the Off Peak. This needs to be paid at the ticket office before boarding however. If the ticket office refuse to sell it to you, I would advise you to attempt to board the train and offer to pay the difference there. If you still encounter a problem it may be necccesary to pay for a new ticket and then submit a complaint to reclaim what you'd already paid.

 

[galwhv69]

You're entitled to pay the difference between what you have already paid and the Off Peak. This needs to be paid at the ticket office before boarding however. If the ticket office refuse to sell it to you, I would advise you to attempt to board the train and offer to pay the difference there. If you still encounter a problem it may be necccesary to pay for a new ticket and then submit a complaint to reclaim what you'd already paid.

Is that what an excess is? How much would it be please?

 

[Watershed]

Is that what an excess is? How much would it be please?

Yes. It would be the difference to the cheapest valid fare, which in this case would be the aforementioned £25.70 fare.

I can kind of see both sides of this one.

On the one hand it does feel pretty mean to have to pay more for a worse service.

On the other hand, the reality is that on strike days the railway has less capacity than usual so offering what are essentially discounts doesn't seem the brightest idea.

At a minimum such a policy should apply to tickets bought before the strike dates were announced. A more generous policy would also allow it to tickets bought before the strike timetables were published, which in most cases was just a few days ago.

 

[galwhv69]

Thanks all,
The grace period for oyster makes sense. It would make sense in my opinion for ticket restrictions to be removed during the strike period to allow people to travel with better capacity usage, so instead of more people cramming onto limited cheaper off peak trains, peak trains could be used too

Yes. It would be the difference to the cheapest valid fare, which in this case would be the aforementioned £25.70 fare.

Ah cool, thanks