Derby to Chester fares advice required

I am travelling from Derby to Chester this coming Friday and returning the same day. I will be purchasing a standard off-peak day return ticket which I believe has a restriction code B5. This will require me to change trains at Crewe from an EMR service to the TfW shuttle to Chester. On the return journey I also want to leave the station for an hour or so.

Does anyone know whether I am allowed to do this?

dragon814 said:

I am travelling from Derby to Chester this coming Friday and returning the same day. I will be purchasing a standard off-peak day return ticket which I believe has a restriction code B5. This will require me to change trains at Crewe from an EMR service to the TfW shuttle to Chester. On the return journey I also want to leave the station for an hour or so.

Does anyone know whether I am allowed to do this?

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Yes, there is no restriction on break of journey.

jfollows said:

Yes, there is no restriction on break of journey.

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Thanks for the response jfollows

Break of journey is allowed by default on walk-up tickets, e.g. Off-Peak Day Returns. It is only barred on Advance tickets, or for walk-up tickets in the (relatively) few cases where the restriction code says so (e.g. 8A).

Restriction code B5 says nothing about break of journey, so you are permitted to break your journey at Crewe. You can take any train from 08:30 onwards under that restriction code - the first such train towards Crewe being the 08:47.

It's likely your ticket won't work the barriers though, as they have to be manually programmed to accept anything other than tickets to/from Crewe, so you'll probably have to get a member of staff to let you through. In my experience the barrier staff at Crewe are happy to do so if you explain you're popping out or having a break of journey.

I made this journey only last week, the barriers at Crewe won’t accept your ticket but the humans will!

If you use the car park subway exit it’s only a couple of minutes walk to Greggs, Subway and Strarbucks at none railway station pricing, alternatively McDonalds is 5 minutes walk away!

On your way back, avoid planning to use Avanti. Today was the first day in over a week they managed to actually operate their planned timetable between Chester and Crewe without any cancellations. There are typically at least 3 full or part cancellations daily on this section whereas TfW are a fair bit more reliable.