Interrailing around the UK using the Inward/Outward trips

[YellowBrick]

I have an Interrail pass and am back in the UK. I haven't used the inward/outward portions for my trip (as they were booked before I had the pass). Am I right in thinking I can use the pass for one "free" trip from anywhere in the UK to any international port/airport, and vice versa, as long as they're done before the pass expires?

Are there any constraints on this journey? I'm guessing it has to be direct. What about time limits?

Thinking about it, what if I chose to enter Ireland via Northern Ireland - would it cover a trip up to Scotland (Ayr/Cairnryan), then the Belfast to Dublin train? I'm guessing I'd have to pay full whack for the ferry though (Stena don't do interrail discounts). NR is saying this journey (just to Belfast) is actually 2 days from Kings Lynn apparently, with an overnight in either Glasgow or Euston, so would that be allowed?

There's surprising little info on the Interrail site: https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/what-is-interrail/travel-your-own-country

 

[mangyiscute]

I asked this question very recently here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...a-uk-resident-on-the-out-inbound-days.240217/

The ultimate conclusion was that the rules seem to intend that you should take the most direct route to an airport/ferry port etc, but also that there is practically 0 chance of you being "caught" if you go a circuitous route or even just do any random journey across the UK.

Now that I have experience how the interrail app works, you could just add every single journey just before you are about to take it, and then remove it straight after you have done it, and then if anyone questions you then your train will almost certainly be going in the direction of an airport/ferry so you could say you are going there and there's not much else they can do - I also thought that you could always say you are heading to a friend's house, then going to an airport tomorrow in the car. So ultimately it depends on how proper you want to be when using the pass, and the journey you suggest is definitely valid imo, even for an indirect route.

In regards to the journey you said, it would cover that trip for all of the trains. However, the way the pass works is that when you choose the travel day, you have a ticket for any services where the departure time for the station you board at is on that day (00:00-23:59), so if you did an overnight stop in Glasgow then the second day's travel would need another inbound/outbound day to be used.

Also, just for clarification, the inbound/outbound days count as one of the days of validity for the pass, so if you've used up all of the days then you won't be able to use the pass for this.

 

[Watershed]

I have an Interrail pass and am back in the UK. I haven't used the inward/outward portions for my trip (as they were booked before I had the pass). Am I right in thinking I can use the pass for one "free" trip from anywhere in the UK to any international port/airport, and vice versa, as long as they're done before the pass expires?

Are there any constraints on this journey? I'm guessing it has to be direct. What about time limits?

Thinking about it, what if I chose to enter Ireland via Northern Ireland - would it cover a trip up to Scotland (Ayr/Cairnryan), then the Belfast to Dublin train? I'm guessing I'd have to pay full whack for the ferry though (Stena don't do interrail discounts). NR is saying this journey (just to Belfast) is actually 2 days from Kings Lynn apparently, with an overnight in either Glasgow or Euston, so would that be allowed?

There's surprising little info on the Interrail site: https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/what-is-interrail/travel-your-own-country

There is nothing in the rules which specifies that the route must in any way be direct. I think anything short of a huge unnecessary double back would probably be fine. If you have a mobile pass, or are using the app for your travel diary on a paper pass, then as @mangyiscute has said you can simply add each leg as you're on it, and remove it once you get off - so it's very easy to avoid any 'paper trail'.

Your travel history isn't synchronised with Interrail's servers and you can even add and remove legs without being connected to the internet; it also doesn't come up when staff scan your pass' barcode (if you have a mobile pass). As long as you have a vaguely plausible explanation as to which port/airport/border you're heading to, you'll almost certainly be fine (in practice the likelihood of any member of staff knowing about this rule, let alone caring or asking, is virtually zero).

Northern Ireland is considered part of "Ireland" (their description - not mine!) for Interrail purposes, so you don't need to use a domestic day's validity to use a UK-domiciled pass there.

I don't see that there is any requirement to complete your entire journey to the border/port in one day and purely only your Interrail pass. You might well decide to make part of the way by alternative transport or other tickets, where they're more convenient.

Bear in mind that the domestic validity is technically for one inbound and one outbound journey, so for a multi-day journey towards/from the border/port, only one of those days could be covered by a domestic day's validity. Again, the fact that you can change your travel history afterwards makes this near impossible to enforce, but it's just something to keep in mind in the unlikely event you come across a member of staff with expert knowledge of Interrail passes!

The midnight rule is also worth remembering, as well as the fact that it is applied based on when it's midnight in Central European Time, not local (GMT/BST) time. The rule does, however, mean that you can effectively get more than one day's usage out of a domestic day by travelling from early on and then boarding a sleeper - as long as it departs before midnight CET.

