Thoughts welcome!
My reading of the amended (re-written) rules (see 2b for your query):
On holding one ticket to cover several end to end journeys ...1a. If you buy a Melksham to London (Terminals) ticket you are allowed to start your journey on any train it's valid on, and to break your journey at any point along the way provided that the the ticket your travelling on is also valid on that continung train.
1b. If you fail to make the whole journey (join late or leave short) that's OK on most regular tickets. It is NOT valid on Advance or Megatrain tickets, and I don't think it's valid where the only reason you're allowed onto a particular train is because its a through train (no local example ... in Scotland, examples on the Fife circle)
1c. You can also leave a gap in the service you travel on and use your ticket in parts. For example, on an off peak Cambridge to Melksham ticket last week I wanted to cover the Paddington to Hayes and Harlington section in the peak and bought a separate ticket for that section. At Paddington (obviously!) and Hayes and Harlington (not quite so obvious) I broke my journey.
1d. I am in some doubt as to what the rules are for splitting and resuming on a different route - using (for example) an "any permitted" ticket from Melksham to London, breaking the journey at Didcot and resuming at Theale. I would suspect that's not valid and that resumption needs to be on the same route, so Tilehust or Pangbourne would be fine where Theale is not.
On using several tickets to cover a single journey ...2a. If you buy multiple tickets to cover a journey, and they cover the complete journey in sections, you can use them on any train which calls at the station(s) at which you transfer from one ticket to another, subject to both / all the tickets being valid on the trains / for the individual journeys you're making on those trains. On advance tickets which are valid for travel in specific seats, ther may be a requirement for you to change seats at the station where you transfer from one tickt to another.
2b. If you have multiple tickets to cover your journey and one is a season ticket, ranger, or rover, you may addtionally to rule 2a travel on a train that passes through but does not stop at the station where you switch to or from that season ticket, ranger or rover. As from 1st October 2016, the type of the second ticket involved in this split is immaterial - just its validity. This is a relaxation of previous rules. I am unclear as to how this rule applies to trains using avoiding lines and not "passing though" stations such as Westbury, Frome, Weston-super-mare and Gloucester.
Some things you are NOT allowed to do ...3a. You are not allowed to transfer from one ticket which is NOT a season ticket, ranger or rover to another ticket which is NOT a season ticket, ranger or rover at a station where the train does not stop, even if you make another join elsewhere in your journey from onto a season ticket, ranger or rover. This is a tightening of the rules as from 1st October 2016. For example, if you use a ranger / rover such as a Freedom of Severn and Solent up to Cheltenham Spa, and travel on to Glasgow on a series of split tickets, you could previously do a second split at Oxenholme even if the train didn't call there, but that's no longer allowed and you are now limited to trains calling at Oxenholme.
3b. Where you use multiple tickets for a journey, you are not allowed gaps in the coverage of your route.
3c. You are not allowed to use any part(s) of any ticket out of sequence. For example, you can't use any part of the outbound ticket once you've started to use the return part.
On routing ...4a. An "any permitted" ticket is valid via any route offered on ticket booking engines for the journey or any route offered through the routing guide. It does NOT mean any route that you consider as a passenger to be reasonable.
4b. Tickets routed "via Xxxxxx" are accepted on trains that pass though the station at Xxxxxx without stopping as well as ones that call there. Between Xxxxxxxx and your start and end points, any permitted route may be taken.
When the rules don't 100% apply ...5a. Authorised rail staff can make exceptions - for example, I have been allowed to travel early on an advanced ticket where the service I was booked on was severely delayed, and I have been allowed when travelling on an advance ticket to leave a train early (at Chippenham) because the train was running late and the final connection to Bradford-on-Avon (where I was ticketed to) would have missed.
5b. During planned or emergency engineering works, where trains are diverted away from their normal routes, or where no service is being offered via the ticketed route even though one was scheduled? For example London to Exeter "via Taunton" should be accepted on trains diverted from Castle Cary via Yeovil.
At this point, the above is just my personal reading and is in no way guaranteed to be correct, so you cannot trust it and must check/ask as you book. It's something that does need writing up as a reference for people, so I would welcome comments / questions / corrections, but even after that's done it will need to remain advise to be checked at time of travel.
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