Great Western Coffee Shop

Need to book some tickets at some point this week for an outward journey on Saturday (16th) and returning on Sunday 24th Feb. I would prefer to go from Melksham however I have a Melksham -> Bristol TM season ticket that I can use to travel to Chippenham.

I don't want an advance ticket as I will be meeting my cousin at Paddington and may not make the onward connection specified. The standard off peak fares from Melksham to Bromley South and from Chippenham to Bromley South are both ^34.00 (I have a 16 - 25 Railcard.)

I looked at off peak tickets for this journey a few weeks back to get an idea of the options, however the options now seem to have reduced. Looking at the split your ticket website, the cheapest route to London Paddington is buying a Chippenham -> Didcot Parkway return and another from Didcot Parkway -> London Paddington. When I first looked at the tickets, this would also work for this journey with Didcot -> Bromley South being the second of the tickets, saving near to ^10.00 on the standard ^34.00 fare. Today I go to book the tickets, and the splitting option is now costing ^33.10  :o If I put in for the split as suggested by the website for a journey to Paddington, I can only just get near the prices listed with the railcard. Does anyone know why these off peak fares have gone up by over a third in the last couple of weeks?

So unless I've missed something here, I'm now looking at the ^34.00 return. For the sake of 90p I'd rather not split and have to worry about getting on a train that calls at Didcot. Few questions for the experts on this:

- If I buy a ticket starting from Melksham (costs me no more and will help out the ticket sales figures) and decide to get an earlier train back, can I travel to Chippenham without a problem even though the train I am on is not listed as part of a journey to Melksham (first train calling at Melksham on Sunday is after 17:00?)

- From either origin station, the journey planner quite often comes up with Chippenham -> Paddington -> Elephant and Castle -> Herne Hill -> Bromley South. Am I permitted with these tickets to do Chippenham -> Paddington -> Victoria -> Bromley South? Much easier route.

Thanks for any help :)

Hi Kim,

I'm wondering if you've been looking at Advance Tickets by mistake... I'm not sure how the prices would've changed in the previous 2 weeks otherwise... But FGW have been known to do this, see: Here (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=11787.0)

With regards to your other 2 questions:


Yes you can in most cases, there are no direct London Paddington - Melksham trains. So you would have to change trains at Chippenham or Westbury anyway. Effectively what you're doing is ending your journey short. Providing you do not have an Advance ticket, this is allowed. If you buy an Advance ticket, my advice would be to book to to/from Chippenham and then pay for a Single between Chippenham and Melksham on the day. Whilst that will work out slightly more, it's worth it against risk of a Penalty Fare.


If your ticket is a Cross London Journey; absolutely. That basically gives you a single journey on London Underground between two points. When I head out towards Essex I effectively have the same thing so I could do Paddington - Liverpool Street, Paddington - Stratford, Paddington - Tower Hill, Paddington - West Ham etc, you get the idea ;)

So that could be in your case: Paddington - London Bridge, Paddington - Victoria etc. My advice would be to check for engineering works though. I find it a tad odd that the Journey Planner is sending you that way for Bromley South. :)

Of course, splitting at Didcot & buying a Network Card would give you a 33% discount on that fare to Bromley South (ok, network card costs ^28, but you save against that & invest for any further journeys in SE England for 12 months)

Just a further query regarding your tickets... That puzzled me so I looked it up...

When you did the search did you put the return date in or just select an Open Return date?

If you specify a return date that is not the same day. The Journey Planner will show you the "Period Returns" only. If you specify Open Return then it will list tickets returning the same day. I'm wondering in the politest possible way whether you mistook a Day Return for a period return?

As the Day Return price splitting at DID gives you ^26.95 which is your near ^10.00 saving ;)

Looking at your ticket options. My best suggestion would possibly be the ^34.00 one as you're not coming back the same day. Others will probably have a better suggestions. But from a brief 5 minute look I can't see anything jumping out at me that involves travelling via Paddington.


OP said they have a 16-25 Railcard ;) I looked at the possibility of splitting at Didcot with Chippenham - Didcot Parkway Super Off Peak Return, Didcot - Paddington Off Peak Return and then Railcard'd Oyster which from Paddington - Bromley South would've been ^2.85 each way as returning different days so ^5.70 in this case. Still more expensive than the CPM - BMS SVR @ ^34.00 and the hassle of finding a Didcot Stopper removed too ;)

Oops yes, missed that!

Thanks for the responses all.

I must have put in a day return by mistake. I've just had another look and DID - PAD is the same price be it a day or open return. Unfortunately it's not the same for CPM - DID or DID - BMS which increased the price as I put the exact dates in when I searched this morning.

Whilst I agree that Padd, Vic, BS is probably slightly quicker, the Paddington - Elephant & Castle route makes sense if you have lugguage as the Bakerloo line is direct. Having said that the Bakerloo / Victoria change at Oxford Circus is  easy cross-platform. As to using the circle line, I do not expect it to be operating over the weekend.