Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi all - I'm looking for those gurus/commuters that know a thing or two about living near/around Stroud/Minchinhampton and commuting to London.

I a looking to be in London 3 days a week, I would need to get there before 9am (preferably 08:30 latest) and would want to be catching a train back from Paddington around 17:30 onwards.

I have looked at Kemble or Stroud being a possible station to leave from (Kemble 20 mins drive away) and have considered the 06:43 from there with a 17:43 coming home.

My days can vary about, for example I may find that one week I can do 2 days in London, the next 4 days, or even change mid week depending on what I need to do.

For now though, considering 3 days a week and potentially 06:43 train from Kemble and 17:43(or thereabouts) from Paddington what is the cheapest way to do this ticket-wise?

I'm considering ticket splitting, booking ahead (where I can) and even a season ticket if it works out that much cheaper.

Help?!?!  It's a minefield and I'd appreciate some expert advice  ;D

Hi Dubbs and welcome.

06:43 from Kemble with a split at Didcot is, I believe, a popular choice. Parking at Kemble is OK at that time of day too. If you're not worried about the split ticket, it's normally possible to scoot across to the 06:58 on platform 3 at Swindon meaning you can cut out Didcot as a stop.

17:42 from PAD is a good train home as it skips Reading so is slightly less busy than some of the rush-hour departures.

I'm not the expert on ticket splits - I'll leave that to the others.

You don't perchance own a D4, do you...  ;)

A day return from Kemble to London costs 139.00 (peak) and, incredibly, a weekly season is just 247.40 ... if you could do Wednesday to Friday one week, then Monday and Tuesday the next ...

Welcome to the forum ... I too will leave it for others to comment on the splitting ...

Couldn't resist ...

For a train that calls at Didcot both ways - ^103.20, or if you want to be able to use the ones that don't stop at Didcot - ^104.90.   Subject to verification by others here as that's just my reading of it and I'm not trained on these things.    Single Kemble to Didcot (peak) and back (super off-peak Didcot to Kemble is only restricted in the morning peak).  Then a Didcot to Paddington return.  For a very little more, you can get a week's season from Didcot to Cholsey and a Cholsey to Paddington day return, and because we're playing the ATOC / National Rail version of Mornington Crescent you can invoke NCoC 18c and use a train that doesn't call at Didcot of Cholsey.

I just might.... Unless I cut you up and you're looking for blood in which case it was the wife!!!  ;D. What made you ask?

So a split at Didcot and a potential further split at cholsey.  Then I guess look to buy as soon in advance as possible?

Think I'll have to put a spreadsheet together with lots of options to try and work it out...

I was told to watch for where the break points are for weekly and monthly as it may end up being cheaper to get a monthly even if I only use it for three days a week.. Shame they can't let people share a ticket as a seat paid is a seat paid  :(

You have a PM on that other forum  ;D

Cholsey is really only practical if you have a season ticket in the "combo" - otherwise you'll have to change to a Turbo stopper at Didcot.  There are 3 options for splitting - (a) using a service calling at the split station and (c) one ticket being a season and the other(s) not, and passing through are two of them.  Bit of an "oddball" is (c) - real intent is to let people who have (say) a Maidenhead to London season so out to Reading for a party one night direct from work using a fast train.


At three days a week, annual season ticket from Kemble to London is going to be very much the lowest cost option  Say 45 weeks, annual ticket ^8792, is ^32.57 per single journey - and it will save you a whole load of booking hassle ... think what your time is worth for all the work of doing individual tickets sets.     Rises to ^41.24 per single journey if you buy weekly for three round trips, still cheaper that 3 sets of splits!

You mention sharing a season ticket ... there ARE a few places where you can buy a transferrable carnet or book of business tickets, but not in the area you're talking about.   

The season ticket from Kemble to London is actually a bargain when compared to walk up peak fares (most passengers would suggest that the walk up fare is too high rather than the season too low, mind you!).  And this leads to some horrid anomalies.   If I'm doing a 10 day course in London, Monday to Friday daytime of 2 weeks in succession, my fare from Kemble is a total of ^494.80 but if the same course is one day a week for 10 weeks, my fare comes out to at least ^1032 if I split, and ^1390 if I buy walkups.

