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A return from Trowbridge - Salisbury is more expensive than a return to Warminster then another return to Salisbury, valid on all services as they all stop at Warminster

A season ticket is cheeper from Castle Carry - Paddington than Westbury - Paddington

A Trowbridge - Birmingham is more expesnive than a Trowbridge - Cheltenham & a Cheltenham Birmingham

Off Peak: A Bradford - Exeter is more expensive than a Frome - Exeter (any route)

Post your other fares tips here

Westbury to Paddington at peak time is ^121 standard open return.

BUT - Westbury to Newbury standard open return is ^41 and Newbury to Paddington is ^34.70 SOR - a total of ^75.70 and a whopping saving of ^45.30 over buying one ticket for the same journey!

The conditions of carriage state that travelling with a combination of tickets is legal if they cover your journey and the train calls (stops) at the station where the tickets change over.   http://nationalrail.co.uk/system/galleries/download/misc/NRCOC.pdf (http://nationalrail.co.uk/system/galleries/download/misc/NRCOC.pdf)

Jim's right - it can pay to look at different combinations on your journey.

BUT the drawback is "railwaymen" can NOT sell you it UNLESS you ask, i.e, you can't go up to the ticket window or the guard and say, RTN to Birmingham, they WILL NOT sell you the 'combo' , you MUST ask to GET


Correct Whistleblower, I belive a Bristol - Padd is more expensive than a Bristol - Didcot then Didcot - Paddington, but I am not sure on that 1

On a slightly different vein, folks ...

There are TWO different fares / routes from Swindon to Salisbury - Any route and "Via Bath" - and via Bath is cheaper - much cheaper.

So if you're at Swindon at 18:30 tonight and want to travel on the 18:42 to Westbury and change there for Salisbury, you'll pay 30 pounds for a saver single (the ordinary single is 41.50).    But if you travel - say - on the 19:30 and change at Bath, the fare for an ordinary single comes down to just 18 pounds.

For those of you not familiar with the geography, the "change at Westbury" route is by far the shortest and indeed until last December there was a through Swindon / Salisbury service via this route

Looks like Barry Doe has been poring over the fares manual again:

10 legit ways to get cheaper rail fares

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6442947.stm

My friend in the know says that in practice the "via Bath" fare is also valid via Melksham (even though you don't go through Bath - makes sense because its a shorter distance). The "Any Permitted" fare allows you to go via Reading and Basingstoke, should you really wish to do so! (and the pricing is consistent with this).

So why, then, does the FGW ticket sale site only offer me the "Any Route" fare for the 18:42 (via Melksham, change at Westbury) service?   And would you feel comfortable explaining your presence on that train to one of the new penalty fare collectors who may be operating on it between Swindon and Chippenham, and between Trowbridge and Westbury, both of which are in the penalty fare zone?

In practise, I think people booking on line will go for the lowest fare shown available against the train they wish to travel on, or will go for a cheaper train even if it's slower. It will take a very knowledgable and brave punter to buy a ticket that's shown as NOT being available on the selected train, and then face the FGW "revenue protection" team who have a bit of a reputation for assuming that genuine mistakes are attempts to defraud.

I suspect your friend is correct and that the "Via Bath" ticket would be accepted in practise - but I think it's wrong to expect John Doe, an occasional traveller, to realise this.  I fear that John Doe will end up paying more than he need, although the occasional Barry Doe may make a fully educated decision

Absolutely. We are now reliant on information generated from fares and timetable databases which does not always capture the reality of the situation, which can have the effect of a) passengers being overcharged and b) awkward situations arising with RPIs etc.

Rgds

But the Melksham line is not a PF area, so I belive that would be an imposiable scnerio. Remember that most tickets you can break your journey anyway, so it is likely you would have a legit reason