Great Western Coffee Shop

One of my problems coming back up to the Thames Valley on a Monday morning by an early train (05.30) is thats its ^100 single and I'm not prepared to pay this on a regular basis when I can travel at ^38.50 for an offpeak single on a Sunday Evening.

I've just realised that the last Gunnislake to Plymouth (18.39) misses the last Plymouth Newbury  (19.20) by 4 mins. Is this an opportunity as the FGW website gives an offpeak fair of ^38.50 to travel on the 18.39 with an overnight wait at Plymouth for the 05.30.

Whats the score could I book this and join the 05.30 on a monday morning ???

Yes but you would actually have to make the journey starting at Gunnislake and spending overnight at the station  !!

Do you know its almost worth it to go back to Gunnislake  and come back in the morning but I guess what you are saying is no its not ok to join at Plymouth.

Newbury is at the start of the expensive part of the journey to London (a bit like Didcot/Swindon when coming from Bristol & Wales) - so if you buy a ticket to somewhere just before Newbury it might be much cheaper!

Looking at Avantix...

Plymouth to Pewsey Anytime Single: ^58.50
Pewsey to Newbury Day Single: ^7.00
Total ^65.50.

I don't know whether your train stops at Pewsey; if not, there's a smaller saving with a split at Westbury. Save another 30p if you're leaving Pewsey after 9am.

Only had a quick look so I hope I've read the details correctly!

Do you have to sleep at the station or would you not be justified in "booking a hotel for the night"

Because unless it's advance break of journey is allowed

An interesting question for those who travel early on a Monday morning from Plymouth to Thames Valley could take advantage of the ^37.00 Off Peak Fare from St Budeaux which would require one to take an 11 minute train ride on a Sunday Evening before going home and taking the train from Plymouth on the Monday Morning and saving ^63.00. That is providing you don't have to stay on Plymouth Station overnight.

I can't see how they can force you to stay on Plymouth Station all night... It closes doesn't it...?! ???

When i've gone out to Bristol on a Friday Evening, I get to BRI for about 4:30 AM Saturday, Station does not open until 5AM IIRC... So surely you would be kicked out anyway...?!

As far as I understand the rules (health warning though: i'm both very tired and a little bit under the influence, so the following may be garbage), break of journey is fine with that ticket. So if you have a ticket dated for the day before your journey from PLY-PAD, it would be as if you had started out on the Sunday night and broken your journey at PLY overnight, were you to join that 0530 service at PYL on a Monday morning. E.g. if you wanted to travel back this Monday morning (27 Sep), you would want a ticket dated 26 Sep, then as I understand things you could quite easily have left Gunnislake on the Sunday eve and overnighted in Plymouth.

A break of journey is permitted and you would be able to continue the next day after having a comfy night in a hotel  ;), but I think you'll find that the ticket restrictions the following day still apply.

Out of curiosity I just tried booking the same journey for next week and it allows seat reservations on the 0530!

on an off peak!

And the itinerary prints out that train as being the suitable connection

Number 16 of the NRCoC statesSo presumably in these circumstances, the first train of the day is acceptable, regardless of the time restrictions.

Can anyone clarify?

From the manual...
Break of Journey

Break of journey is allowed on the outward portion of Super Off-Peak tickets unless otherwise indicated by a restriction shown against the ticket^s validity code, and in all cases on the return portion of Super Off-Peak return tickets.

Super Off-Peak Singles and the outward portion of Super Off-Peak Returns are valid for travel on the date shown on the ticket. Where a passenger wishes to stop overnight or the journey cannot be completed within one day, break of journey for an overnight stay is allowed. Where a journey does continue into the next day, travel must resume before 1200 and any relevant time restrictions apply. No further break of journey is allowed except for the purpose of changing trains. Please note that break of journey is not permitted on some journeys, as detailed in the ticket restrictions.

Return portions of Super Off-Peak Return tickets are valid for travel until 0230 on the day following the last day of validity (i.e. one calendar month from outward journey). If a passenger is still travelling at 0230, they may stay on the train to complete that part of the journey but no further break of journey is allowed and all travel must be completed by 1200.

Note: Cross London transfers will only be accepted by London Underground on the date shown on the ticket (or last day of validity for Super Off-Peak Returns) and until 0429 the following day.


The bold italics are my emphasis...

From the restrictions for GSL-NBY for a Super Off-Peak Single as detailed in NFM07:

               

So the question now is..
Does anybody know what takes priority.. the manual or NFM??

I've said it before...... where there is ambiguity in terms and conditions, the interpretation more favourable to the comsumer prevails. As covered by The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2083/regulation/7/made).

I would actually say that the NRCoC take precedence as there is a clause somewhere that states that a passenger must not be given less favourable treatment [I would say tickets come into this] where the NRCoC gives them additional or better rights. Another example of this is the PF scheme.

This is the term in question....


'unbroken' - in these circumstances?....no, sorry. An overnight in PLY would be reasonably considered a break in journey.

So, this applies.....

(my emphasis)

I think you could reasonably be kicked off the 0530 & told to wait.

BUT


Personally, this over-rides everything. A successfully completed sale & issue of tickets forms a legally-binding contract for travel. I would argue (to court if necessary) if challenged and / or PF'd. But I think FGW Customer SErvices would give in.

And send you some greenies as well.

To add to the confusion here, my two cents' worth is that I would consider that they journey was unbroken - hypothetically you would have arrived at Plymouth the night before and are connecting onto the next available service. OK so it doesn't leave for a few hours, but the fact that you can book that journey as a through itinerary, and you are connecting directly into the next available service says to me that it's unbroken. In which case you're positively obliged to get on the 0530 the next day...!

If nothing else this would appear to be enough of a grey area, with different rules apparently contradicting each other, that you could make a strong caes for using the 0530. If anyone's a RAIL reader and really cares, you could always drop Barry Doe an email (his contact details are given in the magazine) - he has an encyclopaedia knowledge of the system and situations like this. In fact, I recall having read a few columns in the past where he explicitly states that an overnight stop in order to make the first connection in the next morning when travel can't be completed in one day is not considered a break of journey...

Yes I would agree you could do that but as the OP does say he does not live in Gunnislake so he wont really be making the journey. 

Fair point - as I understand it, starting the journey short  of the origin on the ticket is treated as if it were a break of journey, so I agree that it wouldn't be correct to try and board at PLY in the morning without having travelled from Gunnislake the previous night.

But OP did say that a trip to Gunnislake and starting the journey from there would almost be worth it for the saving, so if he really was prepared to do that then it would, I think, be entirely kosher.

As from this weekend onwards Plymouth is my nearest station which was why I mentioned the idea of travelling from St Budeaux. But for the last few months have been frequent traveller from Gunnislake. Am tempted to try it sometime in the next couple of months to see what happens.

But But but

The TM/RPI or whoever on the 0530 next morning will have no bloody idea whether he started at gunnislake or plymouth

ok, the ticket won't be gripped/checked etc but er - thats not exactly unusual is it?

Believe me if you have spent the night on the platform I can tell.  Crumpled clothes bloodshot eyes etc  ;D

But we earlier established that a hotel was allowed if travelling from gunnislake - so no blood shot eyes or rumpled clothes

Thats what I normally look like ;)

Also the ticket from Gunni would be stamped or clipped.

100% guaranteed?

More than likely

probably 95% on the Gunni, most guards always do their tickets on that line as most of locals report guards that don't do tickets!

....then the OP just needs to 'travel' from St Budeaux Ferry Road. Exactly the same ticket conditions for his Sun/Mon journey to Newbury apply from there.