Using a return rail ticket in reverse?

Dinosnore

Hi

I hope this is in the right section.

I need to travel from London to Biggleswade on a day return on Sunday.

Looking at National Rail it is £18 for a Off-Peak day return from London to Biggleswade.

However if you buy a return from Biggleswade to London a Super Off Peak return is available for £13.

If I bought online and picked up from the station is there any reason why I couldn't go for the cheaper option and just use the tickets the wrong way round?

System

Once you complete the second part of a return ticket then that ticket is deemed to be fully used.

Billy-no-Money

Your Outward ticket is only valid if it's accompanied by an UNUSED Return ticket, and the guard can ask to check both on the outward journey.

In reality this rarely happens but it's definitely not a valid thing to do, sorry.

Edit: Pasted from Railforums: Clause 17 of the conditions of carriage states:
"A return ticket (including a two-part return ticket) is only valid for the outward
journey shown on that ticket if the ticket is completely unused. You may not use
the outward part of a return ticket after you have used the return part."

HJFrancis

If you sign up to Quidco and book your ticket £18 through Southern Railway, you will get 6% cash back (a little over £1, but worth having if you do it a few times).

http://www.quidco.com/southern-railway/

Livingthedream

Dinosnore wrote: »

is there any reason why I couldn't go for the cheaper option and just use the tickets the wrong way round?

As correctly stated by billy-no-money it's against T&C's of the ticket and would be seen as an attempt at fare evasion which could land you in trouble.

But in reality could you get away with it, well believe it or not this is a well known scam that ticket examiners are trained to look out for, so my advice it's not worth the couple of quid saving.

property.advert

Impossible to know whether you are using the outward leg or not if you don't show the other part. All the guys on the trains care about is whether you have a ticket for that journey. he couldn't give a monkeys whether you are using it in reverse.

Where I am, trips to nearby locations cost more stating in my location than the other end, so you can purchase online and you are simply warned that the station you are picking the ticket up from is not the station your journey commences from. You just click to acknowledge that and off you go.

Unless you are "returning" on the first train of the day, making your outward leg impossible, they cannot know. Even then, there is nothing illegal in using one portion of a ticket without first using the other portion.

spiro

More stations are getting electronic barriers and stations issuing a single part 'return' tickets which the barrier swallows when you put it into the barrier to get out of the station the ticket should have started from. That will stop the practice of using a return ticket back to front.

Tilt

property.advert wrote: »

Impossible to know whether you are using the outward leg or not if you don't show the other part. All the guys on the trains care about is whether you have a ticket for that journey. he couldn't give a monkeys whether you are using it in reverse.

Where I am, trips to nearby locations cost more stating in my location than the other end, so you can purchase online and you are simply warned that the station you are picking the ticket up from is not the station your journey commences from. You just click to acknowledge that and off you go.

Unless you are "returning" on the first train of the day, making your outward leg impossible, they cannot know. Even then, there is nothing illegal in using one portion of a ticket without first using the other portion.

You could be right, but its probably against the t & C's of the ticket (s).

yorkie2

The short answer is one word: no (as stated in the National Rail Conditions of Carriage).

The long answer is:

* The outward portion is technically only valid with an unused return portion. This will never be asked for unless the ticket inspector has reason for suspicion, or you are using an outward portion beyond the first date of validity (e.g. an Anytime Return where the outward portion is used on day 3).

* There is (obviously) no requirement to hold an outward portion, when using a return portion, and no expectation that a customer would hold such a portion (as it may have been swallowed by gates or thrown away).

* You can use the outward portion ONLY, or the return portion ONLY, or both portions in sequence.