Great Western Coffee Shop

I notice that First Great Western is to cover Exeter to Axminster in it's new Devon only timetable this December.
- are they really operating services on this route or are they just producing this timetable to highlight their onward connections, prehaps to compete with the Waterloo line for passengers from stations such as Axminster and Honiton?

i thought it was just for connections are those stations not in a lighter font on the timetable?

I would imagine that they are showing the SWT connections, as these are currently the TOC that operates between Exeter and Axminster.

If FGW were to operate services between Exeter and Axminster, I would of thought they would of continued to Yeovil or Salisbury, as Axminster is not a station where I could see services terminating.  It would cause more congestion to an already congested line.

Are these connections to and from West Devon and Cornwall?

Anyone to London is going to go via SWT.

I suppose if you were going for several days you might go via Exeter to Bristol and the North, otherwise you'd probaly drive to Tiverton Parkway.

Freinds of ours now regularly use SWT to Clapham Junction from Axminister to visit family. They book in advance and get incredably cheap fares far less than their petrol costs and they don't have the bother of parking in Wandsworth.

Which goes to show rail travel at a sensible price is very attractive.
 

I was under the impression that SWT did not offer cheap advance fares, apart from the inflexible Megatrain which rarely has ^1 fares!

It does do a good range of Advance fares which I have used on numerous occasions this year.

I think SWT's advance fare map and price list is one of the most easily understood around, especially since they changed to 'Advance' being singles only. Prior to May they were still offering Super Apexs and such like, possibly being one of the last TOCs to do so:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/342EF0FA-3CD8-43B1-B11A-E3417A8AAADD/0/SWTAdvancefaresmap2.pdf

It's fair to say they don't offer Advance fares within 'commuter land' though...

Paul

 

The answer lies in your own quote, it's a Devon services timetable therefore by ATOC rules all devon services are shown, however it was too differcult for the FGW Idiots to put the Exeter-Axminster line on the front cover map.

Something worth a mention is that if you pay an extra ^2 on your "advance" ticket to London you can travel right across the London travel area.
My daughter travels from Warminster to Rochester in Kent. If she buys a ticket to W'loo then one to Rochester that costs her ^4 more than an "advance" + ^2 to "Abbey Wood" (Kent not Bristol !) and a ticket from Abbey Wood to Rochester.

Why would FGW put it on their timetables? They don't run any services there. Surely its up to SWT to provide this info.( P.S. I know you can't stand FGW smokey!)

It is actually on the timetables and is fairly useful. Just a shame about the rest of book B which is a disaster!

The prices on south west trains make me laugh.

Assume you want to get from Gillingham (Dorset) to Exeter

If you book an advance First Class ticket from London - Exeter Via Salisbury - Gillingham - Axminster it will cost you ^20 for a First Class single.

Now you buy a ticket from Gillingham (Dorset) First Class to Exeter and it will cost you ^34.50 for a walkup ticket.

So its cheaper to buy a ticket for the same train for a longer journey than a much shorter journey. I know it has restrictions but lets assume you know your going to be on that train.

I tried it once this way and booked the advanced ticket. The ticket collector simply frowned at me for ever so slightly cheating the system... :P

How long ago? Since May all Advance tickets are explicitly barred from starting long or ending short as well as break of journey, the T&C were changed to be common for all operators. Many Tocs, such as GNER in their heyday, would have taken it a lot further...

Paul

it was about 2 or 3 months ago. I knew about the break of journey not being allowed except to change trains shown on your ticket. but I wasn't aware that you couldn't start the journey late or end early. My understanding was this for example

If you booked and advanced ticket from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington on the 12:30. If you decided to board the 12:43 at Bath Spa then why would that be a problem because it is the exact same train on the same route. All that is different is that you have boarded a stop later.

If say the train started from W-S-M and you had your ticket booked from Bristol then yes of course I would pay for a ticket from W-S-M To Bristol Temple Meads without any form of questioning that.

The whole system to be honest is confusing to someone who doesn't know anything about rail travel or ticketing and these are the type of people who get taken advantage of by the system.

