Off-Peak Train Tickets

jeffo489

Can someone please explain off peak train tickets to me? I am finding it very confusing.

Last week I needed to travel to London from Spital (Wirral). I am returning this evening.
My journey consisted of Spital -> Chester. Chester -> London Euston.

I looked on TheTrainline.com and it reported that if I got on the train at 9:03am in Spital, the fare was off-peak. When the ticket inspector checked my ticket he said that I had to travel from 9:30am to get the off-peak price. He let me off and agreed it was confusing, but this is how he explained it...

If you START your journey BEFORE 6:30am or after 9:30am the journey is off-peak. If you are connecting to another train in Chester, as long as the journey is on one ticket the second leg of the journey does not matter.

I need to return to London next week. Using his logic, I could start my journey in Spital at 6:24am, and get on a Virgin train in Chester at around 7:00am. The journey should be off-peak. (ie. £66 return instead of £250).

I can not find ANY accurate information about this on the internet. But the Trainline.com does not list an off-peak fare. Can someone please explain.

epm-84

Which ticket inspector was it - the Merseyrail one or the Virgin one? I'm guessing the Merseyrail one as he sounds familar with normal off-peak times but not special Virgin off-peak times.

Normally an off-peak ticket wouldn't be valid on Merseyrail at 09:03. However, as the London train fare is set by Virgin Trains the times you can use the ticket is determined by Virgin and not Merseyrail. A London service arriving in London at 11:38 is off-peak despite the fact that you started your journey before 09:30.

As Merseyrail can issue you with a £20 penalty fare if they believe your ticket is invalid I would recommend in future getting a printout from either the Virgin trains website or from a station ticket office to show that the off-peak ticket is valid for your journey.

jeffo489

Thank you.

BUT. If I start my journey at 6:25AM on a Merseyrail train, and arrive in Chester for 6:50am, and get on a 7:00am train for London...is that still off-peak?

epm-84

No. Virgin set their peak fares for London routes by the time the train arrives or leaves London Euston and a 9am arrival at London Euston is very much seen as a peak train. Virgin do publish leaflets giving full details on which of their services are peak and off-peak and they should be available at Chester and Crewe stations.

Livingthedream

There you go Virgin Off Peak trains, good luck in making sense of it