Reading to Bournemouth Ticket Help Please

[Thames99]

Two people both with Senior Railcards travelling out on Friday 8th March preferably morning and back on Sunday 10th in the afternoon.

I am happy to use an advance on the outward journey, but would like to keep it flexible for the return as we will be coming from Swanage on the bus via Sandbanks ferry which can be delayed at times. I see that there is a cheap return fare changing at Basingstoke if I travel after midday on the Friday, but we would prefer to get an earlier train around 10 o'clock if that did not make it too expensive.

What are my options here please?

 

[yorkie]

Have you tried the forum's ticket booking site?

Note that if you depart before 0930 (or whenever the Off Peak fare becomes valid) you won't get your Railcard discount; this applies because your journey is wholly in the Network Area and will be taken into account by the booking site you use.

TOC websites won't apply any discount whatsoever for a journey which commences at a restricted time, wheras our website would look at combinations of tickets, which can be cheaper (and is entirely legitimate).

 

[Watershed]

As an Off-Peak Return costs only slightly more than a walk-up single, it's not going to be worthwhile buying an Advance out and a walk-up ticket on the way back. It will be cheaper to buy either a walk-up or an Advance ticket in both directions.

A Reading-Bournemouth Off-Peak Return would cost £32.85 and be valid from 09:30 (it has restriction code 2V). If you wanted to travel earlier than that, you could instead buy a ticket from slightly further away, e.g. an Off-Peak Return from Wokingham at £35.60 has a different restriction code (B8) which means it's valid from 07:45. That ticket doesn't have any break of journey restrictions so you could quite legitimately start/end your journey at Reading in either direction.

 

[Thames99]

Thanks, I have looked at the forum's site - am I correct in thinking that to use an advance fare outbound but not inbound I need to book as two singles? There are cheap advance fares in both directions of £14 (before railcard discount) but £34.76 for the return leg if I want a flexible ticket which is not much less than being flexible both ways. I suppose we could get an early bus to give a good buffer in case of a delay.

I see that the line is shut around Southampton on Sunday so it is a bus replacement from Bournemouth to Eastleigh which is not very appealing. I don't think there's any route to avoid this is there.

 

[hexagon789]

am I correct in thinking that to use an advance fare outbound but not inbound I need to book as two singles?

Advances are only sold as singles.

 

[30907]

I see that the line is shut around Southampton on Sunday so it is a bus replacement from Bournemouth to Eastleigh which is not very appealing. I don't think there's any route to avoid this is there.

Not easily, sorry. It looks as though you could use a train between Bournemouth and New Milton, but that won't cut the bus journey much if at all

 

[Joe Paxton]

I see that the line is shut around Southampton on Sunday so it is a bus replacement from Bournemouth to Eastleigh which is not very appealing. I don't think there's any route to avoid this is there.

For what it's worth I think the rail replacement between Bournemouth and Southampton / Eastleigh is normally quite a slick operation.

The SWR engineering works info does confirm there will be fast buses from Eastleigh to Bournemouth (with one stop at Southampton Airport Parkway). This is almost all on fast, dual carriageway roads (M3, A31, A338).

 

[swt_passenger]

For what it's worth I think the rail replacement between Bournemouth and Southampton / Eastleigh is normally quite a slick operation.

The SWR engineering works info does confirm there will be fast buses from Eastleigh to Bournemouth (with one stop at Southampton Airport Parkway). This is almost all on fast, dual carriageway roads (M3, A31, A338).

The road journey is well organised, IIRC the reason they don’t have all the connections at Parkway, (which is much nearer the M27), is because they have to use pilotman working between Eastleigh and Parkway using the up line only, so there’s only minimal track capacity. Hence XC normally only run as far as Eastleigh during this type of routine closure.

 

[Thames99]

Thanks everyone.

 

[paul1609]

For what it's worth I think the rail replacement between Bournemouth and Southampton / Eastleigh is normally quite a slick operation.

The SWR engineering works info does confirm there will be fast buses from Eastleigh to Bournemouth (with one stop at Southampton Airport Parkway). This is almost all on fast, dual carriageway roads (M3, A31, A338).

The fastest route from Bournemouth to Eastleigh Station is via Junction 5 of the M27 past Southampton Airport Parkway. I doubt the buses will go on the M3.

 

[miklcct]

Advances are only sold as singles.

SWR has semi-flex tickets between Basingstoke and Bournemouth, which acts as an advance outward and a flexible ticket return. However, it does limit you to use SWR trains only.

You can buy a simple return between Reading - Basingstoke, and an SWR semi-flex between Basingstoke and Bournemouth, if you intend to travel on fixed trains for your outward journey but not for your return journey. However, you will not be able to travel on a direct train in this case because direct trains are operated by CrossCountry.