Great Western Coffee Shop

FGW/GWR are currently running a special offer of ^10 Advance Purchase fares between the Bristol area (inc. stations between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare), Bath, Chippenham, Swindon stations and London Paddington & Thames Valley stations.

The tickets are on sale now until 19th September 2015 for travel between 1st October and 10th December 2015. They are available from FGW/GWR stations and online through the FGW/GWR desktop booking engine and the FGW/GWR smartphone app.

Usual Advance Purchase rules apply. Booked train only, no break of journey or start/end short and no refunds except as allowed by the Conditions of Carriage. Additionally there are no railcard or child discounts. Note that there maybe cheaper Advance Purchase fares for railcard holders and children.

More details: https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/offers/10-pound-tickets

I think I picked some of these up yesterday. Some cheap advances and a generous amount of nectar points too (500 for a south wales train and ~350 for an off peak train). ^17.50 return + oyster sounds a lot better than ^130 for an anytime travelcard.   ;D

The^10 speci al offer fares are marked ADVANCE PROMO.

Rather surprisingly I managed to bag one for one of the busiest trains off Paddington, the 1900 to Bristol TM on a Friday.

(http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt68/bignosemac/Mobile%20Uploads/rps20150903_174119_zpsfmqu4viv.jpg)

Thanks for the heads up, BNM - I bought a pair for my daughter and her fellow, who were about to book National "Express" as an economy measure. I shall have some of this action for myself once I've planned it.

National Express won't like this special offer. Great value for money offer from FGW. Get 'em whilst you can.

At least FGW/GWR aren't making dubious/incorrect claims advertising this offer. Unlike the recent National Express online adverts trying to tempt FGW customers onto coaches during the strike.

Just booked some. Also some very generously priced advance purchase tickets - ^12.50 from Paddington to Paignton! Bargain.

.....isn't it encouraging what a little competition can do?  ;)

Indeed ... where there is a sufficient market direct competition is a neat model. Where the market's only big enough to support one commercial operator it becomes less neat.  And where the market isn't big enough to support even one commercial operator ... you need to look for other models. 

You can still have competitive elements. Rail is largely competitive in 7 to 10 year chunks (franchises) with just a very few "open access" operators; bus is an uneasy mixture and there's a strong argument for the commercialism and competition there to be for companies to run route and route groups (specified much like rail SLCs) - addressing issues around routes that wastefully compete where they could profitably compliment. with the competition being for efficient operation.

It's a very good deal. However...

I buy my Reading-Bath commute advance tickets at least a month in advance, usually when I get paid. So at the end of last month, my October tickets cost me just over ^400.

If I'd waited a few days until the ^10 ticket promotion started, they'd have cost ^240.

^160+ wasted  :'(

I did email FGW feedback to see if there was any chance of a refund, but they explained that advance tickets are offered at 'massively discounted rates', and have to be non-refundable. Of course I understand that, but still pretty irritating...

With such offers there will always be winners and losers. I was made aware of this promotion in mid August as I subscribe to FGW'S/GWR's 'escape' email newsletter. I didn't post about the offer then as I was unsure as to what flows were going to have the special offer tickets, what the full terms were and how they could be purchased. The 'escape' email requested you register your interest for an update before the offer began.

My only suggestion for the future is to register with FGW/GWR for the monthly email newsletter.

https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/about-us/customer-services/get-our-email-newsletter

Mmm... I do get emails from FGW, which was how I found out about the ^10 singles (on Wednesday). It's possible I got the earlier email, but didn't bother to read it.

Thanks - you've made me feel a lot better :)

Done to make you realise that actually reading it might just be good for the wallet :-)

As BNM, I learned in August & duly signed up then

Made the mistake of mistiming my trip with the advance tickets... It's a bit of a coincidence the ^10 admin fee cancels out when excessing. D'oh.  >:(