Jim32
New Member
Hi all,
I did search for this topic before joining up and posting, I couldn't find a general solution to this and can't figure it out for myself so far...What does "Not valid on trains timed to depart" actually mean? I have a ticket, say, code UE, that states, amongst other things: "Not valid on trains timed to depart London Waterloo 16:00-19:00"
I don't get on the train at Waterloo, but I do get on a train at Woking that did depart Waterloo.
Now, I have been interpreting the phrase to apply to the entire journey of such a train, i.e. if it WAS timed to depart Waterloo in the time window stated, it is out of bounds for me.
However I had a chat with a guy in a ticket booth and then followed up on the phone with SWR, and I'm being told this is an incorrect interpretation, but I'm struggling to read it any other way so I'm rather concerned the people I spoke to are simply wrong.
Effectively the description of the restriction I've been given is "Not valid to join a train at Waterloo timed to depart 16:00-19:00". I.e. it only applies AT Waterloo. However, the wording doesn't say that, it seems to say a different thing.
The only way I can make the verbal description from the staff concur with the online written restriction is by doing some linguistic gymnastics along the lines of: Once the train has departed waterloo, it is no longer timed to depart waterloo. i.e. the restriction is only forward-looking in time.
The chosen wording is terrible at getting this point across though, and I doubt revenue protection are fans of linguistic gymnastics, so what do others make of it?
Cheers
I did search for this topic before joining up and posting, I couldn't find a general solution to this and can't figure it out for myself so far...What does "Not valid on trains timed to depart" actually mean? I have a ticket, say, code UE, that states, amongst other things: "Not valid on trains timed to depart London Waterloo 16:00-19:00"
I don't get on the train at Waterloo, but I do get on a train at Woking that did depart Waterloo.
Now, I have been interpreting the phrase to apply to the entire journey of such a train, i.e. if it WAS timed to depart Waterloo in the time window stated, it is out of bounds for me.
However I had a chat with a guy in a ticket booth and then followed up on the phone with SWR, and I'm being told this is an incorrect interpretation, but I'm struggling to read it any other way so I'm rather concerned the people I spoke to are simply wrong.
Effectively the description of the restriction I've been given is "Not valid to join a train at Waterloo timed to depart 16:00-19:00". I.e. it only applies AT Waterloo. However, the wording doesn't say that, it seems to say a different thing.
The only way I can make the verbal description from the staff concur with the online written restriction is by doing some linguistic gymnastics along the lines of: Once the train has departed waterloo, it is no longer timed to depart waterloo. i.e. the restriction is only forward-looking in time.
The chosen wording is terrible at getting this point across though, and I doubt revenue protection are fans of linguistic gymnastics, so what do others make of it?
Cheers