Brighton - Bury St Edmunds Advance

[danielson00]

Hi there,

I've got a ticket next week from Brighton to Bury St Edmunds.

Can I basically use any train, as long as I use the reserved seat train, in this case the 1209 from Ipswich to Stratford, and travel off peak of course!

It seems stupid to go up to Ely then back down again to Bury St Edmunds, ditto London Bridge - East Croydon, then change for a train to Brighton, despite the train from London Bridge goes to Brighton anyway!

Normally do Brighton>>Victoria>>KingsX/Liverpool St >> Cambridge/Ipswich >> Bury St Edmunds

Journey Details


Journey: 1 Brighton to Bury St Edmunds
Ticket type: Advance Single Valid only on your chosen service. Not refundable. Changeable prior to date of travel for a fee.
Route: AP GRTANG&CONCTS

Outward journey: 7 Sep 2012
departs Brighton at 13:25 travel by Train service provider Southern Railways to station London Victoria arrives 14:24 ( seats reserved: Coach: * Seats: *** )
departs London Victoria at 14:39 travel by London Underground to station London Kings Cross arrives at 14:50
departs London Kings Cross at 15:15 travel by Train service provider First Capital Connect to station Cambridge arrives 16:03
departs Cambridge at 16:12 travel by Train service provider Greater Anglia to station Ely arrives 16:26
departs Ely at 16:31 travel by Train service provider Greater Anglia to station Bury St Edmunds arrives 16:57

Ticket type: Advance Single Valid only on your chosen service. Not refundable. Changeable prior to date of travel for a fee.
Route: AP GRTANG&CONCTS
Return journey: 9 Sep 2012
departs Bury St Edmunds at 11:24 travel by Train service provider Greater Anglia to station Ipswich arrives 12:03
departs Ipswich at 12:09 travel by Train service provider Greater Anglia to station Stratford London arrives 13:09 ( seats reserved: Coach: C Seats: 42A )
departs Stratford London at 13:16 travel by London Underground to station London Bridge arrives at 13:43
departs London Bridge at 13:56 travel by Train service provider First Capital Connect to station East Croydon arrives 14:09
departs East Croydon at 14:23 travel by Train service provider Southern Railways to station Brighton arrives 15:03 ( seats reserved: Coach: * Seats: *** )

 

[island]

That seems OK, but you may not break your journey en route.

 

[lemonic]

For the outward journey, if travelling via Cambridge and leaving Kings Cross at 15:15, it is quicker to travel via Ely than via Newmarket.

Technically you have to travel on any train which you have a reservation for, this includes those services where you have a train reservation but not an actual reserved seat (i.e. Brighton-Victoria and East Croydon-Brighton). In reality staying on the FCC service from London Bridge to Brighton is unlikely to be a problem as the train is unreservable and you are travelling on the connections part of the Advance ticket anyway. However changing at East Croydon only adds 3 minutes onto the journey time so it might be better to be safe than sorry.