Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi guys, looking for advice on travelling to London on the above date. We would like to arrive at Paddington by at about 10am

In our party there will be 3 or 4 adults (if I am working in London the week before I will not need a ticket as my weekly will cover me)

There will be 3 children aged 1,9 and 14 at the time of travel

I seem to remember in a previous question mention was made of a family rail card.

Thanks in advance

And I have just seen the post about a ^20 family railcard ...just missed the offer !

GroupSave4 plus one or two 'kids for a quid' may well be your best option.

The one year old goes for free anyway, and if you have 3 adults travelling, one of the other two children can make the group upto four, so you would only require one additional child ticket (one GroupSave Child - cost ^1.00).

The GroupSave4 ticket is ^41.80 day return (^41.60 single!), or ^50.80 if you require Day Travelcards (children are still only ^1.00 each with the travelcard option).

No time restrictions apply on a Saturday and the ticket can be purchased from the booking office on the day, or booked in advance and collected from the TVM (note the TVM will not let you puchase GroupSave tickets). Only other thing to be aware of is that everyone in the group has to travel together at all times for the ticket to be valid.

Thanks Brooklea - can I ask a really stupid question? Well I am going to!

Is that ^51.80 for the 4? I am assuming it is but it seems line too much of a bargain!

Does the ^1 each for the kids include the underground bit?

Thanks very much

^50.80 really is for four adults (or three adults and one child) return to Paddington and a zones 1-6 Travelcard, so yes, it is a good price!

And yes, up to four additional children can also join the group and get a Travelcard for ^1 each.

Thanks Brooklea I wanted to be sure !

And I should have said 7th December but I guess that doesn't make any difference

FGW do sometimes bar the use of GroupSave tickets to or from certain stations on specific dates or times e.g. if a major event is likely to increase demand on a particular route, but there doesn't appear to be any restriction to or from London (or Thatcham!) on December 7th. Certainly National Rail Enquiries offer it for that date, so I would take that to indicate that it is valid.

I've taken the liberty of re-naming this thread to avoid any confusion.   ;D

Many thanks bobm

Does anyone else think TVMs should sell Groupsaves? Especialy at stations with limited booking office times or no booking office? I suppose they want the extra ^50 for 4 people going to London when the booking office is shut!

Can you buy them on the train or at Paddington if the booking opffice is shut?

Yes. If the ticket (in this case GroupSave) you want is not available from a TVM and there is no other means of purchase then you are entitled to join the train and buy a ticket at the earliest available opportunity.

Strictly, if there is a PERTIS machine or TVM at your origin station, then, to comply with the National Rail Conditions of Carriage, you must either buy a Permit to Travel or a ticket that allows you to make part of the journey, for all those travelling. These must then be exchanged, as part payment, for the actual tickets required as soon as is reasonably practicable.

In practice, this can be a bit of a faff, particularly onboard when excessing up a batch of TVM bought tickets to GroupSave.

Nonetheless, the strict legal requirement, where facilities exist, is to have some form of ticket, be that a Permit to Travel or part distance ticket, before boarding.

From the National Rail Conditions of Carriage (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/NRCOC.pdf#page=6):

Not ignoring the comments later regarding penalty fares and what is stated in the conditions of carriage does an avantix have the capability to issue groups save tickets?

Yes, Avantix machines can issue GroupSave tickets.  ;)

To be honest, you'd be lucky (based on my own experience over the last few months) to get the TVM at Thatcham to sell you anything :-(

Just wanted to say a big "thanks" to every one for their advice regarding group save tickets. We were really impressed with the savings and are thinking of going further afield in the spring.

Great advice guys!

May I offer a 'thank you' in return, BerkshireBugsy, for your posting in this topic.  ;)

This is another example of how the Coffee Shop forum can be a very useful resource for anyone interested in the possibilities and opportunities of rail travel - particularly in our Great Western area.

If any of our public readers would like to join in with such discussions or queries, please do apply for membership!  It's free, and easy to do: we have a couple of routine checks - just to make sure you're a real person, rather than a spammer/robot - and you'll be welcomed here as a member!

CfN  :)

How did your trip go Berkshire Bugsy?

Thanks for asking 8f ..and as you have asked :)

Our intention was to gave a group day out to London with the primary intention being to visit winter wonderland (hyde park) , a visit to harrods and possibly a visit to oxford street to see the lights.

Our party consisted of 5 adults (one of who was about 7 months pregnant) and 5 kids ranging from 1 to 14 years (and a pram)

The FGW part of the visit went very smoothly with the slight issue of slow running through the Hayes area. I was hoping this would work in my favour as my sone wants to see Tornado parked up at southall but it must wasn't there.

Underground was very busy - in fact when we came out of hyde park and harrods) some stations were not allowing passengers down into the station due to overcrowding so we had an unexpected walk from harrods to Victoria

For those thinking of going to winter wonderland we enjoyed it BUT it was very busy and expensive. If anyone is thinking of going I can post our experience here but we did enjoy it and pins to go again next year

Once again thanks for the tips

Interesting you mention the very crowed the tube was. Friend of mine was at the Sceince Museum the other Saturday and remarked how crowded South Kensington station was and that they were not allowing people down onto the paltforms. In fact some his party missed their return A4 excursion back form KX.

He put it down to half the Tube being out of action that day Northern and Circle I believe.

It looks as if the Tube is very  busy at weekends which now rival peak weekdays but for most of the day.

If south Ken is near hyde park then it may have been to do with the event we were at. One thing is for sure, travelling on your own is way different to travelling with a party of 5 adults 5 kids and a buggy !

South Ken isn't that close to Hyde Park corner but close enough.. South Ken would have been affected by the museums and I am guessing they may have the ice skating in front of the science museum again to add to the people using that station..

I know I've said before on here but I'd recommend the bus if the tubes are really busy.. Having said that the buses can be busy also but they always seem to be less stressful...and there are more options..

Just out of interest.. I am assuming you walked to Victoria from Harrods as it was to then get the tube back to Paddington? Paddington was probably nearly as close if you were walking..

Thanks Jo. If I had been on my own I probably would have walked it or caught the bus but I know my way around the tube and had some nervous travellers with me so it was a case of "better the devil you know"