Stoke on Trent to Portsmouth

[dysonsphere]

Nearly had to travel at very short notice on that route and was horrified to be quoted for an anytime return of £333. I don't need to travel now I'm pleased to say, the question is this in the right order of magnitude. (I had very little time to check prices)

 

[John @ home]

is this in the right order of magnitude.

All Stoke-on-Trent - Portsmouth Stns ticket prices are here.

Flexible Standard Return options are:
Anytime Return route + via London £333.00
Anytime Return route Not via London £192.00
Off-Peak Return route Not via London £91.30
(Mon-Fri: Not before 0930)
Off-Peak Return route + London £88.60
(Mon-Fri: Outward - arr Euston before 0720 or after 1129; Return - dep Euston before 0430, 0926-1500 or after 1844)

 

[dysonsphere]

Thx for the info

 

[soil]

Note that a Stoke - London Anytime Return is already £256, but you can do it for only £28 on London Midland (slower than Virgin), super off peak, and a little more again to reach Portsmouth, depending again on time of day and train company (South West trains (Waterloo) is faster + more expensive than Southern (Victoria).

Virgin's off peak fares are reasonable, but their anytime returns are essentially priced like full-fare airline tickets, so expensive that you'd only buy them if they were being expensed.

 

[jkdd77]

For future reference, if the OP absolutely must travel at peak time, and can avoid London altogether, then there is a £101.30 'not London' SVR ticket from a station further north, that is valid for travel via Stoke at or after 0415, and permits BoJ in both directions.

Alternatively, if returning off-peak via London, it would be possible to buy (from certain websites only) a 'not London' SVH at £50.65 and a 'rte London' SVH for the return leg at £54.15, both of which permit BoJ.

However, the LM + Southern combination would probably be cheaper when using advance tickets purchased well in advance.

 

[bb21]

Alternatively, if returning off-peak via London, it would be possible to buy (from certain websites only) a 'not London' SVH at £50.65 and a 'rte London' SVH for the return leg at £54.15, both of which permit BoJ.

How do you buy these two tickets?

 

[jkdd77]

Where a choice of routeing is available for SVRs for a flow, and both are priced by Virgin, then the Virgin website, and one or two other websites, seem to be happy to sell two SVHs with different routeings for each leg when purchased at the same time, thus obviating the need to find a staff member willing and able to sell excess fares.

There have been cases on the forum where passengers have run into trouble when attempting to excess a fare after boarding, especially when travelling via London on a 'not London' SVR.

That said, excessing the return leg for travel via London would actually be a slightly better option, since the return portion would be valid for a month rather than a day as would be the case with a SVH.

I generally try not to go into too much detail about 'loopholes' on the open forum, but one SVR/H, from a station north of Stoke (and valid via Stoke) for travel to Portsmouth, has restriction code 2T and the other, for travel via London, has restriction code 2C.

If needing to return via London during the evening peak, then it would be possible to buy a slightly more expensive 'not London' 2T SVR from an even more northerly station to Portsmouth, excess the return leg (only) to a 3A SVR, and stop short at Stoke.