Great Western Coffee Shop

Good morning all, after a bit of advice - I am visiting a friend in Hassocks next weekend travelling Saturday, returning Sunday- being quoted £51.40 return via London - not a trip I have made before but it just seems really expensive - don't seem able to split.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something?

Agree that splitting doesn't appear possible to save anything & that £51.40 is the fare.

Buy a Network Card?.....it'll last you a year.

£34.20 with an annual Network Railcard (£35), so that initial journey will cost you £69.20 but after that, you and up to 3 accompanying adults then have 363 days use of your shiny network railcard.

As well as the generous benefits, be aware of the subtle and not-so-subtle restrictions.

https://www.network-railcard.co.uk/about-the-railcard/using-your-railcard/

A thing: the Network Map on that link cannot be displayed at a resolution at which the information on it is readable. The linked PDF is better though took me a moment to notice the link - and it would be straightforward to provide a graphic on the page itself at a resolution that can be read which would be useful for users of mobile devices.

Mark

Split ticketing doesn’t tend to work very well when the journey is entirely in the old Network Southeast area.

Many thanks for sharing your knowledge/advice.

Possibly a not very helpful multi-modal option. It is normally cheaper not to go via London. The Wexham Park to Bracknell bus (53?) and then a Reading Buses 4 to Wokingham station, then the Noth Downs line to Gatwick and change for Hassocks. Depends on how much time you have to waste. Also check service 53 because I believe it doesn't run seven days.

Sorry I am used to doing odd multi-modal things with the Brompton.

Reminds me of one of my grandfathers.   His chosen cuss word in front of the children was "Oh Hassocks!".   ;D

I think TaplowHassocks could be a rather good username.  ;D

However, in this case possibly not. From Taplow the two fares (both priced by GWR) are £51.40  via London and £57.80 via Reading. From Wokingham not via London (GWR) is £46.50 (and the any permitted/via London (SWR) is £59.40, not that it's relevant here). Standard SVR full fare in each case. So it is a bit cheaper, but not enough to make it worthwhile (unless you want to go multimodal for other reasons).

As a former resident of Hassocks, this thread intrigued me. (I used to commute on one of the services with a 4BIG - the slice of hot toast puts GWR catering today to shame)

I've not checked, but there might be some opportunities around Southern Advances and possibly some PAYG tapping in/out somewhere.

There were some historic fare anomalies that I remember using in my youth around ticket validity to Lewes and some other local stations too but I suspect the Routing Guide will have put paid to those.

Thanks again all, paid the £51.40 in the end.

Meeting an old schoolfriend from Plymouth who's living down there now, we're visiting a new(ish) craft ale Tap room which comes highly recommended, will report back!

A decent trip - Taplow to Farringdon on the Elizabeth Line and then Southern to Hassocks yesterday - on time to the minute - 12 carriage train so plenty of room even though it was busy - same trip in reverse today with no problems - Southern apparently don't have crew shortage issues on Sundays, I wonder what they do differently?

Discovered a couple of new bars and aforementioned Tap room which was excellent - also invited to play "Toad in the Hole" which apparently is a traditional Sussex pub game, and even saw some Morris dancing!

(I took part in the former, but not the latter!!!)