 

[danm14]

I'm guessing I'd have to pay full whack for the ferry though

The cheapest way (aside from occasional day trip promotions by Stena Line, none of which are running at present) to get on the ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast as a foot passenger is actually using the Ulsterbus/CityLink bus service from Glasgow or Ayr to Belfast (£30 single/£50 return, or £24/£40 if you are a student and sign up for a CityLink student account); or a Rail and Sail ticket from Glasgow to Belfast (£35 single or £23.10 with 16-25/26-30/Senior/Disabled Railcard, return double) which includes a free bus transfer from Ayr Station to Cairnryan.

The Ulsterbus/CityLink fare includes a free bus transfer from Belfast Port to Belfast City Centre, a fare of £2.10 is payable on the bus for Rail and Sail passengers.

In addition to being cheaper than a standard ticket for the ferry, this also removes the problem of getting from Ayr or Stranraer station to the ferry terminal in Cairnryan.

 

[mangyiscute]

Bear in mind that the domestic validity is technically for one inbound and one outbound journey, so for a multi-day journey towards/from the border/port, only one of those days could be covered by a domestic day's validity. Again, the fact that you can change your travel history afterwards makes this near impossible to enforce, but it's just something to keep in mind in the unlikely event you come across a member of staff with expert knowledge of Interrail passes!

The one thing to note is that this is actually enforceable and is always enforced, since the way it works is that when you add a journey to the pass, it adds that day as a travel day - if you remove the journey before the day, it will be removed as a travel day, but if this journey is still on your plan and it is that day, then this is a travel day even if you remove all of the journeys from that day. Furthermore, if you add a journey within your own country, it will automatically add this day as an inbound/outbound day, and again, once it becomes this day, it is impossible to remove this travel inbound/outbound day even if all journeys are removed, so you can only have a maximum of 2 inbound/outbound days.

 

[Watershed]

The one thing to note is that this is actually enforceable and is always enforced, since the way it works is that when you add a journey to the pass, it adds that day as a travel day - if you remove the journey before the day, it will be removed as a travel day, but if this journey is still on your plan and it is that day, then this is a travel day even if you remove all of the journeys from that day. Furthermore, if you add a journey within your own country, it will automatically add this day as an inbound/outbound day, and again, once it becomes this day, it is impossible to remove this travel inbound/outbound day even if all journeys are removed, so you can only have a maximum of 2 inbound/outbound days.

You're absolutely right in what you say, but I think we are talking at slight cross-purposes. What I was getting at is that the limitation of one of the domestic days being an outbound journey, and the other being an inbound (albeit in either order), is effectively unenforceable - in other words you can de facto undertake either two inbound or two outbound days' travel.

 

[island]

You're absolutely right in what you say, but I think we are talking at slight cross-purposes. What I was getting at is that the limitation of one day's validity being an outbound and the other an inbound (albeit in either order), is effectively unenforceable - in other words you can de facto undertake two inbound or two outbound days' travel.

Setting a day up as your outbound/inbound day will cause the "not valid in Great Britain" endorsement to disappear from the mobile pass. Once you have used/created journeys for a mobile pass in the country of residence on two calendar days, you won't be able to create a third, and therefore you won't be able to get rid of "not valid in Great Britain". And a TOC staff member seeing that endorsement will likely take it at face value, with the consequence that the passenger will be treated as not having a valid ticket.

Therefore I don't believe you're right to call this restriction unenforceable, at least for mobile passes.

 

[Haywain]

Therefore I don't believe you're right to call this restriction unenforceable, at least for mobile passes.

I think @Watershed was suggesting that it is the inbound/outbound aspect that is unenforceable, rather than the 2 days of validity.

 

[island]

If the suggestion is that you can use two days to make your "outbound" in-country journey by sacrificing your ability to make an "inbound" in-country journey or vice-versa, then yes I agree that cannot be prevented.

 

[Watershed]

If the suggestion is that you can use two days to make your "outbound" in-country journey by sacrificing your ability to make an "inbound" in-country journey or vice-versa, then yes I agree that cannot be prevented.

Yes, this is what I meant. Apologies if that was unclear, I have reworded my post.

 

[mangyiscute]

I mean ultimately there's nothing to stop you from just doing a couple circular journeys around the UK if you're smart about it, plus I highly doubt any of the staff are going to do much more than see that you have a valid interrail ticket for travel in the UK as let you pass. I will note that it didn't work at any ticket barriers for me (scanning the QR code) whereas it does in the Netherlands, and I encountered no issues using it on the Elizabeth line where it is valid but some people have had issues with staff members accepting it