Club 60

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Just come across "Club 60" tickets.   Think I must have been asleep when the fanfare announced them, or there's been an absence of fanfare.   Tomorrow, Lisa and I have an evening appointment in London ... fare (as we're golden oldies with railcards) just £24 return from Melksham to London each, to which we'll need to add a taxi back from Chippenham.

Problem booking - system says "online price" but I git stuck at the "delivery" window.  It transpires (after incorrect advise from live chat) that they can "only be got from ticket office not from machine" ... which also turn out to be inaccurate, as if there's no ticket office open they can be purchased on train.

Interestingly, the £24 fare seems to be a day return, GW^▸ (Great Western) services only, valid "any permitted". Looks like superoffpeak trains only and nothing to say that the whole journey has to be made, so we should be OK out Melksham to Westbury and back only as far as Chippenham, long long after our 153 is tucked up in bed at Westbury!

Anyone have good links / more general details of this offer?   Link to a data page?   Google really wasn't my friend on this one!

[PhilWakely]

Graham, you probably already know this, but this is the information I've been able to get hold of..........



I guess the fact that you must provide proof of age might lead to the 'ticket office only' comment. but the presence of a Senior Railcard should provide that evidence both online and at a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine).

It also appears that the valid services are not necessarily restricted to the SSR validity as - using NTA^» (Newton Abbott - next trains)-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) return as an example - outward (Mon-Fri) validity includes one Peak (07:32) and both Off-Peak services (08:06 and 08:29) as well as all Super off-Peak, whilst one Super Off-Peak service (19:03) along with all Peak and Off-Peak services is excluded from the return validity.

[grahame]

Graham, you probably already know this, but this is the information I've been able to get hold of..........

Many thanks ... that had passed me by; such a shame to be a late starter as it's an excellent "promo" ...

[grahame]

I guess the fact that you must provide proof of age might lead to the 'ticket office only' comment. but the presence of a Senior Railcard should provide that evidence both online and at a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine).

The web site choked at "delivery method" ... wouldn't let me carry on until I had told it how I wanted to get the ticket, but offered me no options.  I guess the machines haven't been programmed with it, and there was less that 5 days so postage wasn't offered.

Live chat told me they were having web site problems and gave me a number to call which turned out to be TransPennine Express; after being on hold there for an age, and also being on hold for an age at the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) customer ticket sales line (which I suspect contacted the same call centre as it was the same hold music) I gave up on this avenue and tweeted - for it to be confined that the tickets can be bought on the day at a ticket office or (only if there's no open ticket office) from the train manager /conductor.   

It appears that a comment on the web site about "online price" was mislead me into thinking these tickets had to be ordered online - my error.  Offering of the tickets and having customers stick at the delivery option appears to me to be a flaw in web site design; if the tickets can only be researched on line and not purchase there with less than five days to travel, it should tell you that when you try, and not imprison you in an unexplained "but I need to know how do deliver them" loop offering you zero options.

[CyclingSid]

Am I misunderstanding something?
I assume this is the same offer:
https://www.gwr.com/destinations-and-events/offers/over-60s-offer
If I go the National Rail Journey Planner it quotes for Reading to Bristol Parkway Off Peak return with Senior Railcard on Tomorrow (Saturday) at £30.05, the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Tickets section quotes £48.00. The over-60s offer page quotes £37.35 with Senior Railcard, before the offer.
What have I done wrong?

[stuving]

Am I misunderstanding something?
I assume this is the same offer:
https://www.gwr.com/destinations-and-events/offers/over-60s-offer
If I go the National Rail Journey Planner it quotes for Reading to Bristol Parkway Off Peak return with Senior Railcard on Tomorrow (Saturday) at £30.05, the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Tickets section quotes £48.00. The over-60s offer page quotes £37.35 with Senior Railcard, before the offer.
What have I done wrong?

£30.05 is the super off-peak return fare,
£37.35 is the off-peak return,
(neither is a day return)
I've no idea what £48 would be.

[ChrisB]

Doesn't say its available on any planner except GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).com...

