Reading to Eastbourne validities

[tony_mac]

The journey is Reading to Eastbourne via Gatwick, leaving on Friday on the 16:34 .

None of the websites (Nationalrail, trainline, eastcoast, northern) say the off-peak return is valid, either for the Any Permitted or the (required) 'Not London' ticket.

As far as I can see they both have restriction 5k - and these should not be restricted in the evening at all (other than the FGW evening 'HST' restrictions out of Paddington and Reading, which are irrelevant here).

It looks the same for the 18:34 and 19:34, but not the 20:34 or 15:28.
Have I missed something, or have they all got it wrong?

 

[island]

I agree with you. I can't see any reason why those tickets would not be valid in the evening.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I have strong reason to believe (having got hold of certain information recently) that there is an ugly hack used in many of the booking engines, whereby *all* trains leaving Reading and Paddington at certain times in the evening peak (corresponding to the departure times of the long-distance HST services) are barred. All these barred time windows are two minutes long, again presumably due to limitations in various computer systems.

I think the trains departing Reading to Gatwick at 16:34 and 18:34 are clashing with the trains to Penzance departing at 16:33 and 18:33 respectively (the barred windows are 1633-1634 and 1833-1834). Is there a corresponding service at 17:34 that is being allowed? If so, that would make sense, because the Penzance service that hour is timed to leave a minute earlier at 17:32, and the corresponding barred window that hour is 1732-1733.

 

[tony_mac]

Is there a corresponding service at 17:34 that is being allowed?

There is indeed.
Thanks for the analysis!