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TfW Bridgend / Cardiff

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mittyb2

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Bridgend
Hi all, new member, long time lurker, but I’ve got a question that I can’t seem to sus! Wondering if anyone has the answer - I can’t seem to find it anywhere, but apologies if this has been asked before.

I live in Bridgend and work in Cardiff. In the morning, I catch the train at Sarn, and then travel to Ninian Park. The fare for an Anytime Day Return is £7.70. Any route is permitted. In the afternoon, I choose to walk to and board from Grangetown station due to the train times being better.

My question is:
Am I allowed to travel to/from Grangetown station if required, given that it is the exact same fare, and I have to change at Cardiff Central the same as from Ninian Park?

and further to that question- if I was to simply have a ticket from Cardiff Central to Bridgend, would I for instance be able to travel from, say Cogan all the way to Maesteg, with just a Cardiff-Bridgend ticket? (Again, the exact same price)

this may sound silly! But I’ve often thought; what would happen if I stayed on past Sarn, for example, and got off at Maesteg or something instead, would a guard make me get a new ticket, would I be committing an offence etc?

hope it makes sense anyway! looking forward to any input. Thanks.
 
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Starmill

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In theory travelling beyond the destination on your ticket would be an offence... however the reality is that its unlikely that it would be enforced in a place like Maesteg. I would still buy the tickets from the furthest point if you might want to travel thay way while the ticket remains valid, however.
 

Hadders

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Welcome to the forum.

Am I allowed to travel to/from Grangetown station if required, given that it is the exact same fare, and I have to change at Cardiff Central the same as from Ninian Park?
The important principle to remember is that it's the permitted routes that determine validity, not the price of the fare (although the fare at the time British Rail was privatized in 1996 does play a part in determining the permitted routes!)

If you have a Sarn to Ninian Park ticket you are allowed to travel via the vale of Glamorgan Line so you could start your return journey at Grangetown but you would have to travel to Bridgend via Llantwit Major, you couldn't travel via Cardiff, unless you were using a season ticket.

if I was to simply have a ticket from Cardiff Central to Bridgend, would I for instance be able to travel from, say Cogan all the way to Maesteg, with just a Cardiff-Bridgend ticket? (Again, the exact same price)
No you couldn't do this as your ticket is only valid on permitted routes between the stations printed on the ticket. Cogan and Maesteg aren't on permitted routes between Cardiff and Bridgend. There is nothing to prevent you purchasing a Cogan to Maesteg ticket and starting short of finishing short at Cardiff and/or Bridgend. Some tickets do prohibit starting and finishing short although there aren't any between Cogan and Maesteg.

But I’ve often thought; what would happen if I stayed on past Sarn, for example, and got off at Maesteg or something instead, would a guard make me get a new ticket, would I be committing an offence etc?
Your ticket expires once you reach the destination on your ticket. Travelling without a valid ticket is a criminal offence and you could be reported for prosecution. You might be offered a Penalty Fare or be asked to purchase a new ticket. It is possible to 'extend' by purchasing what is called an over-distance excess which you must do before you reach your destination, either from a ticket office before you start your journey or on-board (before reaching your destination). In this example there would be no fare payable but my experience is that excess fares are hard to get, especially if they are zero value ones. As I said earlier there is nothing to stop you buying a ticket and starting/finishing short.

The forum runs Fares Workshops where this sort of thing is often discussed. You might want to consider joining us at a future workshop:
 

Watershed

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Hi all, new member, long time lurker, but I’ve got a question that I can’t seem to sus! Wondering if anyone has the answer - I can’t seem to find it anywhere, but apologies if this has been asked before.

I live in Bridgend and work in Cardiff. In the morning, I catch the train at Sarn, and then travel to Ninian Park. The fare for an Anytime Day Return is £7.70. Any route is permitted. In the afternoon, I choose to walk to and board from Grangetown station due to the train times being better.

My question is:
Am I allowed to travel to/from Grangetown station if required, given that it is the exact same fare, and I have to change at Cardiff Central the same as from Ninian Park?

and further to that question- if I was to simply have a ticket from Cardiff Central to Bridgend, would I for instance be able to travel from, say Cogan all the way to Maesteg, with just a Cardiff-Bridgend ticket? (Again, the exact same price)

this may sound silly! But I’ve often thought; what would happen if I stayed on past Sarn, for example, and got off at Maesteg or something instead, would a guard make me get a new ticket, would I be committing an offence etc?

hope it makes sense anyway! looking forward to any input. Thanks.
Tickets in the Valleys are indeed effectively priced zonally - with most longer journeys hitting a 'cap' of £7.70 day return/£26.70 weekly. But unfortunately they aren't valid on a zonal basis.

Therefore you need to be very careful about the ticket(s) you buy, to make sure you don't become a victim of TfW's infamous revenue protection blocks.

They have on multiple occasions shown their willingness to prosecute people for "overtravelling" - even where there was no difference in the fare, and hence nothing "avoided" as such. There's absolutely no justification for it, but it's sadly the way they work.

Because of the aforesaid lack of zonal ticketing, a ticket from Sarn to Ninian Park is not valid for travel from/via Grangetown*.

A ticket from Sarn to Grangetown would arguably be valid via Ninian Park provided you travel via Pontyclun - this is because, despite the double back, it's within 3 miles of the shortest route. But I wouldn't like to have to argue this on a single/return ticket.

If you're travelling at least 3-4 days a week and are variously travelling from Ninian Park and Grangetown, a season ticket is probably your best bet, as this is valid for unlimited travel to/from any station en-route. In your case it's worthwhile getting one with the most validity possible for the price, e.g. Maesteg to Treherbert (or one of the other heads of the valleys, whichever one you're most likely to use).

Unfortunately the only zonal tickets in the area are Rangers and Rovers that become valid from 09:30/18:30 and are more expensive.

Zonal ticketing is definitely something TfW need to take a look at in conjunction with their Valleys upgrades. The network is geographically perfect for it.

*Unless you go out via Pontyclun one way and back via Llantwit Major, or vice versa. Of course, that could add quite a lot of time to your journey depending on the connections at Bridgend.
 

Envoy

Established Member
Joined
29 Aug 2014
Messages
2,453
It sure as hell would make life simpler if TfW could fix it so that any place within the City & County of Cardiff to/from outside would be the same price as that to/ from Cardiff Central. The outer limits on the local network would be Radyr, Lisvane, Bay & Grangetown. All this talk about an integrated network and Metro to get people off the roads yet they don’t make it easy/user friendly. Some fares from Cardiff’s suburbs are actually dearer if you don’t do a split at Cardiff Central whilst others - even with other companies such as GWR, are actually cheaper as a through ticket. I know of people are get driven from suburbs in Cardiff to the Central station because of the issues I have highlighted.

Another problem is that TfW are using Covid as an excuse to reduce train frequency on the City Line to hourly which virtually makes it useless for connections to most long distance trains. It was bad enough having it every 30 minutes - but that would also be only hourly in the evenings. I guess that since they scrapped the Pacers, that they don’t have enough trains.
 
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