I would be amazed if advance tickets improved on the season ticket rate for you if you're travelling multiple days, and it would only take one or two changes of work schedule for you to end up paying more than you would for a season, having restricted yourself severely.

Thanks for the advice, that helps a lot.

Thinking that I need to look in to weekly/monthly/annual comparisons and go from there then... Majority of potential clients are in London but I'm going to be looking towards Bristol/Swindon/etc., so will take that in to account and check how flexible the annual.

Is best place for that simply to use GWR website?

Thanks again for the help, invaluable!!!

I'm considering monthly rather than annual, will GWR website be cheapest and would I still get splits I.e, Kemble to Didcot monthly and Didcot to pad monthly?

Also when I travelled the other day I noticed lots of reserved seats, how do I do that?

Thanks  :)

Hi Dubbs

Can still do the Didcot split, subject to the condition mentioned previously (train needs to stop).

For reservations, once you have your season ticket, you can email your ticket and journey details to forward@firstgroup.com and a bulk reservation will be made for you. Can only do one journey in each direction. So, you would need to be sure of what trains travelling on. Although naturally, seasons flexible, so if you get different train, just wouldn't have a reservation for it.

If you don't want to reserve in bulk, a ticket office can do one off reservations, or you can DM us on Twitter and we will be happy to sort it (just include photo of your season ticket).  www.twitter.com/gwrhelp

Hope that helps :)

Monthlies cost the same wherever you buy them. I'm not sure they are available online for that route, so from ticket offices with a photocard.

You'll need to review whether the joint cost of those tickets are cheaper than one for the whole trip - and realise & consider your suggested split would require you to only use those trains that stop at Didcot. Any fast trains non-stopping at Didcot would not be available to you on a split, now or in any new timetable

Reservations for seasons can be got by calling Customer Services I think -or was it by email? Someone else will be able to confirm, Ollie?

I sure others will confirm but I think I am right in saying that this does not apply as at least one of the tickets is a season.

It's only if one of the tickets is a season and the other(s) are not that the "train must stop rule" isn't applicable.  The suggestion here was two seasons.

Seen as a season extension ticket for it not to require a stop at the intermediate station, so Graham is right

Thanks for the info guys, I will look into this further and am now well armed with info to make a decision.

Ollie thanks for the advice on reserving seats as well.

So there is a further option -

If you buy a ticket from Kemble to Cholsey and make use of an easement in the routing guide that allows you to travel via Reading....... Thus you would need just need a reading to london season.

This is as cheap as splitting at both did and cho but due to easment no need to change trains at Didcot nor any need for the train to stop at Cholsey.

Hope that helps

I do not believe that would be kosher as your whole journey has a ticketing gap. And I don't mean discovery - I mean intent - when your whole journey is examined.

Where's the gap? Kemble to Cholsey is valid via Reading. Then Season from Reading to London.

Welcome to the forum, Oxviem.   But I'm afraid I'm not sure the easement applies - it's this one:


It clearly states "from Cholsey" (and by reverse means "to Cholsey too) but may not - to my reading - allow partial journeys on the double back.  Whilst break of journey is allowed on regular conditions / most tickets, an easement is an extension to the regular conditions and it might be argued that it doesn't allow intermediate stations.

There's no break of journey here. Passengers may use two or more tickets for one journey as long as together they cover the entire journey and the train you are in calls at a station where you change from one ticket to another, or one of the tickets is a Season Ticket and the other ticket(s) is/are not.

My opinion is the entire journey would be covered by Kemble-Cholsey and Reading-London Seasons, provided the train one is on calls at Reading (so no catching the 0758 off Swindon or the 1742 off Paddington) whilst the easement quoted remains in place. 

However, one has to be confident and assertive should the train operator and/or it's front line staff say otherwise. And an eye needs to be kept on the Routeing Guide Easements as they change with alarmingly regularity without any notification to the travelling public.

Easy, but more expensive, life is to split the tickets at Didcot Parkway and use services that call there.

I remain unconvinced that the passenger is travelling from (or to) Cholsey ... so I remain unconvinced that the easement applies. I am also unconvinced by my own answer, or by bignosemac's answer which also has good logic behind it. Each answer looks sensible, but they reach different conclusions. You would need to be very brave to use this split on a demonstrably regular basis, unless you had prior official clarification that it was a valid use.

