Well..................it wasn't cancelled according to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - as they state in their rejection of her delay claim !!!  It wasn't cancelled because there was never a train scheduled to run at that time - according to them !!
Screen shots of RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) and CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) now winging towards GWR, showing that this non-existent train (2Z30) was scheduled and was cancelled !

Do they reject ALL claims as a matter of course ? has some bean-counter calculated that x% will "give up and go away" after the first rejection ??

https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/17742410.customer-satisfaction-is-at-a-record-high-for-gwr/?ref=mr&lp=7

Not sure if this shouldn't be under "smoke & mirrors" 

My daughter says she will probably use that route on her way back to Kent from now on. The No 1 "permitted route" includes, Waterloo East to Strood - there are no longer any through trains on this leg - there are now 1, 2 or 3 changes. The 3 change version has as its first leg, Waterloo East to .............Victoria, by tube !!

It is no use to her going the other way as she would be trying to board an already packed Warminster train at Clapham. She will come via Tonbridge still.

Another interesting point she raised last night - if the man at Victoria barrier let her onto the train with her existing ticket, where would she then stand if the on-train man said her ticket wasn't valid ?  (No "definitive answer" required  )

Did he also ask if the banknotes you also had in your wallet came from an ATM^‡(resolve) or some "sweet little 72 year old lady's handbag" ?

I fear you may be correct with both your statements above  - but is it really an "esoteric routing" if it gets my daughter home 30  mins quicker that the "unesoteric" (?) route ?   

Well................... for a start the 0949 WMN^» (Warminster - next trains) to SAL was cancelled .........but the dirty, evil, carbon producing Fiesta came to the rescue when I had to drive her to Salisbury to make her connection. (Yet another delay/repay going in - that's the 4th one in 4 weeks!!)
When she got to Victoria the barrier wouldn't accept her ticket, but the human being did..........no one came round on the train, so her original question still hasn't been definitively answered.
Many thanks for all the comments.

Both Warminster and Westbury ticket offices say that route is OK.  We'll see what happens on the train tomorrow........................

Waterloo East to Waterloo ?     
I just put Aylesford to Barming into Mixing Deck - and that tells me to walk between Maidstone Barracks and Maidstone East.

Just had a text from daughter - the guard on the train from Waterloo "thinks" that it may be a valid route.  He did tell her it was valid to go Westbury/Paddington/HS1^▸ (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel)................but that wasn't the question..

Could anyone help my daughter please ?  She has a return ticket from Aylesford to Warminster. (Super OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter) - any permitted route) her usual route is via Strood or Tonbridge to Waterloo East - and on from there.

On the return leg she would like to go to Clapham Jct and then into Victoria. Then take an Ashford train to Maidstone East, (short) walk to Maidstone Barracks and then get the Strood train to Aylesford (next stop). Is this a "Permitted Route" ? Neither of us can get a definitive answer from the Routing Guide !

The reason for this slightly convoluted route is that she wishes to break her journey between Victoria and Maidstone on her way home; rather than go home and have to buy more tickets (and back track) to achieve her aim.

Many thanks.

What a sad (but totally accurate) reflection on the appalling service that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is presently doling out to its "customers".

Sorry, but Mercedes beat Virgin to it !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEjTwsfqHOY

There is a long script, printed for the very first time, from a 1966 BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) broadcast written by John Betjeman about Brunel in today's Daily Telegraph Review; pages 8 - 9. Worth a read if you have access to The Telegraph. Accompanied by a 1939 painting of Brunel's GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), shown below Westbury White Horse.

I can perhaps understand a 16 year old trainee (pun not intended !) pulling out any old stock photo to illustrate a railways story in the Bognor Bugle ....but my postman brought me the latest Railway Touring Company brochure this morning - am I being a little too hopeful in expecting slightly higher standards there ?

We have a train passing by the Dorset Mountains on its way to Swanage - on another page the same train is passing the same mountains on its way to Par.
Then we have a train passing cloud shrouded mountains on its way from Norwich to Cheshire - incredibly, the same mountains seem to be passed en route from Swanage to Bristol.
Then there is the Kings Cross to Newcastle excursion down the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) shown passing through Garsdale (S & C I think !) - I recognise the dog there !
There is the same train passing over the same bridge in two photos - which are both said to be in Yorkshire - but based on previous efforts they might be in Kent.

I won't go, too much, into excursions which are stated to be hauled by Loco A or B - but the photos show C or D or .......

I'm sure more learned travelers on the forum might have fun with this brochure.

Wife and daughter claimed delay repay last week.

Warminster to Ryde St John's Road. Warminster to Portsmouth Harbour train 27 mins late. Missed ferry - ferry hourly service. Claimed for one hour delay.
Rejected by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - saying delay was less than 15 mins
Contested rejection (I supplied details from RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website)) - 60 min delay paid - full refund of Single trip.Trip was actually split ticketing - 3 tickets used. I thought that might be a problem, but apparently not.
The whole episode only took 7 days - so the speed of the system seems OK - just the initial outcome.

On Monday I posted 4 Advance tickets to GWR (freepost address) requesting a refund as my booked train, WMN^» (Warminster - next trains) to WAT (and ret), was to be cancelled on Wednesday due to SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) strike. Got email this morning saying money would be with me in 5 days. No complaints there.