Best fare - differing advise from different GWR ticket sales staff

[whole diary]

[grahame]

An interesting question (well - interesting to me!) ... 16:00 to about 19:00 in Swindon - what is the best way and fare?  Holding senior rail card and ENCTS^▸ (English National Concessionary Travel Scheme) bus card.

Up from Melksham - 14:32 train with an hour in Swindon for a Coffee at Costa in the base of Signal Point.  Back - should be the 18:52 train, arriving Melksham 19:15 - but GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) aren't running that at the moment and the next train is 20:45 - never mind the SLC^▸ (Service Level Commitment) ( http://gwr.passenger.chat/gwr_slc3b.pdf ) which states:

Between and including the Early and Late Services eight services from Swindon shall be provided. Intervals shall be no greater than three hours. Two services shall depart between 1715 and 1900.

So - only 50% of the services specified - nothing even shortly before 17:15 or shortly after 19:00. And a gap longer than allowed, right on the edge of the traditional peak. The SLC is a safety net - not an ideal service but a bare minimum required of the operator.

OK - having pointed out that service has fallen below "bare minimum" to "impractical", how do I get home?  19:00 train, Swindon to Bath - arrive 19:23. Then 19:45 Bath to Melksham bus - arrive 20:22.  For sure, an hour later but still an hour earlier home than I would be if I waited for the train (bus stop closer to home than railway station).

Best fare ... each advise from a member of the GWR ticket sales team:

Advise 1 - Off peak senior return MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) -> SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) + a seniors single CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains) -> BTH^» (Bath Spa - next trains)

Advise 2 - "I will endorse your ticket to allow you through the BTH gateline in the circumstances"

Advise 3 - "MKM <-> SWI is any permitted, so you are allowed SWI -> BTH -> TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains) -> MKM and can break journey / get off short at BTH"

I find "3" astonishing ... but yet GWR ticket sale site will sell me MKM to PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) with changes at TRO and BTH passing through SWI so I guess that IS a permitted routing.  And confirmed on BTH gateline - my ticket refused on the barrier, but no more than a glance from the staff member there - he read Swindon / Melksham alound so he certainly read the ticket - and opened the barrier for me.

I would love to see integrated contactless ticketing - swipe in and out at each journey / leg and end up charging me just the #5.15. But I would need some re-assurances that such a system would work and charge the correct lowest fare.

[grahame]

Key and map - to help with reading of the above

SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) - Swindon - 1
CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains) - Chippenham - 2
BTH^» (Bath Spa - next trains) - Bath Spa - 3
TRO^» (Trowbridge - next trains) - Trowbridge - 4
MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) - Melksham - 5

Red Line - London to Bristol trains
Purple Line - (Bristol) - Bath - Westbury trains
Green Line - Swindon to Westbury
Brown Line - BUS - Bath via Melksham