Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi - just noticed that an Anytime return from Melksham to Bristol Temple Meads is £14, whereas it's £14.20 from Chippenham. The preferred route from Melksham to BTM is via a change at Chippenham (Trowbridge is the other route), so for my Chippenham-BTM commute can I save a whole 20p by buying a Melksham-BTM ticket?

I know there are rules about breaking your journey, but this implies it would be ok:
https://www.thetrainline.com/trains/great-britain/ticket-types/anytime-train-tickets

Cheers
John

(Regarding BTM/BRI: yes, it should be BRI if it was a Network Rail(?) station abbreviation, but it isn't - it's an English language abbreviation :)
 (although I guess on this site the former is the norm))

Yes, it's fine to use a Melksham to Bristol anytime or off peak tickets "short" and there are other price inversions too, where the longer journey costs less.  Made more complex now by the incoming smart card fares.   For off peak journeys from West Wiltshire, also check the through fares out onto the Severn Beach line.

Thanks Grahame. BTW do you know how the early morning (~7:20) Melksham-Chippenham service is doing these days? I used to commute that way, before lockdown, but am currently in Chippenham which makes getting to & from BRI significantly easier. However, I will be returning to Melksham shortly; is my commute likely to be better/same/worse than pre-lockdown in terms of service reliability?

Reliability hasn't been brilliant of late ... but that's a complex story. At present, too-frequent strikes and loads of diversions have made the service a bit of a lottery, and to such an extent we're on the GWR and Michelle Donelan radar to kick things in the right direction.  And specifically the 07:20 is a priority service.

Great - looking forward to it  ::)

Just noticed something else - although you can save 20p by buying a return from Melksham instead of Chippenham to get from CPM to Bristol Temple Meads, if you try the same trick to get from CPM to Bath Spa (the stop before BRI), you end up paying an extra £1.60! (£10 vs. £8.40)

Is there some logic there?

Yes, but I would hate to try to fully explain it.  I believe that there are local fares within a very short distance,  and longer distance fares that cluster stations together.   There is a futher break point as you move from regional to long distance fares and routings, and you get oddities at each interface between schemes.

Another well known one from Melksham is that the is no ticket sold from Melksham to Bristol Parkway if you wish to travel via Swindon and Badminton (usually the fastest route), but if you buy a Melksham to Severn Tunnel Junction ticket, that IS valid via Swindon, Badminton and Bristol Parkway, where you are welcome to leave the train early.

Good effort! :)