Train Ticket Price - Can someone apply some logic to this?

pimento

Hi!

I have an annual Gold Card season ticket that also covers me for travel within Zones 1-6.
I want to travel to Reading from London Paddington on Friday afternoon (probably some time around 16.30) and return off peak on Monday. I understand that I will need to buy a ticket from the boundary of Zone 6 to Reading and return. I also understand that my Gold Card will give me a third off that ticket.

I've called GWR and National Rail and neither of the people I spoke to seemed to understand what I wanted to do and have quoted me a price that is more expensive than the Paddington to reading fare even though I should only be paying from Zone 6. They also disagree about whether the train has to stop at the station on the edge of Zone 6 or just go through it. They both quoted £22.00 return from Zone 6 boundary to Reading.

Can someone with a bit more knowledge than me apply some logic to this and let me know what ticket I should buy and how much it should cost, please?

Many thanks in advance.

Cornucopia

The boundary station is West Drayton, and the standard single fare from there to Reading is £11.30, so around £7.50 with a 1/3 discount.

Technically, I think your train has to stop at the changeover station of split tickets, though this may not apply if your ticket is marked "Boundary Zone 6" rather than "West Drayton".

As you say, you can pay less than £22 for London-Reading, so I don't know where they got that figure from.

pimento

That sounds a bit better. I'll be needing a return so I suppose I can buy a month return ticket to get me back to West Drayton on the Monday afternoon?

I don't use Paddington station generally so I don't know if the ticket office there will know all this on Friday afternoon if I leave it til then to buy the ticket. Would I be better off just buying it online now?

pimento

How can I find out if the train has to actually stop at West Drayton? It makes a real difference to the time of the journey.

Cornucopia

pimento wrote: »

That sounds a bit better. I'll be needing a return so I suppose I can buy a month return ticket to get me back to West Drayton on the Monday afternoon?

National Rail enquiries shows no period returns available for this journey. 2x Singles = £22.60 (maybe this is where they got the figure from?)

I don't use Paddington station generally so I don't know if the ticket office there will know all this on Friday afternoon if I leave it til then to buy the ticket. Would I be better off just buying it online now?

Paddington is a major terminus, and there are plenty of staff there to advise you. There is no cost advantage to buying in advance for this journey, so I would buy there on the day. Travelcard extensions are a common enough ticket, so I'm sure they will be able to give you definitive advice.

Bear in mind that Friday pm is a busy time, and you probably won't be able to buy your ticket from a machine, so you'll want to leave plenty of time.

pimento

Many thanks. It's more important to me to have the correct ticket than to have the cheapest ticket. I don't want to fall foul of The Revenue..

wealdroam

An Off Peak Return from Paddington to Reading is £17.45 with Gold Card discount.

An Off Peak Single from West Drayton to Reading is £7.45 with Gold Card discount, i.e. £14.90 return.

Condition 19 of The National Rail Conditions of Carriage describes whether or not the train needs to stop at West Drayton, but is often discussed at length on rail forums.

If you don't want to get into a discussion about validity, then maybe for the sake of £2.55 it is best if you get the Paddington ticket.

pimento

Thanks for the link. I've posted my question there.

yorkie2

Cornucopia wrote: »

Technically, I think your train has to stop at the changeover station of split tickets

There is no need to comply with NRCoC Condition 19(b) because one of the tickets is a Season and the other(s) is/are not, so it's valid under Condition 19(c). See Split ticketing

Cornucopia wrote: »

though this may not apply if your ticket is marked "Boundary Zone 6" rather than "West Drayton".

In that case it's additionally valid under Condition 19(a) as this would be a case of combining two zonal tickets.

A lot of people seem to know about Condition 19(b) but not so many know about 19(a) or 19(c).

martindow

I don't think it is possible to buy boundary tickets on-line or from machines. It has to be done with a real person in the booking office.

Cornucopia

martindow wrote: »

I don't think it is possible to buy boundary tickets on-line or from machines. It has to be done with a real person in the booking office.

I believe that's true - the add-on ticket is only valid as an addition to the existing ticket, and they like that original ticket to be validated by a human being.

However, condition 19(c) applies, anyway, so the OP could buy "West Drayton" tickets online, if they wanted to.