[grahame]

Tickets duly bought yesterday ... we didn't have a chance to see if they were sold on-train from Melksham as the conductor didn't get to us, but purchased AOK from the ticket office at the interchange.

Being zonal, these tickets work out expensive for short journeys and bl**dy expensive for short journeys between zones. For a Melksham to Paddington return with railcard, £24 (and via Westbury too) was excellent value, even if we got back to Chippenham too late for the last train and ended up paying £30 for a taxi back to the car we had left there!

[froome]

I've also just discovered the existence of these tickets, when one of Bath Spa's friendly staff told me about them. I've not seen any fanfare either, or indeed found any announcement whatsoever. I googled them and that brought me to this forum! I can't find anything on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s website apart from a flash across the head of the site that doesn't seem to have a link.

So reading the terms as shown here (as I can't find them anywhere else) they do sound good value for certain journeys, eg down to Penzance from here, but not for those that just cross the notional zones. What I don't know is what restrictions there are on which trains can be used. A quick look at prices on gwr.com seems to show most of the available trains for these fares run in commuter times, eg leaving Bath Spa between 7 and 9am, but not for trains leaving after then, which seems very odd. Does anyone know about these?

[grahame]

I've also just discovered the existence of these tickets, when one of Bath Spa's friendly staff told me about them. I've not seen any fanfare either, or indeed found any announcement whatsoever. I googled them and that brought me to this forum! I can't find anything on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s website apart from a flash across the head of the site that doesn't seem to have a link.

So reading the terms as shown here (as I can't find them anywhere else) they do sound good value for certain journeys, eg down to Penzance from here, but not for those that just cross the notional zones. What I don't know is what restrictions there are on which trains can be used. A quick look at prices on gwr.com seems to show most of the available trains for these fares run in commuter times, eg leaving Bath Spa between 7 and 9am, but not for trains leaving after then, which seems very odd. Does anyone know about these?

Welcome to the forum, Froome.

You're not the only one to be surprised to find them ... other members found that too and we had a discussion (still open for you to add to) ... follow this link and you'll find answers as best as we could find them  :

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=17530

Overnight, I'll merge your topic with that thread so that we have a common information source into the future - in the meantime, please post in either topic

[ChrisB]

Errr....that link returns you to this thread :-o

[stuving]

This link to the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) page on it was quoted upthread:
https://www.gwr.com/destinations-and-events/offers/over-60s-offer

But trying to navigate there is a case of Destinations-and-events> Offers> wot no link?

[grahame]

Errr....that link returns you to this thread :-o

Oh - silly me ... I had somehow read that as a new thread with a similar title!

[grahame]

So reading the terms as shown here (as I can't find them anywhere else) they do sound good value for certain journeys, eg down to Penzance from here, but not for those that just cross the notional zones. What I don't know is what restrictions there are on which trains can be used. A quick look at prices on gwr.com seems to show most of the available trains for these fares run in commuter times, eg leaving Bath Spa between 7 and 9am, but not for trains leaving after then, which seems very odd. Does anyone know about these?

Further links:
http://www.avocetline.org.uk/reduced-fares-for-over-60s/
https://www.gwr.com/destinations-and-events/offers/over-60s-offer

That latter tells you:

Travel is not permitted on services arriving into London Paddington between 05:30 and 09:38 inclusive or departing London Paddington between 16:01 and 19:16 inclusive on Monday to Friday.

This offer is only valid on train services operated by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

From Bath heading west, there's a GWR train from London to Paignton that calls at Bath Spa in the peak time and the ticket's valid on that, but later trains from Bath headed west involve a change a a Cross Country service for which the ticket will NOT be valid.   You can travel later from Bath, via Westbury, or via Bristol, s-l-o-w train to Taunton, changing there onto the express from London, but the journey plane may not show these slower alternatives.

[grahame]

Also at

https://www.facebook.com/TransWilts/photos/a.402860103147371.1073741825.294993730600676/884669441633099/

So good for TransWilts passengers I was going to boost the post on Facebook, but it was turned down on the "no posts that refer to a person's age" rule