Ticket discounts methods

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

As you have to travel together, even when disruption hits or your plans change, I can't see very much take up for this personally

[Surrey 455]

Also just to ask ... if you purchase from a gwr station what perks do you get? .... if you buy one from swt you get 6 or 7 free weekend journeys on south west trains (this may change when first take over)

It's 6 vouchers per year on SWT^▸ (South West Trains). It entitles you to a days free travel anywhere on the SWT network on Saturdays, Sundays, bank holidays and at certain times on Fridays. It's called Gold Service. I try to do multi destination trips in a day to take advantage of it. For example Wimborne, Blandford and Wareham in one day, Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Lymington on another. Travelling between the towns by SWT train or bus.

I'm not likely to use up my tickets by the end of August so I hope First MTR will honour them.

[JayMac]

The exd-exc price quoted is a part time season, i have asked the question of its eligibility as a gold card and although i cant find an answer in written format the answer i tend to get is no.... does anyone have the actual answer to this?

Yes, Barry Doe. Who has presumably researched it before publishing in RAIL magazine.

[Western Pathfinder]

I came across this thought it might be interesting/useful?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-ireland/1738245-isle-wight-trick.html

[ChrisB]

Barry Doe has issued corrections before. He's not 100% reliable.

[bobm]

Barry Doe has issued corrections before. He's not 100% reliable.

Agreed, indeed he does issue a correction in another article in this fortnight's column.  However the article on the Gold Card is a follow up to an earlier piece so you would hope if it was incorrect it would have been picked up by now - unless of course the entry qualifications have been changed following a rush of sales in Exeter!

[ChrisB]

But that wasn't made clear here?

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

Here is one for you ... a regular annual season ticket is valid at any time on any day during its valid period... once that period ends the ticket is no longer valid for travel or the gold card attached ..... if the part time season ticket is for mondays tuesdays and wednesdays then the ticket is not valid for travel on thursdays.... would the gold card discount be valid on an invalid ticket for that day 

[ChrisB]

There is no way of marking the Gold Card with valid days - hence, I do not believe a part-time annual ticket IS a Gold Card.

[stuving]

Here's the full
There are several advantages over a standard Network Card, principally a larger area (most of the London Midland network, though curiously not Worcester-Hereford) and the lack of a minimum price on weekdays. I believe the current cheapest qualifying annual season is Lapworth-Hatton at £160pa, though Lichfield City-Lichfield Trent Valley is close at £164.

I spotted this in the Southern rail report, discussing little-used stations:

Newhaven Harbour is an example of this. Most trains stop there so it has 2 trains per hour each  direction all day. But hardly any one appears to use it, from my observation, and the platform is full of weeds. The ferry connection is now advertised as a 3 minute walk from Newhaven Town station.  According to ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) statistics there were 50,878 journeys to/from Newhaven Harbour in  2014/2015, of which 11,507 were season ticket journeys. The ORR statistics have a note that says "strong growth on Newhaven branch - potentially tourism related", but I think the numbers are caused by the Annual Season between Town and Harbour costing just £164, the equal cheapest I could find (equal with Pevensey Bay - Pevensey & Westham and Lichfield T rent Valley – Lichfield City), which entitles the holder to a  Network Gold Card with lots of useful benefits. I  don’t think these ticket holders actually ever use Newhaven Harbour station.

So Chris Gibb, at least, has noticed what's going on.