Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi, I'm looking to save a bit on journeys to London without having to book in advance.  I note that you can use a Network Railcard on SWT services from Exeter to Waterloo but would Newton Abbot sell me an off peak day return to Exeter (without railcard discount) and an off peak return to London via Honiton with Network Railcard discount or would I have to buy the day return to Exeter and buy another ticket there.

If you ask for it, they should sell you it, as it's a perfectly legitimate thing to do.

Quite a few people do it that way, be sure to book it all in one go at the first ticket office though to ensure you are able to use your railcard as if you buy your ticket on the train you may only be sold a Full open single or return, there are some peak restrictions with the Network railcard mind.

Those restrictions would no doubt be quite clearly specified on the ticket, though?  ;)

brand new customers only  ;)

What peak restrictions are you referring to.  The only ones I know are some friday only journeys on Salisbury to Portsmouth route.  Apart from that nothing special

I don't think there are any specific evening peak Network Railcard restrictions, only that on weekdays it can't be used before 10am and there is a minimum ^10.00 fare. My T&C don't mention any, so once I've bought my (super)offpeak ticket I just assume the normal restrictions apply, and for Waterloo there are no evening restrictions, which is different to Paddington of course...

Paul

As there is no off peak return from Newton Abbot to Exeter, I guess the best way of doing this would be an off peak return from Newton Abbot to Honiton with Devon & Cornwall railcard and an off peak return from Honiton to London with Network Railcard?  This still saves me over ^20 than the cheapest walk-on fare via Paddington.

It is my understanding that these restrictions only apply to ordinary network rail cards not to Gold cards.  If the restrictions are a problem for you then buy a Goldcard instead.  Gold cards are network railcards that are combined with annual season tickets in the former network SE area.  So if you buy a NSE annual season ticket it automatically acts as a bonus network railcard without these restrictions.

Two options for buying a annual season ticket - either buy one that you will use or buy one from Ryde Pier to Ryde (on the IoW) which only costs about ^120 pa.

I can't find anything about the additional restrictions other than some people saying they are not valid on FGW HSS services in the evening.  The leaflet I have just says not valid before 10 AM.

The restrictions are the same for the gold card EXCEPT for the mon-fri minimum fare (there is not one) still not valid until after 1000.

Does anyone know what the additional peak restrictions on using a Network Railcard are other than it's not valid before 10 AM?

If you're travelling from the westcountry your network card is valid on the 08.25 service from EXD -Waterloo-no need to wait until 10.00!

Thanks for that information, noddingdonkey - and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum!  ;)

thanks, I can't believe it's taken me so long to register and that my username hadn't been snaffled before!

Ah, so you've been just a 'guest' until now, then?  ;)

You're welcome to post a bit about your reasons for joining, and perhaps your choice of username, on the board http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?board=1.0, if you're happy to do so.