Great Western Coffee Shop

I know this is slightly outside the FGW area (except the one or two per day!), but I hope someone more knowledgeable about fares could help me out.

I need to get to Chichester from my parents house every day for the next few weeks.  Someone would drop me to Havant station and a SDR with my railcard is ^2.65.

However they won't be picking me up, so I'll need to return to Cosham to walk back home.  The fare from Cosham to Chichester is ^4.45.  Obviously I'd rather not pay the full extra ^1.80 each day, when I'm only making part of the journey.

If I bought HAV-CCH then on my way home went to the ticket window at CCH and asked for an excess fare for the return only, how much would I be charged?  Would it simply be half of the difference, i.e. 90p or is there some other crazy way they work these things out?

Also, could I buy the excess at the ticket window in Havant in the morning for travel later in the day?

TIA

The way I understand excessing is that it enables one fare to be "upgraded" to another fare but both teh start and end fare must be real fares.  So I doen;t think your proposal would work.

Hence another example of why the fare system is screwed

I don't think so either - they'll just sell you a single from Havant to Cosham./...

OK, thanks for the replies.  Looks like I'll just be buying a Cosham to Chichester every day (albeit bought at Havant).

Why? All the OP is doing is travelling one way from his original departure station (having used both parts of the return) to Cosham.

That to me logically is a single from Havant to Cosham.

Simple.

The way I read the reply - and past explanations lead me to believe it - if he wanted to excess a return ticket he had to do in both directions even if only wanting one

yup, that''s the way I read it....so the single would be cheaper...

I don't think the single would be cheaper.  The cheapest option appears to be buying Cosham to Chichester but using the "You may start, break and resume or end your journey ..." rule to start at Havant.

The options appear to be:
1. Cosham - Chichester return ^4.45
2. Havant - Chichester single ^2.25 plus Chichester - Cosham single ^4.10 = ^6.35
3. Havant - Chichester return ^2.65 plus Havant - Cosham single ^2.40 = ^5.05
4. 7 day season ticket ^32.60, i.e. ^6.52 per return (more expensive as my railcard doesn't have a minimum fare in July and August)

Cheapest appears to be just the straight return.  The reason I'm questioning over such a small amount is that over 12 weeks (which is how long I expect to be making the journey), the 90p per day would have come to over ^50.

Of course, this comes from the bizarre policy of returns being pennies more expensive than singles

Which is pure stupidity

i agree with you on that.  Hardly reflects the more complicated travel arrangements that people have these days.

yes, I agree with you there.

Overdistance excess on one leg only = half the difference in fares as long as you keep to the same ticket type.

'Buy before you board' also applies to excess fares. If you have an opportunity to buy the excess before boarding you must take it. A guard can rightly refuse an over-distance excess if you boarded at a station with an open ticket office. In this instance TVMs don't count, because they are dumb machines that can't do excesses!

Just a thought, but may be worth checking if a Cosham/Chichester season for the appropriate duration will save you any money. Given the big discount on seasons it's possible that it will.

NRES season ticket calculator (http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/s/seasonticket/calculator)

That then gives you the freedom to make whatever journeys you please (including joining/alighting short) between those two stations at any time of day.

Thanks for the link.  However in July & August, I can use my railcard before 10am without any minimum fares (so day tickets work out cheaper).

Also, its an agency job with no notice period in the contract.  I've had experience with another agency before where they didn't need a whole bunch of temps (myself included) half way through a day and just sent us all home (to make things worse, we only got paid for the three hours we'd been there that day).  So I'm being more restrained this time by only buying day tickets - even if they work out more expensive.

Ok, I have a railcard and even in July/August (ahem  - this assumes the guards actually remember the minimum price rule in the other 10 months which most don't) if doing the journey every day, a season is cheaper

As a contractor I also have the insecurity part but you cam claim back the difference between the daily fares and the season if you end up out of work mid ticket

You can certainly do it for monthlies so it is worth considering if you can get the initial funds for the monthly

Made the journey this afternoon.  Handed over my return portion at Chichester and asked for "an excess to Cosham".  She quoted ^2.40, which is the single price.  I asked if this was an excess fare or just a single, she then tapped away at the computer before coming out with 85p.  This was half the difference in fare (as I managed to use off-peak tickets today).  Looks like I'll be visiting the CCH ticket window every day ::)