Great Western Coffee Shop

Bristol Temple Meads to London Waterloo via Salisbury, Off Peak Day Return (CDR) = ^36-50. A longer journey time of around 3 hours but a nice saving against the nearest equivalent fare to London Paddington (there's no CDR) of ^49.00.

Here's the real imbalance though. If you request your fare to London Waterloo (via Salisbury) from Shirehampton on the Severn Beach Line, the CDR is ^27.10. It gets weirder though; all other CDR fares on the SBL to London Waterloo are ^28.10.  Seeing as you have to change at Bristol Temple Meads it's a little odd that it is a whacking ^9.40 cheaper to travel further.

This fare is particularly good value as the restrictions on it during Mon-Fri are that you can arrive on any train into Waterloo after 1000. Compared with the FGW service into Paddington the earliest you can arrive on a SVR (Off Peak Return) is 1045. Also there is no early evening peak restriction on the return from Waterloo.

I often buy this fare, even when I start my journey at Bristol Temple Meads. Starting short on a CDR is permitted under the terms of National Rail Conditions of Carriage.

Shrewesbury to London Waterloo route Bristol is cheaper.

compair services on a weekday from exeter to paddington and then to waterloo then things get interesting! do it at 6- 8 in the morning

Cheaper than "Any Permitted" but cheaper still route Birmingham, but has evening restrictions. (London Waterloo and London Terminals fares are identical from Shrewsbury). And even cheaper on Wrexham and Shropshire to Marylebone with no time restrictions, excepting that you must travel on their trains!

Wow ^86.20 (according to Avantix) difference on the Anytime Return (SOR) !!! But interestingly NRES quotes ^205 for the route Taunton fare against Avantix's ^199. And ^112.80 against Avantix's ^112.00 for the route Honiton fare. Us poor passengers are being unfairly hamstrung by all the fare permutations and errors in the system.

extra 40 mins really dont sound so bad now does it>?

also do you have the latest update for Avantix

Umm.... I have Avantix NFM03 vailid from May 17th to Sept 5th 2009. But I've not had it updated since I got it. My copy is not from TSO Bookshop..... :-X

Has there been an updated version released during this fare period?

i dont know to be honest i was just doing abit of trouble shooting lol, just out of interest have you got a download link?

Just discovered from another forum that Avantix NFM03 CD-ROM purchasers have been sent an unsolicted updated copy free. So I guess my downloaded copy is gonna contain errors and ommisions. Next time I'll buy a copy......

shal i give it the vista test?

Yes!!

Time is money! If on business (which let's face it is where the money is made) I'd go fgw. I can't stand the prospect of a 159 with rubbish legroom, no powerpoints, no decent catering and non existant armrests for a long journey!

Ah but for a SWT first class fare that is still approx ^40 cheaper than the FGW Anytime Return (STD) you can have the better leg room, armrests and powerpoints, no free coffee and nibbles though.

Agreed, time is money, but surely saving money needs to be paramount in business. A business that spends over the odds ain't gonna last long when times are hard.....just ask National Express.

take away the number 159 and sounds like the airline fun of a hst standard refresh :-)

lol i think we both just have our favs there are good points to both if you want to travel in comfort for a decent price with food onboard brought to your seat ok not a proper dinner but snacks or sarnys , after all you will go to the restarant after your business meeting then the waterloo route is the way for you, if you want to pay more look at the back of a seat with no view but theres no barly noticable engine under your feet and you get there faster and be able to go and get hot food by walking half way up the train then paddington all the way. each to his own, and for the record the 159's do have power points do have arm rests have you been one one?

I looked up this example on www.nationalrail.co.uk - the site indicated this fare only for journeys arriving Waterloo after 13:00. It's shown as "off peak day return" but the restriction seems to indicate that it's "super off-peak". The latter is shown for Trowbridge-Waterloo but not Shirehampton-Waterloo. Anyone know what's going on?
Secondly, the ^27.10 fare is shown as valid for all the 5 quoted return journeys via Salisbury. There is another fare ^37 "Off peak return" which is valid via Salisbury on the options shown that involve a change at Salisbury, but not on the late ones that involve an overnight journey. Why is the day return valid on overnight but not the [month] return?  ???

If business isnt going to spend over the odds - why do people still buy FC at all!

Fact is, if you have to be in London for 6 hours ish with a client, an elongated journey with SWT is not going to save ^40 if it means you lose the business!

well if its last min drop of a hat ive just found out i have to be there in 4 hours then yes paddington, knowing in advance, certain you will get a seat knowing the train is over 90% sure to run to time you know you can get food onboard and your saving money no brainer? unless you want to go first class in which case to be fair swt offers a poor mans first class option but for 90% of commuters (random figure plucked out of the air) southwest trains is a better option!

I compared the Off Peak Day Returns (CDR) to Waterloo (WAT) from Bristol Temple Meads (BRI) and Shirehampton (SHH), because there are no published time restrictions on Avantix for the fare from SHH, it merely says 'Restrictions Apply' with a link to a non-existent note. So I assume the '...not before 1000' restriction applies despite National Rail Enquiries not allowing this on their fares inquiry for a SHH-WAT CDR. This is an obvious anomaly, probably brought about by the fact that the SHH fare is set by GWR and the BRI fare is set by SWT! I'm reluctant to point out to ATOC, FGW or SWT of this anomaly, as any change will, doubtless, not be in my favour! Instead I rely on the lack of knowledge across the board; no guard, RPI, or gateline staff have yet challenged me when I've travelled to Waterloo on a CDR ticket from Shirehampton on the first train arriving after 1000.

Umm....because you have a month to use it so you wouldn't need to complete your journey the next morning. However on the last day of validity you can break overnight:-

(From National Rail Enquiries)
Where Break of Journey is available on your specific journey, if you wish to stop overnight or it is not possible to complete the journey by 0230 on the day following the last day of validity, you may continue your journey the following morning. Travel must resume before 1200, where the time restrictions that apply to the ticket should be observed and no further break of journey is allowed except to change trains.

I think so, yes. On the NRES fares display, Off Peak and Super Off Peak both show up in the same row of the fares matrix (alongside the side heading 'Off Peak') unless you click on the 'more fares' link under the Off Peak 'side heading' (IYSWIM). Clicking 'more fares' nearly always makes the display much clearer AFAICT.  As a related example, if you click on Anytime's more fares, you get two rows, and can more easily work out which fare goes with which times and connections - from which route restrictions then become more apparent.

Normally the SWT SOP availability is 'after 1200 at Waterloo', and it is available on the 1219 arrival.
The SOP fare will possibly only be available for routes SWT price - and which are completely within their area?

Paul

No power points in cattle class!

I know there are armrests, they are simply too low to provide any worthwhile use.

you tryed sitting in the seat  ;D