Travelling Short advice please

monxton

I understand how the regulations do not permit travelling short on Advance tickets, Megatrain tickets and similar. So if my cheap ticket takes me to Station_B, I may not get off early at Station_A, or I may be liable to a penalty fare.

Of course it is perfectly OK for me to take the train to Station_B, and then travel back up the line to Station_A on a different ticket. So my question is this - if I have bought the ticket from Station_B to Station_A in advance, am I theoretically obliged to actually make the journey from A to B (on the cheap ticket) and back from B to A (on the extra ticket), or have I satisfied the conditions by buying the extra ticket, and can just get off the train at Station_A?

This is not a "how likely am I to get caught" question. It's more about whether I could recommend this strategy to someone else without worry that I would be encouraging them into a potentially awkward situation.

dzug1

You are not only theoretically but actually obliged to make the full journey of the advance ticket. The ticket back is a separate unrelated journey. It's quite possible it could land you in worse trouble than just getting off at A on the advance ticket, being evidence of deliberate fare evasion rather than a possible innocent mistake.

As to the chances of getting caught - well you are not asking that and I don't know the answer anyway.

yorkie2

dzug1 wrote: »

You are not only theoretically but actually obliged to make the full journey of the advance ticket. The ticket back is a separate unrelated journey.

Actually the OP is entitled to make one journey on two (or more) tickets (NRCoC Condition 19).

The question is whether or not you are obliged to "double-back", and this is a complex question, with different answers depending on interpretations of complex terms & conditions and determining which rule "trumps" another rule!

Let's say you have tickets such as:

• Salisbury to London Waterloo (train calls at Clapham Jn) Megatrain Single; plus
• London Terminals to Feltham (calling at Clapham Jn) Anytime Single.

Providing your ticket is not a Clapham to Feltham ticket, and is a London to Feltham (paper) ticket, then if you alight at Clapham Jn then there is no loss to the Company compared to if you alight at Waterloo. So, why not approach the guard, and show both tickets. Ask the guard "Do I need to stay on to Waterloo, or can I get my train to Feltham from Clapham Jn?", common sense may prevail, and you may be allowed to do this!

If you want to know the legal and contractual position, then experts are not in agreement on this matter, and a 61-post thread regarding this very issue can be found here at a place dedicated to Fares, Ticketing & Routeing questions, which you may find interesting.

My advice would be: Buy the tickets that assume you do double back, ask the on-board staff if you can avoid doubling-back, comply with the instructions given.

monxton

Interesting to get two such different responses.

I read through the Railforums thread, and a lot of that is discussing a slightly different scenario, where the second ticket is only from Clapham to Feltham (rather than London Terminals to Feltham), which I'm inclined to agree is dubious.

I like yorkie2's advice - to allow the extra time for actually making the double-back journey, and then ask the train guard's advice. I'll recommend that.

monxton

... and another thing I learned from the rail forum, is that I was wrong in my first post in this thread. You are not liable to a penalty fare if you travel short. You can be charged the full cost of a walk-up ticket for the journey you made, but that is not a Penalty Fare.