Agreed - while break of journey is permitted between A & B, I see nowhere to permit it at a station only reached by easement, and by continuing East from Reading, no intent to journey to Cholsey either. Thus easement could well be argued that it doesn't apply unless you continue to Cholsey.

I think you'd lose that one

There were two threads about similar issues on RailUK Forums (where the real fares geeks hang out!) a couple of years ago, and in both cases there was no consensus on whether it was technically legit. There was, however, a consensus that you might have issues with staff!

I agree with Grahame that "you would need to be very brave" to tackle this one. I also suspect that widespread use of the loophole would lead to the easement being withdrawn entirely.

Not sure whether Bignosemac should take that as a compliment or not!

Hmmm.  ::)

I have doubts like that about some of the tripe that I post on the Coffee Shop forum sometimes.  ;) :D ;D

So armed with the latest advice I've found the following pricing:

GWR Website

Kemble to Didcot Return ^62
Didcot to Padd Return ^60.60
Daily return = ^122.60

Kemble to Swindon Return ^26.80
Swindon to Padd Return ^125
Daily Return = ^151.80

Kemble to Didcot single ^31
Didcot to Padd Single ^30.60
Padd to Didcot Single ^30.60
Didcot to Kemble Single ^11.60
Daily Return = 61.60+42.20=^103.80

Kemble - Padd directs:
Weekly Season ^247.40
Monthly Season ^844.10
Annual ^8792

Kem-Did Weekly ^80.80
Did-Padd Weekly ^123.70
Weekly Season = ^204.50


Has anyone found anything cheaper or know of a cheaper way of doing it?  This is on the GWR website.

Cholsey sounds a stretch to far so won't try that option.

Only 60p cheaper ...

Kemble to Didcot single ^31
Didcot to Padd Return ^60.60
Didcot to Kemble Single ^11.60
Daily Return =^103.20

So at 2 days a week the weekly option of Kem->Did, Did->Padd works out cheapest.

Which I guess will get cheaper as you go up the week-month-year options.

Bugger, I am sitting on the train having bought the Cholsey option as a weekly set and have just realised that sitting on this 1742 I'm in a bit of bother!!!!

When the inspector comes round what do I ask for to sort it out? A single from Padd to Didcot?

Can I take my ticket in to ticket office and get it changed and pay difference as am likely to be doing the 1742 several times this week!

Oh crikey. The specific train I warned against using earlier in the thread!

Didcot split is needed if using that train.

What split tickets are you currently holding?

There remains some doubt in my mind as to whether the easement is valid for stopping the route "short" or joining "late" at Reading as it states "passengers travelling from Cholsey" [and both directions] which you aren't. However, I'll work on the assumption that normal conditions extend to the easement, and if that assumption is correct you need to purchase before travelling on that train a single from Reading (where your season ticket PAD - RDG runs out) to DID, as under 18(c) where one ticket in a split is a season and the other(s) are not, you can use a train that doesn't call at the changeover station.

Having made a ticketing mistake and realising it, you should take steps to correct it as soon as possible.  If you seek out the train manager and approach him / her, you are showing intent to sort out the situation.   If you wait for a possible ticket check, that would point towards an attempt to travel fraudulently, and if such a check doesn't come and you carry on knowing you were wrong but not paying at all, that would in all likelihood be regarded as fraudulent travel.

I'd also suggest that if you present tickets to the TM which might suggest you were trying to sail very close to the wind as to what is allowed then you may get a less sympathetic reaction than someone who has made a genuine mistake.  Certainly in terms of whether they show any discretion.

Though I guess by now you'll be well past Didcot, so either got lucky or not.

In future could you catch the 1730 and change at Swindon?

My follow up there was "after the fact" - unless the train was very much delayed, and we don't know the outcome.  So offering immediate advise was a bit like shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted.  With regards further suggestions if you want to use that train again, I don't know what to say; personally I'm unconvinced in the first place even for trains that call at Reading, but perhaps (as you went ahead this way) you got an official confirmation that your ticket combo is valid?