Season ticket valid route query (Manchester -> Maghull)

[pauldavies83]

Hi

My annual season ticket is from Manchester Stations -> Maghull, and the route I usually take to work is either via Liverpool Lime Street or Liverpool South Parkway.

I was wondering, if it is valid for me to travel on Merseyrail via Sandhills/Southport, and catch the Southport -> Stalybridge service (for no other reason that I could then visit Southport without buying another ticket, given the ridiculous situation with Merseyrail single tickets to Southport being more expensive than "day savers").

Thanks in advance

Paul

 

[cuccir]

No, I don't think so. It's not valid Sandhills-Southport. On the Southport-Stalybridge train, your ticket is valid east of Burscough Bridge only, so you could use your ticket on this train in combination with a Burscough Bridge-Southport ticket (note that as you hold a season ticket, the train would not need to stop in Burscough Bridge).

Your ticket is valid from Manchester along any permitted routes to the routeing points for Maghull - these are Wigan, Preston or Liverpool. From each of these, it's then valid on the shortest route to Maghull.

Trainscanbecheaper.info offers quite a nice summary of permitted routes between stations. From there:

Permitted routes from MANCHESTER PIC to MAGHULL route ANY PERMITTED
MANCHESTER PIC is part of the Manchester Group.
MAGHULL is associated with these routeing points: Liverpool Group, PRESTON LANCS, Wigan Group.
The following are ALWAYS Permitted routes:

Any direct trains advertised from MANCHESTER PIC to MAGHULL in the current timetable

The shortest route with a regular train service, not including walks and transfers (39.56 miles): Show route in detail
MANCHESTER PIC
Manchester Group
EARLESTOWN
HUYTON
Liverpool Group

The following are Permitted unless there is an easement preventing them:
Any route 42.56 miles or less (i.e. within 3 miles of the shortest route above).
Mapped routes from MANCHESTER PIC to Liverpool Group (analyse mapped routes)
PS
LY
ML
Mapped routes from MANCHESTER PIC to PRESTON LANCS (analyse mapped routes)
NW
Mapped routes from MANCHESTER PIC to Wigan Group (analyse mapped routes)
GM
Any additional route allowed by an easement.

The codes refer to mapped routes in the Routeing Guide. None of these maps show the Sandhills-Southport line, so your ticket is not valid on this line.

 

[soil]

You can switch as follows:

Southport - Manchester Stations

This is valid Southport - Manchester, Southport - Liverpool, Liverpool - Manchester, Burscough Junction - Preston, Wigan North Western - Leyland, and possibly Wigan North Western - Preston non-stop (though this is debatable) and Preston - Manchester, and any intermediate stations along these routes.

It is unfortunately not valid Sandhills - Burscough Junction, so not to Maghull.

AFAICT, the cheapest season valid for Maghull -Sandhills would be a 2-zone Merseyrail Railpass.

The total monthly cost would then be:

Southport - Manchester £225.50
Merseyrail 2 zone £62.10
=£287.60

compared with your current season cost
Maghull - Manchester
£268.80

 

[pauldavies83]

Great info, thanks guys.

@cuccir, you mention my ST is valid to Burscough. Does that mean I could walk from Burscough Bridge to Burscough Junction and then travel via Ormskirk to get to/from Maghull. (I'd assume so, given it seems my ticket is valid for MAN -> MAG via Preston, and BB is on the Preston -> MAG journey).

Thanks again!

 

[soil]

Your current season is valid:

Maghull - Liverpool
Liverpool - Manchester
Maghull - Ormskirk
Ormskirk - Preston
Preston - Manchester
Burscough Bridge - Manchester
Kirkdale - Kirkby
Kirkby - Manchester

and all intermediate stations along these routes

So yes it's valid Maghull - Ormskirk - Burscough Junction - walk to Burscough Bridge - Manchester Victoria.

 

[pauldavies83]

Thanks Soil, appreciate it!

 

[Gathursty]

Just in case the OP is unaware, the Ormskirk - Burscough Junction stretch is served every NINETY minutes on average. You may want to take a bike in case you miss the train to cover the short stretch to Burscough.