It's 'better' in the sense that it covers the whole country. You can't, for example, travel from Devon to Scotland on a combination of regional multi day Rovers for less than the cost of the Std Class All Line. Nor start in the morning peak. Nor travel First Class.
There's a really annoying way in which they make rovers useless for people from Birmingham. Take for instance the Coast and Peaks one. You have to buy a separate ticket to Telford or Stafford first. Absolute madness (somehow Manchester doesn't get revenue-gouged in the same way on that one – no idea why they're that inconsistent). Likewise the East Midlands one, which starts at Tamworth or Nuneaton. Likewise the Severn and Solent one, which starts at Worcester or Ashchurch. The Explore Wales one will let you go from Birmingham, but only towards Crewe (with massive
TOC▸ restrictions) or Shrewsbury, and not towards Hereford or Cheltenham. Of course the main culprit is Britain's worst InterCity TOC, CrossCountry (wouldn't it be a better world if we could abolish them, and
GWR▸ , Avanti, and
EMR» could run InterCity services terminating in Birmingham?). But there's a proper dog-in-the-manger bunfight between TfW and LNR going on there – LNR won't honour TfW's rovers between Birmingham and Hereford, and TfW won't honour LNR's ones between Hereford, Shrewsbury, and Crewe – bring back Central Trains, all is forgiven...
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