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Title: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Boppy on November 18, 2010, 14:46:03 Hi,
My wife is travelling up to London this evening from Reading. She wants to get a fast train but pay the cheapest fare. I know from past experience that you are only allowed to board certain trains from Reading to London Paddington with an Off-Peak ticket in the evening but trying to tell which ones whilst at the station has always confused me. The only way I have ever managed to figure this out is by checking the fares online - e.g. for this evening: (Single Fares quoted) 17:25 -> 17:59 Off-Peak ^14.90 17:32 -> 18:02 Anytime ^18.00 (Off-Peak not valid) 17:44 -> 18:14 Off-Peak ^15.50 17:52 -> 18:21 Off-Peak ^15.50 17:56 -> 18:24 Off-Peak ^14.90 18:02 -> 18:30 Off-Peak ^14.90 18:08 -> 18:39 Off-Peak ^14.90 18:12 -> 18:44 Anytime ^18.00 (Off-Peak not valid) 18:22 -> 18:54 Off-Peak ^14.90 So two questions: - Why is it that you can board some fast trains but not others with an Off-Peak ticket? Why are there just two trains listed above with such an exclusion? It is very hard to tell the difference at Reading with multiple trains for Paddington often arriving for within minutes of each other. - Why is there the slight difference between the Off-Peak fares? Thanks!!! Boppy. Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: IndustryInsider on November 18, 2010, 15:00:48 Didn't think there was any restrictions in the evening on a CDS (Off-Peak Day Single) from Reading to Paddington @ ^14.90.
Restriction 'P7' applies: OUTWARD TRAVEL: By any train scheduled to arrive London Terminals at or after 1000. Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Boppy on November 18, 2010, 15:21:51 I used to think the same until last year when I boarded one around 5.30ish I was told my ticket was valid - to be fair the TM did let me off as he understood that it was near impossible to tell at Reading about the exclusion but warned me to check next time.
A couple of friends of mine have also had this occurrence. I didn't believe it until I actually checked online as well and there do appear to be certain restrictions in the evening where Off-Peak tickets are not valid - as I say it's confusing. Boppy. Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: inspector_blakey on November 18, 2010, 15:45:45 Here's an except from restriction P7:
Quote RETURN TRAVEL: By any train except those listed in the table below: Ticket may NOT be used on the following services, Monday - Friday: From From Final Padd Rdg Destination 1600___1628___Bristol TM (BRI) 1606___1633___Penzance (PNZ) 1615___1642___Swansea (SWA) 1630___1659___Taunton (TAU) 1636___1704___Exeter St D(EXD) 1645___1712___Swansea (SWA) 1649___1721___Oxford (OXF) 1700___1727___Bristol TM (BRI) 1703___1732___Penzance (PNZ) 1715 1743___Swansea (SWA) 1722 1751 Hereford (HFD) 1730 1757 Taunton (TAU) 1736 1804 Paignton (PGN) 1745___1812___Carmarthen (CMN) 1748 1817 Cheltenham (CNM) 1750 1823 Worcester (WOS) 1800 1828 Bristol TM (BRI) 1803 1833 Penzance (PNZ) 1815 1843 Swansea (SWA) 1822 1852 Hereford (HFD) 1830 1857 Weston SM (WSM) 1833 1904 Exeter (EXD) FX 1833 1904 Plymouth(PLY) FO 1845 1912 Swansea (SWA) 1847 1919 Cheltenham (CNM) 1851 1924 Oxford (OXF) 1900 1929 Bristol TM (BRI) 1903 1934 Plymouth(PLY)_FX 1903 1934 Penzance(PNZ) FO 1915 1942 Swansea (SWA) In essence, you can use most of the slower ex-Thames Trains services with a few exceptions. Some of those run fast to Reading (or only call at Slough on the way) so you may well be able to get a fast train to Reading that then becomes a stopper later in its journey. Bit of a mess but I hope the above is helpful! Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Mookiemoo on November 18, 2010, 15:48:25 I think the issue is the peak time journey is INTO paddington not away from it
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: inspector_blakey on November 18, 2010, 15:48:45 Ooops, sorry, what a numpty, I've just given the time restrictions from trains from Paddington to Reading!
In my experience there's no issue with using an off-peak day ticket or travelcard to travel to Paddington in the afternoon, since you're going against the principal flow. The outward restriction P7 for reading to Paddington is as follows: Quote OUTWARD TRAVEL: By any train scheduled to arrive London Terminals or Kensington Olympia at or after 1000. The following exceptions apply: * Valid for travel from Marlow at or late then 0830. * Valid for travel from Bourne End, Cookham or Furze Platt at or later then 0840. * Valid for travel from all stations on the 0834 Reading to Gatwick Airport service. Quite why the 1732 and 1812 services show up as barred to off-peak day tickets is a bit of a mystery to me - there's no restriction in the fares manual to suggest they should be. One's an up Bristol service, the other an up Cardiff service, but there are plenty of other HST services from Oxford/Bristol/South Wales/the west country at around that time that are not shown as restricted. The best I can guess is some kind of bug in the system... I'll leave that list above there in case it's useful to someone - all those restrictions are from NFM07, so are valid currently. Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: JayMac on November 18, 2010, 20:47:52 A bit of a mystery indeed. I'd write to FGW and ask why these services are barred on online journey planners.
Anyone staff out there with access to 'The Manual' shed any light on this. Does it say different to Avantix Traveller NFM07? Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Ollie on November 19, 2010, 03:35:49 There are no restrictions in the evening from Reading towards London, I will flag it up.
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Boppy on November 19, 2010, 11:09:50 Thanks Ollie.
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Ollie on November 19, 2010, 12:56:57 I've had a response already, but I need to go to work, so will post it this evening when I get back :)
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Ollie on November 19, 2010, 23:10:39 To cut the reply short, it's a known problem.
It's to do with how the restrictions system work and the system can't just restrict eastbound or westbound so it restricts both. As it stands there is no fix. Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: IndustryInsider on November 20, 2010, 18:01:38 Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: inspector_blakey on November 20, 2010, 18:18:30 Really...? From what I can recall there were plenty of up high-speed services which were showing the off-peak day ticket as valid, just seemed to be a couple every hour that were erroneously restricted... If it was a systematic problem then I'd expect to see all up and down high-speed services in the blackout window restricted ???
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Ollie on November 20, 2010, 20:05:44 It's because they put a from and to time for the restriction, doesn't work based on direction for some reason
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: IainH on November 20, 2010, 21:33:24 I raised this with the trainline years ago and got the usual unsatisfactory reply. However, does it not mean that the train company is in breach of its obligation to sell the cheapest ticket for the journey, and therefore just saying there is no fix is indeed very unsatisfactory? The situation does seem to have improved - a year or so ago no off peak tickets showed at all on the afternoon window to Paddington - but looking for next monday, FGW web sales shows the 1725 is valid for offpeak, the 1732, 1744 and 1752 are not, and the 1756 is. So a ordinary person might reasonably conclude they have to buy a peak ticket (at well over double the fare) when they do not if they want to leave in that time window.
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: inspector_blakey on November 20, 2010, 21:50:12 I wonder if this is one to bring to the attention of Barry Doe at RAIL...? He almost certainly knows the appropriate heads to knock together, although it's anyone's guess whether he'd be able to get the problem solved since there seems to be a good deal of institutional apathy about dealing with it.
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Ollie on November 20, 2010, 22:13:30 From what I can tell FGW has done what it can. (as not all trains to Pad are barred) so they must have done a load of time bands based on when barred trains are heading west.
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: ChrisB on November 23, 2010, 11:53:46 I've asled FGW's Head of Fares Strategy the question. If further programming is required, then it should happen...
Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: Boppy on November 24, 2010, 12:38:13 Thanks for everyone's efforts asking people high up about this discrepancy in the system.
Does anyone know what's behind the other difference? i.e. Why some Off-Peak singles cost ^14.90 and some ^15.50? Thanks, Boppy. Title: Re: Reading to London Paddington - evening peak hour fares and restrictions Post by: JayMac on November 24, 2010, 12:52:35 National Rail Enquires is, for some unfathomable reason, offering a Thames Branches Day Ranger for the 1744 and 1752 departures from Reading to London Paddington for ^15.50. ???
Clicking 'More fares' doesn't help, the correct Off Peak Day Single is not listed. Over to you Ollie or ChrisB! This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |