Great Western Coffee Shop

Plusbus fares seem an incredibly good value ticket especially with First's new ticket pricing structure.

I recently caught a bus with a return fare wholly within a station's Plusbus zone, however as I didn't arrive by train I needed to pay the normal bus fare.  ^5 return it was.

I have now realised it would have been cheaper to buy a single (or even return) train ticket from the next railway station along the  line and add a Plusbus fare onto that ticket. The Single train ticket + Plusbus would have cost me ^4.50.

Now this got me wondering and I can't find any reference in the T+Cs can you Break a journey and not actually use the rail leg of the ticket?

As long as one of the stations you are travelling from/to is outside the PlusBus zone you intend to use then I can't see any issue with not using the rail ticket. T&Cs merely say that:

"PLUSBUS tickets must be bought in conjunction with a train ticket and this ticket must have as its origin and / or destination the town for which PLUSBUS is purchased"

http://www.plusbus.info/sites/default/files/pdfs/PLUSBUS%20Terms%20%26%20Conditions%20v2.pdf (link to a .pdf)

There's no compunction on you to actually make the rail journey. Just don't be tempted to buy a PlusBus ticket on its own. I've read of incidences of ticket office staff selling PlusBus without an accompanying rail ticket or without seeing an already purchased valid rail ticket. That is definitely against the T&Cs.