Sevenoaks - Strood Permitted Routes

[jnjkerbin]

In the last few years, I have several times traveled from Sevenoaks to Strood using an Off-Peak Day Return routed 'Not Via London'. In each case I normally catch a service to Tonbridge and then pick up the direct service via the Medway Valley to Strood. I don't think I've ever actually put this journey through a journey planner and had always assumed this was a permitted route.

However, I wanted to check if there were any changes after the new timetable comes in and was surprised to find that no website would offer that as an itinerary, instead sending you via Swanley and Rochester. Having now taken a look at the routing guide it appears that the Medway Valley route is actually not a permitted route (at least I think it isn't - if someone with more experience could confirm I would appreciate it). The journey time via Tonbridge is 1h 6m compared to 1h 10m via Swanley heading outbound and 1h 8m compared to 1h 26m on the return.

Could someone please confirm whether my reading of the routing guide is correct, and if so whether there are any other cases where the quickest route between two stations is not a permitted route (there are no alternative tickets that have a different routing that allow travel via Tonbridge). If this is the case, is this worth taking up with Southeastern?

 

[Romilly]

I think your reading is correct. The permitted routes for a Sevenoaks-Strood ticket are found on Map FO or FS in the routeing guide: either Sevenoaks-Otford-Swanley-Rochester-Strood or Sevenoaks-Orpington-Bickley/Bromley South- Rochester-Strood.

However, a Sevenoaks-Cuxton ticket is valid via Tonbridge (and is the same price as Sevenoaks-Strood) but would need to be combined with a Cuxton-Strood ticket. new.trainsplit.com suggests the cheapest combination is a Sevenoaks-Halling return plus a Halling-Strood return although you would need to split at Maidstone West, or Snodland, if you wanted to use the High Speed trains for the Strood-Maidstone portion of the return journey as they do not call at Halling (on the outward portion, those trains run before offpeak tickets are valid for this this journey).

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Both Sevenoaks and Strood (Kent) are Routeing Points. The only mapped routes are those traceable along maps FO, or FS. This necessitates travel via Swanley or Bromley South, respectively.

Someone at Southeastern will probably be reading this thread, but I would only bother reporting it officially if there are no anomalies that would be caused or removed by the reporting of this.

There are plenty of reasonable and/or quickest routes which are not permitted routes. Most of these are because, if they were permitted routes, they would allow an anomaly in relation to starting late or stopping short.

 

[Romilly]

The route via Otford, Swanley & Rochester is the shortest, and is about 7.75 miles shorter than the route via Tonbridge & Maidstone West. So there's no possiblity of arguing that the Medway Valley route is allowed because it is within 3 miles of the shortest route.

 

[jnjkerbin]

It seems utterly bonkers to me that a passenger is not allowed to take the shortest journey (in terms of time). No normal passenger cares about shortest routes, the 3 mile rule or about anomalies having a sensible system would create. If they offered a Sevenoaks - Strood ticket routed via Maidstone and to charge a premium for it to discourage stopping/starting short then fine, whatever, but to disadvantage ordinary passengers for these ridiculous reasons is crazy.

 

[yorkie]

In the last few years, I have several times traveled from Sevenoaks to Strood using an Off-Peak Day Return routed 'Not Via London'. In each case I normally catch a service to Tonbridge and then pick up the direct service via the Medway Valley to Strood. I don't think I've ever actually put this journey through a journey planner and had always assumed this was a permitted route.

I concur with others that this is not traceable as a mapped route.

It's 34 miles and the shortest route is 26.87 miles, so not valid under the shortest route rule either.

RDG claim that passengers wish to travel by the shortest route (unless through trains are available, which there aren't in this case) however most passengers actually wish to travel via the fastest route.

But they can't admit that, as to do so would be to admit they are not giving passengers what they want