This is by no means an isolated instance of huge fare rises following the withdrawal of certain "concessions" in recent weeks.
I would characterise it as a move towards interpreting the requirement of the "off peak" timing to the letter of the franchise / contract, and there's sufficient pattern to it so see this change as being policy. Either it will displace people off shoulder peak trains (and disgruntle them at the same time), or it will generate more income for the
TOC▸ implementing the changes. An interesting comparison is to the shift fro 09:00 to 09:30 for start of bus pass (
ENCTS▸ ) travel ... little extra income generated, just irate pensioners, empty buses from 09:00 to 09:30 and ovecrowded ones from 09:30 onwards.
When the price of something rockets, though, people grumble and then look for alternative products ... could be a later train, could be split tickets, could be driving to another station, bus or car the whole way ... as you suggest ...
I found out last night, for example, that an off peak single PAD» -CPM» is now not valid for travel before 0916 (which means the 0933 train). These tickets were valid on the 0830 departure until 3 years ago when it was adjusted to the 0900. Now the coffee outlets in PAD will be getting my business for even longer...
But back to the OP▸ 's issue, there are of course various search engines out there that will find you the best splits. The companies operating them charge a fee for teir services, but it is possible (if unethical) to get the necessary informaion out of them and then buy the tickets yourself.
The term "off peak" is starting to take on a disrepute in my eyes ... am I alone? The new 05:33 from Melksham (when it runs - 2 cancels already this year!) is virtually empty, and yet off peak tickets not accepted (there may be some exceptions) ... if that train isn't
"off the peak", I don't know what is. We could seriously market off peak fares for arrivals into London before 07:00 ... back to the old "workman's train" of Victorian / Edwardian ties.
