Great Western Coffee Shop

1.   If I travel from my local (TVM unstaffed) or nearest hub station (TVM and staffed) return to London, travelling up in the peak, the 'natural' ticket sold to me is any anytime return.   And if (at the staffed station) I'm travelling up off peak, I'm likely to be asked when I'm coming back and be sold an anytime return if I don't know, or am coming back in the peak.

And yet ... one way in the peak, other way off peak ... best value is potentially two singles.

2. If I travel out on a day return at 07:00, I have at least 17 hours of validity on my ticket - ideal for an 8 hour working day. 

But if I travel out at 19:00 on a day return, I have a ticket that's not valid for my 8 hour night shift.

3. If I travel long distance on a peak commuter train at peak fares, it will become distinctly empty towards the end of its run.

Why should I be paying peak fares all the way?

The other option could be to sell you the off-peak if you don't know when you are coming back and advise you to excess it (on train if needs be); "the railway" prefers the situation which gives it the advantage.

The problem with buying an off peak return and then excessing if the return is in the peak is that the whole ticket has to be excessed so you lose the benefit on the outward journey. Got caught by that once and was not happy!

I agree.

It can be worth excessing a super off-peak into an off-peak to catch the 19:00 out of Paddington (last Melksham connection) ... travel up on a superoffpeak return, then spend extra on the upgrade (if back in time for the 19:00) or a taxi from Chippenham to Melksham (if not back in time for the 19:00).

Your points 1 and 3 are one reason why it would be difficult to eliminate split-ticketing without making every ticket booked-train(s)-only. Fourbee's suggestion of buying an off-peak ticket and excessing it on-board sounds like it might point the direction to a solution however. You make every ticket issued an 'off-peak' and have on-train revenue-protection staff check everyone has a ticket, issuing those with no ticket with a penalty (or, prefrablly, just selling them a ticket) and (on peak services) selling a 'peak-top-up' ticket valid on the current train until the station you are alighting or when the train becomes off-peak, whichever is sooner. A few obvious problems with this:

• The revenue protection staff have to make sure to check everyone's tickets after every stop, to catch those who have just boarded and charge them the peak fare. This could be difficult on a long train or when there's not much time between stops
• This being a peak-service, there may be standees (though on INTERCITY services, I think the railway should aim to have nobody standing even in the peaks), making it difficult/impossible for the revenue protection staff to move through the train

On the plus side, we wouldn't need that horrible invention the ticket barrier on stations anymore.

Point 2 isn't a peak-related issue, to solve that you'd need to change the definition of 'day return' to mean 'valid for 24hrs from start time printed on ticket' rather than 'valid until the end of the (railway) day'.

Advance fares as they currently stand could be simplified. The multiple price tiers could be eliminated with just one advance ticket price (make it revenue neutral, set the price as an average) with better availability throughout the whole booking horizon, not just tasty morsels that disappear rapidly and the stupid high ones with less flexibility than a walk up ticket.