Off-peak confusion

Tobster86

Service of interest is Transpennine from York to Manchester Piccadilly, on Thursday 12th July, some time in the evening.

National Rail Enquiries and Trainline websites both allow purchase of off-peak tickets on ALL of journeys that day.

The Trainline app actually shows every single service that day as being off-peak.

The Transpennine website says "TransPennine peak hours are 7:00 to 9:00 am and 16:00 to 19:00 pm".

National Rail enquiries website just says "Website journey planners can tell you when your ticket can be used – simply enter your outward and return journey times to see the trains you can travel on."

Why is every service from York to Manchester appearing as off-peak, regardless of the time of day?

If I purchase an off-peak ticket and board a train at 17:30 in York, am I going to be dragged off at the next stop and executed?

Tobster86

Follow up:

Transpennine Express customer support online chat confirmed that "all services from York to Manchester are off-peak after 5pm" but was unable to explain the deviation from the information on the website.

stragglebod

If you're getting the £29.60 off peak return from York to Manchester Stations, or the £20.10 off peak single, then those tickets have restriction code TR.


http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ticket_types/restrictions/tr


You can't use either outward or return on trains timed to depart between 04:29 and 08:00, otherwise you can travel any time.

raleighjoan

I think their website editor may be confused - do they perhaps me peak as in hours when they are busiest, rather than hours that off-peak tickets are barred?

There isn't really such a thing as a blanket off peak window that applies across all of a train company's services - there are always variations depending on the specifics of the journey. It's complicated but inevitable as you can't really apply the same restrictions to somebody making a short local journey as to somebody travelling hundreds of miles.

As stragglebod has already shown, it's all down to the restriction code set for each journey.

Captain_Phukwit

The best site for checking ticket restrictions is brfares. com. As an example the OP's ticket's restrictions can be found here.

brfares. com/#faredetail?orig=YRK&dest=MAN&grpd=0438&tkt=SVR

(I can't post links yet so stick www in front of the links delete the space before brfares)

yorkie2

Tobster86 wrote: »

Service of interest is Transpennine from York to Manchester Piccadilly, on Thursday 12th July, some time in the evening.

National Rail Enquiries and Trainline websites both allow purchase of off-peak tickets on ALL of journeys that day.

The Trainline app actually shows every single service that day as being off-peak.

The Transpennine website says "TransPennine peak hours are 7:00 to 9:00 am and 16:00 to 19:00 pm".

That is not correct for that ticket. As someone else said, BRfares.com is the best site for finding out ticket restrictions. You can take any train from York from 0800 onwards. Evening peak restrictions are not allowed - by law - on that ticket, due to fares regulation.

Tobster86 wrote: »

If I purchase an off-peak ticket and board a train at 17:30 in York, am I going to be dragged off at the next stop and executed?

The ticket is valid, but if it wasn't, you would be asked to pay the difference in fares between the Off Peak Return and Anytime Return.


(If I had to travel to Manchester before 8am, there are other tickets I can buy that would be valid, and cheaper, so with a bit of research there is no need to ever pay the over-inflated Anytime price.)