Great Western Coffee Shop

Question asked of me over lunch. 

Splitting tickets. 

If a trains calls at a station to pick up only, can I split tickets there?

I think the answer is "yes" ... so I could join the 19:03 from Paddington with a Paddington to Reading ticket and a Reading to Taunton Exeter ticket ... but can the experts confirm this?

The new condition 14.1 says the train must call at the station(s) where you split. 

I'd say the 19:03 does "call" irrespective of any restrictions on leaving the service so you are ok.

Even where one of the tickets held is a season? That's a derogatory step!

It calls to pick up, therefore meeting the calling criteria

No 14.2 covers that - the train needn't call if one ticket is a season (or indeed a one day rover following the new Conditions of Travel introduced this month) but I don't think we are talking about season tickets here.

The only criteria a passenger must meet to satisfy a NRCoT 14.1 split is that that train calls at the split point. The 1903 is booked to calls at Reading.

However, what happens when GWR decide to skip the 'Pick up only' call and advertise the fact at Paddington? It's been done in the past with the 1915 Swansea service.

If I was holding an Advance, say, from Reading on that train as part of my split, I'd board at Paddington. They can't exactly say it's not valid after you've purchased it (and was valid when you did)

BUT if a flexible ticket were held that was valid on purchase?....

That makes no difference, as it is timetabled to stop, in the same way that peak trains are still peak trains even if they're running late or a train is diverted.