Great Western Coffee Shop

Fares, routeing and ticket validities are a complex subject and providing accurate advice in response to a particular request isn't always easy. You can help by supplying, in your opening post, as much information as possible about your journey(s).

When asking for advice, please provide the following information:

    -Your origin and destination, including any via points or places where you may wish to break your journey.
    -The date(s) you wish to travel and whether you are making a single or return journey.
    -The time you wish to travel. (eg: exact time, morning/afternoon/evening, peak/off-peak, time not important)
    -The number of people travelling. Adults, children.
    -Whether you require flexibility or are happy to be booked on a specific train.
    -Whether you hold a Railcard or some other discount entitlement.
    -Whether you are willing to accept a longer journey time in return for cheaper fares. (not always applicable)

The advice given as a result, direct or indirect, of the invitation on this page, is personal advice from the respondent, and the forum can accept no liability for the accuracy, relevance or appropriateness of information or advice given, or for the consequences of you taking that advice. The forum is, however, designed to help you find appropriate and accurate travel information and as such the team here will usually add comment / amend threads where we believe them to be inaccurate or inappropriate.

Please remember that, under the terms of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/NRCOC.pdf), it is the passenger's responsibility to ensure they have valid tickets for the entirety of their rail journey. If you are unsure please check with National Rail Enquiries (NRE) or the relevant Train Operating Company (TOC).

Finally, and this applies to those who reply as well, please try to avoid the use of acronyms/abbreviations, especially when the full details haven't already been included in a post. When short codes are used please use the correct ones. For example, in UK railway land there is no such place as BTM, and BNS is not Birmingham New Street. OPR is not an Off Peak Return. Also there is a distinct difference between 'Advance Purchase' and buying a ticket in advance of travel.

This should be a poster at stations  ;D

I'm "bumping" this topic ... after sorting out tickets for my return trip (out Sunday, back Thursday) for the coming week. Complicated by my wanting to avoid buses on the outward journey and planning to go around the houses  by train instead (and in the process renewing acquaintance with a stretch of line / service that I would like current first hand experience of for my CRP role.)

Pricing suggested by National Rail Enquiries (who I phoned to ask about specific terms on certain tickets) was almost 3 time the price of an anytime return - admittedly to halfway around the houses rather than my final destination - which is all I need.  Many thanks to BNM for his assistance.

BNM.  That's the 'bignosemac', esteemed moderator and resident ticketing expert on the Coffee Shop forum, not the Banca Nationala a Moldovei (http://www.bnm.org/).  ;) :D ;D

Some advice would be most welcome on this topic if I may ask for the help of a more experienced member
Question   A young chap who is a student and has a valid student railcard travels from let's say Oxford to Temple meads on his ticket with his student railcard
When he gets to Bristol he has a change of travel plan and does not leave the station to catch the bus but instead gets on the Severn riviera service intending to travel to let's say redland
Knowing full well that it is possible to buy a ticket on this train he boards and when the train manager asks to see all tickets he asks to buy one and shows his railcard
 At which point the TM in question tells him that he does not qualify for a railcard discount because he should of bought a ticket before boarding the train and then charges the full fare whilst requiring the young man to show him the ticket for the journey from Oxford .

So is the TM right to disregard the Railcard

Or was he as I suspect being a bit of a git ?

Technically correct.  If there are opportunities to buy a ticket before boarding at the station where the "journey" started, then a full priced anytime fare can be charged.

The TM is wrong, as the passenger should have bought a ticket, not should of bought a ticket.  ;)

Is it possible to by a ticket at Temple Meads without going out of the ticket line ?.

There are staff with Avantix Mobile ticket machines inside the gateline. There from early AM to late PM.

Thankyou one and all for your most helpfull replies I'm much obliged.

Pedant alert!

Should't the passenger have brought a ticket - although I do accept it depends on circumstances at the station they boarded on....

bignosemac will no longer be offering fares advice.

I've decided to no longer contribute to this forum.

Very sad indeed at that decision - and thank you for all the advise you've given.

If it's not too late I would like to add my sadness at your decision but also thanks for the help you have given other forum members and myself in the past.

Regards BB

A shame to see you go, especially on a bad note.

Hope to see you back when things calm down.

I'm assuming there maybe external issues as have seen several out-of character posts on several forums from BNM in recent weeks which have led to people on other forums thinking he may have failed the 'attitude test', so all the best in sorting things out as someone who's posts I've always respected. Apologies if I have come to the wrong conclusion.

My "Thank You" - an email, but I want the thanks in public

Whilst going slightly off topic, albeit with reference to the thread title, may I suggest to people out there who are looking for fares advice, or who are in need of any form of help regarding travelling on the railways, especially in the GWR region, that they continue to post their queries on this forum.

Whilst bignosemac was (is) always very helpful and accommodating, I would just like to point out we have many other forum members who are also very knowledgeable and informative (me not usually included) and will always offer you the best possible advice they/we can.

This thread has now become long enough to split onto two pages which in itself makes it less effective as a pinned "come here for advise" thread, and I'm going to take a look at re-jigging it to ensure the encouragement to ask remains as a strong message.

Edit to add I have posted a new (sticky) topic with a top article mentioning new things like the penalty fare regime change ... it's at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=17140.0 and should be the thread people find first in future.

sorry to hear BNM is leaving. a  real loss to the rest of us.

since I'm here, does anybody know of a way of dealing with the followingituation?
Southwest Trains offer cheap day returns, ( sometimes) which have to be bought by midnight the day before travel.
however, my nearest station doesn't have ticket machines, so I have to drive to another station to collect the ticket, and then board at my local station.
or as I have paid, am I entitled to travel and collect my ticket at my destination, for example.
Thanks.

( I bet bignosemac knows.....)

If you buy tickets ahead of time, the rules require them to be in your possession before you commence your journey.  Order sufficient time in advance, and you can have them posted to you.  Otherwise, collect them during a previous train journey or (yes) make a special trip.

Them's the rules, but at times discression / can prevail.  If you're making a short local hop and changing to a main line train, it's likely discression would be shown if you had a printout of your order - travelling (for example) from Dean to Waterloo with a change at Salisbury.  But you cannot (and really should not) rely on that.

Thanks Grahame.

That's what I assumed.