Great Western Coffee Shop

A fare advice request I have received, from someone who lives in Melksham and will be working in Swindon, overnight, 4 nights on and 4 nights off.

"Simply" done, I don't think it can be 4 return tickets from Melksham like the sort I would suggest for day rather than night shifts.

Options:

1. Single tickets

2. Single ticket to Swindon, first shift. 3 x returns (off peak?) Swindon to Melksham, and a single ticket home on the morning after the final shift

3. 7 day season ticket (and that be bought at Melksham) for each 8 day session

4. Monthly season?

5. Are flexiseasons any use here?

6. Any other bright ideas?

I would appreciate if someone can pick up / detail this for me / advise - I am currently bobbing about on the Gulf of Mexico with limited research tools here!

Flexi-seasons could be used, but if the mid-4-day-shift journeys are off-peak, you would need to work out the difference in total fares between your suggestion number 1 & the flexi-season cost. But they're 8 days in 28, but they can be used 4 consecutive days x2 = 8 joneys - covers 2 turns of 8 days quite well.

Ah - are they valid 24 hours at a time or 8 single journeys each way then, rather than 8 calendared days?

Good point, sorry.

I beiieve they are single journeys, however, usung an outward may well mean using the return same day. Anyone know for sure?

tap in and out at each end, job done. :D

Starting to answer my own question .... my recommendation:

First evening - off peak single to Swindon - £8.70
After work next morning - off peak return Swindon to Melksham  - £8.80
Two more round trips in the same way - £8.80 + £8.80
Last morning - off peak single back to Melksham - £8.70
Total Fare - £43.80 per 4 day "working week"

Melksham to Swindon - anytime single £10.00, anytime day return £11.90
Melksham to Swindon - off pealk single £8.70, off peak day return £8.80
(Off peak fares are valid from 09:29 from Melksham and from 08:44 from Swindon)

Alternative if ever occasional extra trips needed OR to save a lot of hassler
7 day season ticket (one needed for each 4 day "week") - £49.30

Another alternative:
Monthly season ticket - £189.40

Flexiseason - £87.20
Unlimited travel is permitted on 8 days within: Validity: 28 DAYS (28 days)
Would cover a week and a half each.  Not the right product

Works for me!

Not on that route, it won't! (not available)

I have "liked" that - not because I like the none-availability of the simplifying system but rather to confirm the lack of that sensible solution on our route.   I wonder when it will be introduced?

Further feedback - that awful gap from 06:11 to 08:44 of. train back from Swindon (and worse on a Sunday) is really off-putting to someone who finishes work and can be at Swindon Station at about 7 a.m. ... Logic suggests a train up calling at Melksham at about 06:15, returning with a call at Melksham at 07:40 as the start of a proper hourly service through the day.    Now - should that be run / specified by GWR, Goop, DfT, TransWilts, GBR, WC, WECA ... a very real useful service, and from May there is a southbound path for a Melksham call at 07:40 with the 07:53 moving to 08:02.

There's another campaign. Make touch in/out universal. Makes my life a lot easier (Taplow-Bond Street) and no reason why it shouldn't be the same throughout the land........then again........ooooooooo's gonna pay for it?

And you'd need to zone the entire country to make it work. Fares reform has to come first.

.......is that a Unicorn I see?

Oink, Oink, flap, flap, plummet!

Why? The Dutch have have had contactless tap in/out nationwide for years, based on point-point fares. Originally it was based on the OV-chipkaart (https://www.ov-chipkaart.nl/en/checking-in-and-out), but it's just been extended to work with bank cards and mobiles. True, the NS network is not that much bigger (geographically) than the network Card area.

But fares reform would still be needed first.

Because the system has to reserve a maximum amount on your account on tap-in, and then only confirms payment on tap-out.

That maximum could be a lot of money depending on how far the scheme covers

The entry charge doesn't need to be more than the highest fare; that's a choice. Returning to the NS scheme, their "boarding fare" is €20 but Maastricht-Groningen (almost as far as you can go) is €30.94 2nd, €52.53 1st. Having a much higher highest fare would be difficult to cope with, so something (what I euphemistically termed "fares reform") might be thought necessary to get that down.

Being able to get on a train having paid for only part of the journey is not unprecedented - there's lots of ways you can do that now. The only new factor I can think of is that, when your "ticket" is checked, your destination is whatever you say it is at the time. But no doubt things like this can be coped with, by suitable system design.