Cotswold Line fares

[whole diary]

[dzug]

There used to be a concession (until May I think) whereby off peak tickets and senior railcards were accepted on earlier trains - specifically the 0758 from Honeybourne.

In July or August I was charged the normal fare.

However national rail enquiries and others - including FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s own site - are still showing the concessions as valid.

Has there been a rethink or are the websites plain wrong?

[Richard Fairhurst]

Off-peak returns to Paddington are still valid from Honeybourne after 07.50: http://www.brfares.com/#faredetail?orig=HYB&dest=PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)&grpd=1072&tkt=SVR

There are evening peak restrictions now, however, so you might have been sold an Anytime Return if you said you were planning to come back in the peak. Obviously, validities do also differ depending where you're travelling to.

Worth noting too that there are often cheap Advance fares available on that train. In my view that's pretty dumb as it fills up without the need to sell discounted tickets, but presumably GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) know what they're doing^{[citation needed]}.

[dzug]

I think what I was sold (I no longer have the tickets) was, yes, that offpeak return but without a senior railcard discount. I was quite happy to time my return journey to fit off peak times

[rogerw]

I think that journey falls within the old Network SE area so senior railcards are not valid before 0930

[Richard Fairhurst]

Ah, now, the railcard angle is interesting.

Previously I believe the restriction code was 4N: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/4N

"Senior and Family & Friends Railcards: As an exception to the normal rule of validity, which states that discounts are only available when the corresponding Off-Peak Day Return is available, Senior and Family & Friends Railcard discounts are also available (on Anytime tickets) from these stations at these times"

Now it's GN (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/GN), that easement does appear to have been dropped.

[dzug]

That's beginning to make sense - other than that the online ticket vendors still offer the reductions that shouldn't now apply

[paul7575]

I think that journey falls within the old Network SE area so senior railcards are not valid before 0930

The network area restriction for the Senior Card on weekdays is 'not valid until off-peak day fares become available', which is sometimes 0930, but not the case as you get further away from London.   I use mine from Winchester on the 0856, for the first train to arrive in Waterloo after 1000.

Of course many people think that 'off-peak' is after 0930, but it is different for off-peak day return tickets and normal off-peak returns

Paul