I sharn't continue down this line of conversation in this post as this would take the post completely off the OP's topic

Why would you board the train at Bath Spa.  You bought a ticket from Bristol and for Advance tickets that is where you must start your journey.  If you want to  travel from Bath then you must buy the ticket from Bath in the first place

What if you lived in Bristol and worked in Bath? You might have car-shared to work in the morning as per usual, then got on the train at Bath Spa mid-morning to attend an afternoon meeting in London. However, you needed to get home to Bristol later that evening (by which time your lift had already gone home). Consequently you buy a Bristol - London return, but actually get on at Bath Spa. I can think of several instances when I've done something very similar myself.

How many business people buy leisure advance tickets!

no such thing as a leisure advance ticket.  They are called advance and i have seen plenty of business people using them.  Meetings are often arranged in advance and they pre book the outward journey and get a flexible return.

Going back to the original situation I am sorry but you cannot start your Advance journey short.  In reality you will probably be ok but if you did it on a regular basis and were doing it because it was cheaper then you are open to being prosecuted for fare evasion.

It is unlikely but it could happen

I didn't mean to cause any form of arguement! I was merely trying to point out that if you bought an advanced ticket from bristol to london and lived with equal distance between bristol and bath, and you have paid for the longer journey then why shouldn't you be allowed to board the train at bath spa?

an example would be if there was a traffic jam on the main road into bristol, but you could access bath without issue, providing its your booked train eg 13:00 BTM 13:43 Bath then i personally wouldn't see to much of a problem.

I know it might be a little naughty doing it and as I said earlier I didn't mean to cause any disagreements but i'm just simply conversing my point of view :)

No, I don't think there's necessarily any argument or disagreement here, thetrout.  ;)

For a start, with my business, and my department in particular, we are all encouraged to buy 'advance' tickets whenever possible.

Take an example: I have bought an advance ticket from Nailsea to Paddington, for a meeting in January.  However, shortly before that meeting, I discover that I have to take an important document, which is held by my colleague grahame in Melksham. I therefore drive to Melksham (trains not being an option!), collect the document and drive to Chippenham, to catch the train for which I have a valid ticket (and seat reservation).

What is the problem with that last minute change of plan, starting my train journey a bit further on ???

BA have a similar issue. If you fly from the continent (Euroland - where the currency is strong) to America via London with BA, it's a lot cheaper than flying from London to America. So in the past smart alecs booked tickets from (say) Brussels to NY, and tried to get on in London rather than Brussels.

Of course, the security involved in such a journey means that it is obvious to the operator what is going on, and they are denied boarding as their ticket is not valid according to the T&Cs because they haven't flown the first sector.

Likewise, you could book 2 mega-cheap day returns from Dover to Calais and back again much cheaper than a single fare one day and a single fare two weeks later (or a very expensive period return). Then discard the unused portions and save a fortune. Except you can't, because the ferry companies will spot it and disallow it. 

Why the problem? Because in each case the operator is looking to maximise revenue, and imposes conditions on cheap tickets to prevent those who would otherwise purchase more flexible tickets taking advantage of cheap tickets which are aimed at a different market (say day return ferry crossings). Provided the terms of such a cheap ticket are made clear at time of purchase (I'm not sure that they are with advance purchase rail tickets), then passengers cannot complain.

The recent relaxation of the "no break of jouney" on the outward leg of an off peak (formerly saver) ticket has made this more difficult for the TOCs, as passengers in North Wales have found to their cost, with Saver tickets from North Wales no longer being valid all day,  due to passengers from Crewe and Chester taking advantage of the cheaper fares.   

   

Because FGW wanted to called Time Table B2 "Devon" Train Services and quite rightly a "Devon" timetable MUST show all Devon Train Services. If this simple ATOC rule didn't exsist, and IF South West Trains produce a "Devon" Time table this time next year there would be NO mention of and therefore to the public mind NO trains North, South or West of Exeter St D. Now wouldn't that be sensible!

Problem is your seat reservation is no longer valid. Loads of business people use advance tickets!

Why isn't the seat reservation not valid?

Do reservations have to be "validated" by 10 mins into the journey?

Ok, different scenario.

I am taking the train from Stourbridge Junction to Glasgow. My plan is to take a train to Smethick Galton Bridge, change onto the train to Birmingham New Street and take the Glasgow train from there.

However, at Smethick Galton Bridge, I discover that trains into Birmingham look as though they might be disrupted, so I take a train to Wolverhampton instead, and catch my connection (one stop along from New Street).

Is my reservation valid here?