Great Western Coffee Shop

I had bought a fare split from Stroud to London Paddington return as I was expecting to be travelling on a Didcot stopping service on the return.  For this I had paid:

Anytime single Stroud to Didcot £40.20
Anytime day return Didcot to London £64.60
Super off peak single Didcot to Stroud £14.10

Total spend £118.90.

On the way home I missed the train I was going to get and went for the Swansea 16:45 to change at Swindon. Knowing the Didcot switch to be invalid on this service I went to Paddington ticket office and said I was no longer travelling to Didcot and was now going through to Swindon on the 16:45 - he sold me a Didcot to Swindon super off peak single at £10.50

On the train the ticket inspector told me this was wrong and that I needed to pay for another ticket and was sold a Didcot to Swindon standard class for an additional £23.40

Total cost for return journey £149.80

That can’t be right can it? How do I complain or get some element of refund?

I don’t mind paying my way and I even get some of it paid by company but this just doesn’t sound right to me.

This looks like a remarkably unstraightforward case!

Rule 1 of split ticketing, as we all know, is that you need to take a train that actually stops at the splitting station and, if you haven't got one, the ticket you do have to cover that section of line is not valid. The snapper (sorry, RPO...) was therefore correct in charging you between the two stopping stations because you could not have boarded the train at Didcot with either your original ticket or your replacement.

On the face of it the ticket clerk at Paddington may have made an error if you told him/her you were intending to travel on the 1645 and also that this train didn't stop at Didcot. If you did not actually tell the clerk that the 1645 did not stop at Didcot I am not sure that it is reasonable to expect them to check to make sure that it did, because many trains do make both calls. The clerk was clearly looking at this as no more than a "this guy wants his Didcot single excessed to Swindon"

Booking clerks are only human like the rest of us. A few years ago I decided to use the old GWR Birmingham main line out of Paddington by travelling on the Chiltern "route knowledge retention" service due to leave, then, at 1120. I couldn't buy a single to Gerards Cross from the ticket machine at Paddington because the option didn't come up, so I went to the ticket office. Here the clerk told me that I needed to go to Marylebone, and 999 times out of 1000 she would have been right, When I pointed to the departure board behind her she issued the ticket :)

Raising the matter may be worth a try, but I wouldn't set your hopes too highly. 

I recon you needed an extra £17.50 7 day Didcot to Cholsey season ... you are allowed to split ticket without stopping if one of the tickets is a season and the other is not.   Note - subject to validation by the experts as there were some subtle rule changes when we went from NRCoC to NTCoT

Hmm ... Reading up on start and end stations, I suspect that combo would only have worked if you had started your day with a Cholsey to London anytime return which would have cost £47.70 rather than the £64.60 Didcot to London.

Where is BigNoseMac when you need him?

We need more information. Leaving aside the "season add-on" possibilities, the correct ticket in this case would be from the last station at which the train stopped before Didcot - so presumably Reading - to Swindon.

Here I am!

My reading(!) of the situation is that a ticket from Reading to Swindon would have been required to take a non-Didcot stopping train with the combination of tickets already held.

That would have cost £37.40 for the Anytime Single.

Both the clerk at Paddington and the TM onboard seemingly sold you invalid tickets. The total for those two tickets though is less than what should have been paid.

In effect, while staff made errors you haven't been overcharged as far as I can work out. Complain about the incorrect advice by all means, but I can't see that any refund is due.

A valid combination for your journey, presuming both outward and return are at peak times on the same day, would have been:

Stroud - Swindon Anytime Day Single £13.60
Swindon - Didcot Parkway Anytime Day Single £23.40
Didcot Parkway - Cholsey 7 Day Season* £17.50
Cholsey - Paddington Anytime Day Return £47.70
Didcot Parkway - Stroud Super Off Peak Single £14.10

Total £116.30


*With a Season Ticket in the split your chosen trains do not have to call at the split points on that Season. From the National Rail Conditions of Travel:


A photocard is required in conjunction with a Season Ticket.

E&OE.

Totally agree with that analysis. 

Noting the Didcot to Cholsey season ticket method ... a second trip in the same week is the £17.50 cheaper.  For 3 days or more, switch to a weekly season from Stroud to Paddington (switch for 2 days if you aren't going to go for the split ticketing stuff - this season is incredibly low in price when compared to an anytime return)