Actually it's much worse than that - they're not "upgrading" people from SSR to SVR, they're forcing people that could buy either SVR OR SSR tickets to buy the full-price SOR ticket (more than 3x the price of the SSR).

And the moral dilemma was "do the right thing" (tell the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) so that they fix it) vs "be selfish" (don't tell the TOC so that people not wanting to pay the SOR price move to the later train leaving more space for me)...

Anyway, I sent them a message last week.  No reply as yet...

Well, I caught the 19:15 on Tuesday last week and it wasn't exceptionally bad - I expected it to be busy, but I don't think there was anyone standing in the carriage (I had already checked it on the National Rail app from the Bakerloo train on the way down, so I knew the platform before it was on the boards, plus I always use the quiet carriage (the one furthest from the entrance and therefore only the non-lazy people bother to go that far ).  Personally, I'd rather get back to BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) at 2040 on a busy train than at 2140 on an emptier one, especially as the buses are every half an hour by that time, so I've probably got another 45-50 minutes before I actually get home, and that's if it's on time.

As for contacting fGW, I guess there's the moral dilemma - do I tell them so that they fix the site, or do I keep quiet so that people are discouraged from getting the 19:15, leaving more space for me 

Hello all, newbie alert

I was hoping that I might ask for some advice on interpreting the regulations, as I'm getting confused (like lots of people...)

I need to make a number of return trips from Bristol Parkway (BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains)) to Kings Langley (KGL) over the coming months.  Naturally I'd prefer to avoid paying the SOR fare of ^208 (!) in favour of the SSR fare (^61.50), but I'm getting confused as to which PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-BPW trains I can use it on.

If I look on brfares.com for a journey from BPW to KGL, then an SSR is available, with restriction code XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)).

Looking at that restriction code for the return journey, it says...


However, if I go onto the fGW booking site and try to buy a ticket for that route (for example: BPW-KGL return, depart after 1700 on 03/11/2014, return after 1600 on 13/11/2014), then it refuses to offer me the option of getting the 1915 PAD-BPW departure for the return journey, making me wait another hour until the 2015 departure.

So, what am I missing?  As far as I can tell, the 1915 departure from PAD is valid for the return portion of SSRs, and there's no restriction on the KGL-PAD section because it's not explicitly mentioned in the XC restriction and it's "connecting into" the 1915.

There's certainly a connection available (depart KGL 1741, arrive EUS 1808, depart PAD 1915), but it gets greyed out if I choose the SSR.

A couple of days ago I was trying to work out what was going on, and I'm sure I remember that the site was even refusing the use of the 1915 for SSRs that were explicitly BPW-PAD (rather than through-tickets to KGL), but that seems to have changed now (or my memory is failing me).

In case it matters, my route would be BPW-PAD-HRW-KGL using the Bakerloo Line rather than the "normal" BPW-PAD-EUS-KGL using Circle/Hammersmith&City because the interchange at HRW is so much easier than at EUS.

Curiously, thetrainline.com thinks that the 1741 connection to the 1915 is valid for a SSR, and furthermore that a SVR can be used on both the 1915 and 1845 departures from PAD, whereas the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) site thinks that SVR tickets also have to wait for the 2015 along with the SSRs.

I'm starting to think that there's a bug in the site...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks