London Terminals to Reading

[rob.rjt]

My friend came to visit me over the weekend and was confused (as I have become since looking at the FGW and National Rail websites).

Journey details: Leaving London at or after 18:30 on a Friday evening returning around 12:00 on Sunday. Travel on the route via Ascot is fine as the ultimate start/end point is Streatham (though my friend will normally use Oyster for journeys within the Oyster zone).

Passenger details: one adult with 16-25 Railcard.

FGW tells me that, from Paddington, the first super-off peak (£23 - no railcard used in search) return ticket is available on the 19:12 with off peak returns being generally useable from 19:18. I was told that the screens at PAD were showing a note on trains up to (but not including) the 19:00 that off peak tickets could not be used on those trains.

National Rail offers me off peak returns at £40 (no railcard used in search) on the 18:33, 18:45 & 18:41 but not on 18:45, 19:00 and 19:15 trains. In fact, no return tickets seem to be available using the second 3 services.

Looking at the Ascot route the cheap tickets (£23) seem to be available all the way through the FGW peak.

Is anyone able to explain the FGW peak restrictions as the FGW website just says to use an online journey planner.

Many thanks to anyone who helps me to understand how and why the ticket availablity seems to be so odd...

 

[yorkie]

You want to know the restrictions on a London Terminals to Reading ticket?

There is no Super Off Peak ticket. The Off Peak Return ticket is priced at £23 and is the old Saver (and retains the code SVR).

LONDON TERMINALS [1072] - READING [RDG]

SVR - OFF-PEAK R GWR
00000 - ANY PERMITTED

1 Adult @£ 23.00 = £ 23.00

Restriction : 5K
JOURNEYS WHOLLY WITHIN THE
LONDON & SOUTH EAST AREA

Tickets valid asa listed below
Mondays to Fridays (by any
train on Saturdays, Sundays
and Bank Holidays)

MORNING TRAVEL
Tickets are valid on all
trains timed to depart at or
later than 0930 (0830 on the
Isle of Wight), unless travel
is from a station listed below
where tickets are valid on all
services timed to depart at or
later than the time shown:

Banbury 0845
Bicester Town 0900
Bishopstone 0920
Culham 0910
Didcot Parkway 0920
Eastbourne 0925
Fareham 0855
Fratton 0850
Havant 0900
Hilsea 0840
Islip 0900
London Paddington 0920
Newbury 0910
Newbury Racecourse 0915
Oxford 0910
Petersfield 0910
Portchester 0850
Portsmouth Harbour 0840
Portsmouth & Southsea 0845
Radley 0905
Seaford 0915
Southampton Central 0850
Swanwick 0920
Yeovil Junction 0915

EVENING TRAVEL
Tickets are valid on all
trains except those shown in
the table below from London
Paddington and Reading:

From From Final
Padd Rdg Destination
1600 1627 Bristol TM (BRI)
1606___1633___Penzance (PNZ)
1615___1641___Swansea (SWA)
1630___1657___Taunton (TAU)
1636___1704___Exeter St D (FX)
1636___1704___Plymouth(PLY FO)
1645___1712___Swansea (SWA)
1649___1720___Oxford (OXF)
1700___1726___Bristol TM (BRI)
1703___1732___Penzance (PNZ)
1715 1741___Swansea (SWA)
1722 1750 Hereford (HFD)
1730 1756 Taunton (TAU)
1736 1804 Paignton (PGN)
1745___1811___Carmarthen (CMN)
1748 1816 Cheltenham (CNM)
1750 1822 Worcester (WOS)
1800 1827 Bristol TM (BRI)
1803 1833 Penzance (PNZ)
1815 1841 Swansea (SWA)
1822 1850 Hereford (HFD)
1830 1856 Weston SM (WSM)
1833 1902 Exeter (EXD) FX
1833 1902 Plymouth(PLY) FO
1845 1911 Swansea (SWA)
1847 1918 Cheltenham (CNM)
1851 1922 Oxford (OXF)
1900 1927 Bristol TM (BRI)
1903 1933 Plymouth(PLY)_FX
1903 1933 Penzance(PNZ) FO
1915 1942 Swansea (SWA)

Occasionally, the departure
time or final destination of
these services may change, for
example due to engineering
work. When this happens, the
restriction also applies to
the equivalent service.

The Route Ascot ticket, bizarrely costs 50p more at £23.50. Therefore, it is valid via Slough. The restrictions out of Paddington on the Route Ascot ticket are simple " Paddington -_Depart between 0930 and 1559 (incl.), or at 1916 or later"

Therefore, you are better off with the Any Permitted ticket if you wish to use semi-fast trains between Paddington and Reading, for example the 1706 to Bristol which calls at Tywford then Reading (See Didcot to Paddington Off-peak day return - the barred trains on the tickets discussed in that thread are the same as for your ticket)

 

[dzug2]

The restrictions were originally that you could use turbos with an off peak ticket but not HSTs. That's a bit muddied these days but it's essentially the difference between stopping (for a certain value of stopping) and fast trains

 

[bb21]

The £40 ticket is not a point-to-point ticket, rather it is a Thames Three Day Rover. The only problem is that the leaflet appears to suggest that the 1833 is a barred service from Paddington yet National Rail website seems to think that there is no evening bar, which explains why it is offered.

It is a moot point anyway as an Anytime Day Single plus an Off-Peak Day Single in the opposite direction (as it is a Sunday) is cheaper.

 

[rob.rjt]

Brilliant - thanks for that. I was trying to find the relevant pages on ticket restrictions on the National Rail website but there didn't seem to be a link from the train selection screen.

 

[David Goddard]

The restrictions were originally that you could use turbos with an off peak ticket but not HSTs. That's a bit muddied these days but it's essentially the difference between stopping (for a certain value of stopping) and fast trains

It harks back to the days when the Mainline and Local services were different operators (Great Western and Thames Trains), so distinguishing between barred and non-barred services was easy.
Subsequent re-letting of TT to FGW (First Great Western Link) and then the amalgamated franchise really muddied the waters, and it is difficult to identify which services are barred unless you have an understanding of the timetable and train types. It was I believe that some Cotswold line departures were barred and others were not, based on which trips were HST diagrammed.