Stoke-Tamworth with break at Stafford

[The_Train]

Hi guys,

Some have been advising me on the ability to break journeys but still struggling to get my head around it and as I now have a more specific requirement I thought I'd stick it in here and see what info I get.

Basically, next Wednesday 27th June I will be starting my day at Stoke-on-Trent (lucky me!). I have appointments in Stafford from 10am until around 11:30am. As I have the rest of the day free I thought I would venture down to Tamworth to see what is around instead of staying around Stafford. I would then probably want to return to Stafford to pick up some of the evening freight movements before returning to Stoke.

So could I do the following on one Stoke-Tamworth return ticket:

0907 XC Stoke-on-Trent to Stafford
1155 WMT Stafford to Tamworth

1709 WMT Tamworth to Stafford
1928 XC Stafford to Stoke-on-Trent

And would there be flexibility on the times of trains I travelled on ie if I decided to stay at Stafford until the 2003 XC service or if my appointments overran could I pick a different service to head to Tamworth on or do I become limited to specific services?

Hope this makes sense
Cheers

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Hi guys,

Some have been advising me on the ability to break journeys but still struggling to get my head around it and as I now have a more specific requirement I thought I'd stick it in here and see what info I get.

Basically, next Wednesday 27th June I will be starting my day at Stoke-on-Trent (lucky me!). I have appointments in Stafford from 10am until around 11:30am. As I have the rest of the day free I thought I would venture down to Tamworth to see what is around instead of staying around Stafford. I would then probably want to return to Stafford to pick up some of the evening freight movements before returning to Stoke.

So could I do the following on one Stoke-Tamworth return ticket:

0907 XC Stoke-on-Trent to Stafford
1155 WMT Stafford to Tamworth

1709 WMT Tamworth to Stafford
1928 XC Stafford to Stoke-on-Trent

And would there be flexibility on the times of trains I travelled on ie if I decided to stay at Stafford until the 2003 XC service or if my appointments overran could I pick a different service to head to Tamworth on or do I become limited to specific services?

Hope this makes sense
Cheers

Whether or not you may break your journey depends on what kind of ticket you have - Anytime tickets always permit break of journey and Advances never permit break of journey. Off-Peak tickets always permit break of journey on a return portion and permit it by default on the outward portion - however some tickets' restriction codes may bar it on the outward portion.

In this particular case, the relevant restriction codes for the Off-Peak (Period) Return and Off-Peak Day Return are CS and JF, neither of which restrict break of journey at all. So you are free to do what you proposed with a through ticket.

Incidentally, you can save 22% by splitting at Stafford and getting Off-Peak Day Returns Stoke-Stafford and Stafford-Tamworth. Here it is obviously completely fine to break your journey at the changeover points (and the restriction codes don't bar it anyway).

 

[The_Train]

Whether or not you may break your journey depends on what kind of ticket you have - Anytime tickets always permit break of journey and Advances never permit break of journey. Off-Peak tickets always permit break of journey on a return portion and permit it by default on the outward portion - however some tickets' restriction codes may bar it on the outward portion.

In this particular case, the relevant restriction codes for the Off-Peak (Period) Return and Off-Peak Day Return are CS and JF, neither of which restrict break of journey at all. So you are free to do what you proposed with a through ticket.

Incidentally, you can save 22% by splitting at Stafford and getting Off-Peak Day Returns Stoke-Stafford and Stafford-Tamworth. Here it is obviously completely fine to break your journey at the changeover points (and the restriction codes don't bar it anyway).

Thanks for your response. So tickets come with restriction codes attached to them? I knew about the obvious restrictions such as when you can travel and via what route but didn't realise there was other restrictions. Is this information available on ticketing websites when looking at specific services?

Thanks also for the split advice. It's one thing I always forget to check out, particularly on shorter journeys but just seen the STA-TAM off peak returns for £6.40. I suppose that renders my need for a break in journey irrelevant as I will have individual ticket portions for each leg of my journey.

Just out of interest, one of my concerns about breaking journeys was having tickets stamped by guards. For example, using my original plan for a break above, if my ticket was marked by the guard on the 0907 XC service to Stafford how would that be viewed by the guard on the 1155 WMT service to Tamworth. Would it be a simple explanation about my break at Stafford or is it likely to create a problem?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Thanks for your response. So tickets come with restriction codes attached to them? I knew about the obvious restrictions such as when you can travel and via what route but didn't realise there was other restrictions. Is this information available on ticketing websites when looking at specific services?

Thanks also for the split advice. It's one thing I always forget to check out, particularly on shorter journeys but just seen the STA-TAM off peak returns for £6.40. I suppose that renders my need for a break in journey irrelevant as I will have individual ticket portions for each leg of my journey.

Just out of interest, one of my concerns about breaking journeys was having tickets stamped by guards. For example, using my original plan for a break above, if my ticket was marked by the guard on the 0907 XC service to Stafford how would that be viewed by the guard on the 1155 WMT service to Tamworth. Would it be a simple explanation about my break at Stafford or is it likely to create a problem?

Off-Peak tickets, as well as Advance tickets and a limited number of other tickets, have two-character alphanumeric restriction codes. Their text can be looked up at www.nationalrail.co.uk/SK, for example (i.e. add the code after "www.nationalrail.co.uk/"). You can see what restriction code a ticket has by looking it up at www.brfares.com, or by looking at the Chiltern site which shows them, or on www.trainscanbecheaper.info or www.trainsplit.com.

Most modern ticket designs show the restriction code under the 'Validity: as advertised' section or alternatively link straight to NRE.

On a journey feasibly requiring changes, I very much doubt you'll be asked questions about a stamped ticket. Ultimately you could even break your journey on straightforward no-change-required journeys and they would have to give you the benefit of the doubt unless you had obviously reused the ticket on the same section (e.g. having a CrossCountry stamp on SOT-STA ticket and using it for SNE-STA).

 

[The_Train]

Off-Peak tickets, as well as Advance tickets and a limited number of other tickets, have two-character alphanumeric restriction codes. Their text can be looked up at www.nationalrail.co.uk/SK, for example (i.e. add the code after "www.nationalrail.co.uk/"). You can see what restriction code a ticket has by looking it up at www.brfares.com, or by looking at the Chiltern site which shows them, or on www.trainscanbecheaper.info or www.trainsplit.com.

Most modern ticket designs show the restriction code under the 'Validity: as advertised' section or alternatively link straight to NRE.

On a journey feasibly requiring changes, I very much doubt you'll be asked questions about a stamped ticket. Ultimately you could even break your journey on straightforward no-change-required journeys and they would have to give you the benefit of the doubt unless you had obviously reused the ticket on the same section (e.g. having a CrossCountry stamp on SOT-STA ticket and using it for SNE-STA).

Thanks for the information and the links. Will make use of those going forward