Cardiff Central / Queen Street / Bay

[Dai Corner]

South Wales 'Metro'

Fares to Cardiff Bay are the same as those to Queen Street and Central for all but the shortest journeys yet it is thought that ATW try to make passengers holding tickets to/from the two latter stations travelling to/from the former buy additional tickets rather than issuing zero fare excesses.

I've created this thread so those interested in ticketing will see it.

 

[krus_aragon]

For some background information, back in 2005 ATW had this map on posters (and in timetable booklets?) specifically showing zonal fares.

Going further back, there had been a Cardiff Stations group (ticket destination) until 1995, which included Central, Queen St, Bute Road (now Cardiff Bay) and at one point, Cathays. I believe one reason for its demise was due to disagreements on the distribution of fare money to franchises through ORCATS: Travel from the mainline to Queen Street or the Bay would involve the use of Valley Lines services, but going to Central wouldn't. The influence of this can be seen in fares to Cardiff priced by GWR (e.g. from Bristol or Didcot): Cardiff Central is in its own "cluster", and fares to Queen Street or the Bay are typically a few pence more expensive.

All tickets priced by ATW are (to the best of my knowledge) the same price to any Cardiff station.

 

[Gareth Marston]

If my memory is right it was because they thought GWR was overbenefiting from ORCATS. We also had a couple of years with GWR only & AW only tickets from Newport to Swansea.

 

[WelshBluebird]

At least the valleys stations are still priced according to that zonal map too, so much as that most guards will sell you a ticket from Treherbert instead of Ton Pentre for example if you are going to Cardiff as it is the same price but has more validity.

 

[Paul Kelly]

as it is the same price but has more validity

Or perhaps because the guard can't be bothered updating the origin station on his/her machine??!

 

[krus_aragon]

Or perhaps because the guard can't be bothered updating the origin station on his/her machine??!

I my experience (a few years ago, on Avantix machines) the guard would have memorised the TLC codes for the more distant stations (e.g. Barry Island) and type those in for quicker ticket sales for the whole zone.

 

[tiptoptaff]

South Wales has a lot of fare that are the same over a fair distance. For example, a Pontyclun-Cardiff Central ticket in almost any form is the same as Pontyclun-Pontypridd (the exception being that as Pontyclun is a "mainline" station it has off peak fares to Cardiff, whereas there are no off peaks on the Valleys network) . The firm I used to work for had an office in Pontypridd and despite the fact I almost never caught the train there, as it was the same price, I used to buy a monthly season to Ponty for the flexibility.

 

[Pat Figg]

South Wales has a lot of fare that are the same over a fair distance. For example, a Pontyclun-Cardiff Central ticket in almost any form is the same as Pontyclun-Pontypridd (the exception being that as Pontyclun is a "mainline" station it has off peak fares to Cardiff, whereas there are no off peaks on the Valleys network) . The firm I used to work for had an office in Pontypridd and despite the fact I almost never caught the train there, as it was the same price, I used to buy a monthly season to Ponty for the flexibility.

I take advantage of this situation a lot. A ticket from Aberdare (or Merthyr, Treherbert etc) to Cardiff Central costs exactly the same as buying a ticket all the way to Maesteg, Rhymney or Ebbw Vale via Cardiff. As well as commuting into Cardiff every day for work I travel around by train a lot in my free time (watching crap football, visiting obscure pubs etc etc) so I always buy my monthly or weekly ticket from Aberdare to one of these destinations, usually Maesteg. I rarely use it to go all the way to Maesteg (probably about twice a year on average) but I often use it to go to places such as Bridgend or Pontyclun on the mainline and also on the Vale of Glamorgan line to go to Grangetown, Barry, Llantwit Major etc. I often wonder if the person selling me the ticket assumes I commute by rail from Aberdare to Maesteg every day and thinks I'm insane. I occasionally buy it to Rhymney or Ebbw Vale if I know I'll be going to go somewhere in those valleys like Caerphilly or Newbridge on the weekend. I'm slightly worried this ticketing anomaly might come to an end once Arriva have gone as it saves me a fair bit of money.

On the other hand, if I want to make a much shorter journey from Aberdare to Merthyr or the Rhondda, which are in the same zone, my season ticket is more or less useless as I have to buy a new ticket for the Abercynon-Merthyr and Ponty-Treherbert portions of the journey. Some guards have allowed me to use my ticket to go to Merthyr as it's in the same zone but some have demanded a new ticket. It's hit or miss. It's not a proper zonal system which is probably why they stopped showing the zonal map in the timetable booklets. I've also had to pay for a new ticket from Queen Street to Cardiff Bay on the odd occasion I've made that journey, which seems a bit unfair when I'm already in possession of a ticket that allows me to travel to Cardiff or through it. I usually decide to walk.