First Great Western - West Of England to Axminster

[whole diary]

[Phil]

Why would you board the train at Bath Spa?  You bought a ticket from Bristol and for Advance tickets that is where you must start your journey.  If you want to  travel from Bath then you must buy the ticket from Bath in the first place

What if you lived in Bristol and worked in Bath? You might have car-shared to work in the morning as per usual, then got on the train at Bath Spa mid-morning to attend an afternoon meeting in London. However, you needed to get home to Bristol later that evening (by which time your lift had already gone home). Consequently you buy a Bristol - London return, but actually get on at Bath Spa. I can think of several instances when I've done something very similar myself.

[devon_metro]

How many business people buy leisure advance tickets!

[super tm]

no such thing as a leisure advance ticket.  They are called advance and i have seen plenty of business people using them.  Meetings are often arranged in advance and they pre book the outward journey and get a flexible return.

Going back to the original situation I am sorry but you cannot start your Advance journey short.  In reality you will probably be ok but if you did it on a regular basis and were doing it because it was cheaper then you are open to being prosecuted for fare evasion.

It is unlikely but it could happen

[thetrout]

I didn't mean to cause any form of arguement! I was merely trying to point out that if you bought an advanced ticket from bristol to london and lived with equal distance between bristol and bath, and you have paid for the longer journey then why shouldn't you be allowed to board the train at bath spa?

an example would be if there was a traffic jam on the main road into bristol, but you could access bath without issue, providing its your booked train eg 13:00 BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) 13:43 Bath then i personally wouldn't see to much of a problem.

I know it might be a little naughty doing it and as I said earlier I didn't mean to cause any disagreements but i'm just simply conversing my point of view

[Chris from Nailsea]

No, I don't think there's necessarily any argument or disagreement here, thetrout. 

For a start, with my business, and my department in particular, we are all encouraged to buy 'advance' tickets whenever possible.

Take an example: I have bought an advance ticket from Nailsea to Paddington, for a meeting in January.  However, shortly before that meeting, I discover that I have to take an important document, which is held by my colleague grahame in Melksham. I therefore drive to Melksham (trains not being an option!), collect the document and drive to Chippenham, to catch the train for which I have a valid ticket (and seat reservation).

What is the problem with that last minute change of plan, starting my train journey a bit further on

[John R]

BA^» (British Airways - about) have a similar issue. If you fly from the continent (Euroland - where the currency is strong) to America via London with BA, it's a lot cheaper than flying from London to America. So in the past smart alecs booked tickets from (say) Brussels to NY, and tried to get on in London rather than Brussels.

Of course, the security involved in such a journey means that it is obvious to the operator what is going on, and they are denied boarding as their ticket is not valid according to the T&Cs because they haven't flown the first sector.

Likewise, you could book 2 mega-cheap day returns from Dover to Calais and back again much cheaper than a single fare one day and a single fare two weeks later (or a very expensive period return). Then discard the unused portions and save a fortune. Except you can't, because the ferry companies will spot it and disallow it. 

Why the problem? Because in each case the operator is looking to maximise revenue, and imposes conditions on cheap tickets to prevent those who would otherwise purchase more flexible tickets taking advantage of cheap tickets which are aimed at a different market (say day return ferry crossings). Provided the terms of such a cheap ticket are made clear at time of purchase (I'm not sure that they are with advance purchase rail tickets), then passengers cannot complain.

The recent relaxation of the "no break of jouney" on the outward leg of an off peak (formerly saver) ticket has made this more difficult for the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company), as passengers in North Wales have found to their cost, with Saver tickets from North Wales no longer being valid all day,  due to passengers from Crewe and Chester taking advantage of the cheaper fares.   

   

[smokey]

I notice that First Great Western is to cover Exeter to Axminster in it's new Devon only timetable this December.
- are they really operating services on this route or are they just producing this timetable to highlight their onward connections, prehaps to compete with the Waterloo line for passengers from stations such as Axminster and Honiton?

The answer lies in your own quote, it's a Devon services timetable therefore by ATOC^» (Association of Train Operating Companies See - here) rules all devon services are shown, however it was too differcult for the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Idiots to put the Exeter-Axminster line on the front cover map.

Why would FGW put it on their timetables? They don't run any services there. Surely its up to SWT^▸ (South West Trains) to provide this info.( P.S. I know you can't stand FGW smokey!)

Because FGW wanted to called Time Table B2 "Devon" Train Services and quite rightly a "Devon" timetable MUST show all Devon Train Services. If this simple ATOC rule didn't exsist, and IF South West Trains produce a "Devon" Time table this time next year there would be NO mention of and therefore to the public mind NO trains North, South or West of Exeter St D. Now wouldn't that be sensible!

[vacman]

No, I don't think there's necessarily any argument or disagreement here, thetrout. 

For a start, with my business, and my department in particular, we are all encouraged to buy 'advance' tickets whenever possible.

Take an example: I have bought an advance ticket from Nailsea to Paddington, for a meeting in January.  However, shortly before that meeting, I discover that I have to take an important document, which is held by my colleague grahame in Melksham. I therefore drive to Melksham (trains not being an option!), collect the document and drive to Chippenham, to catch the train for which I have a valid ticket (and seat reservation).

What is the problem with that last minute change of plan, starting my train journey a bit further on

Problem is your seat reservation is no longer valid. Loads of business people use advance tickets!

[Btline]

Why isn't the seat reservation not valid?

Do reservations have to be "validated" by 10 mins into the journey?

Ok, different scenario.

I am taking the train from Stourbridge Junction to Glasgow. My plan is to take a train to Smethick Galton Bridge, change onto the train to Birmingham New Street and take the Glasgow train from there.

However, at Smethick Galton Bridge, I discover that trains into Birmingham look as though they might be disrupted, so I take a train to Wolverhampton instead, and catch my connection (one stop along from New Street).

Is my reservation valid here?