Ticket From London Waterloo to Basingstoke with the option to return not via Woking? eg. via Reading

[Curly1]

I often need to travel from London to Basingstoke for the weekend. The most straight forward route for this is to travel from Waterloo, but it is occasionally convenient to travel back via Reading to Paddington.

When buying a return ticket from Paddington to Basingstoke the ticket seems to have no restrictions on the route, but if I buy a return ticket from the ticket machine at Waterloo the ticket says only via Woking, which means I can't travel back via Reading and Paddington if I decide to. The difference in cost between the open route ticket I can buy at Paddington and the restricted route ticket I can buy at Waterloo seems to be negligible.

Is there a particular option I can select at the ticket machine at Waterloo to give me the option to travel home a different way if I chose? Or a better way to buy a ticket that will work for either route?

 

[fandroid]

The ticket machines used by SWR do have an option for changing the routeing. When you've put in the destination and requested a return there should be a summary of the ticket they are about to sell you with a category "Route" . That's where it will say "via Woking". You can change that to "Any Permitted" which will allow you to choose to come back via Reading if you wish. It's more complicated than it should be. The only "Any Permitted" Day Return is an Anytime Day Return and that's £1 more expensive than the Off Peak Day Return which is only valid via Woking.

Period Returns are another thing altogether, but the routeing option is still there

I always choose Any Permitted to allow me some flexibility if I needed/fancied it during the day. My experience is always for travel to London from Basingstoke, but I've checked the fares in the reverse direction (and they are a bit different).

(Edited after several not-so swift checks of the ex Waterloo fares).

 

[Watershed]

There are both Any Permitted and via Woking tickets for this journey. If you want to have the flexibility to travel via either route you can choose the Any Permitted fare, which as you say, costs only marginally more. You can also buy the via Woking ticket and obtain a change of route excess to Any Permitted for the return leg, which should cost half the difference in fares, but this can only be obtained in advance by going to a ticket office and finding a member of staff who is willing and able to issue such an excess to you.

It can also theoretically be obtained onboard the train without penalty, but if nobody comes through you may have to queue at the Paddington barriers to pay the excess, or there may be similar issues with finding someone who can issue it. It's probably less hassle just to buy the Any Permitted in the first place seeing as the difference is so negligible.

The ticket machines at Waterloo should offer you both options (the Any Permitted is, after all, valid from Waterloo) but you may prefer to buy your ticket online or on an app, and select an e-ticket or collection at a ticket machine if this is easier.

 

[Gathursty]

Would Bramley (Hants) and Mortimer be useful destinations or would such tickets be less effective for OP?

 

[JonathanH]

Would Bramley (Hants) and Mortimer be useful destinations or would such tickets be less effective for OP?

Not from London as fares to Mortimer and Bramley are explicitly routed via Basingstoke or via Reading.

 

[yorkie]

I always choose Any Permitted to allow me some flexibility if I needed/fancied it during the day. My experience is always for travel to London from Basingstoke, but I've checked the fares in the reverse direction (and they are a bit different).

If you have a via Woking ticket and decide to travel back via Reading, you only pay half the difference in fares.

 

[Gathursty]

Not from London as fares to Mortimer and Bramley are explicitly routed via Basingstoke or via Reading.

That's quite unfair for users of those two stations to be restricted to one route only.

 

[Watershed]

That's quite unfair for users of those two stations to be restricted to one route only.

If they buy the cheaper fare, they can pay the excess to the most expensive fare onboard the train or else at their interchange or destination station without penalty. If they buy the more expensive fare, it is also valid on the cheaper route without needing to obtain an excess.

It's not a perfect solution by any means, but it's a lot better than it would be under many other railways' fares systems.

 

[miklcct]

without needing to obtain an excess

Any source for this? Isn't a zero fare excess needed?

 

[Watershed]

Any source for this? Isn't a zero fare excess needed?

The Routeing Guide:

Where the fare specifies a particular route, there will be restrictions in the fare routes data that will affect thee routes listed in the Guide which pass through the station shown in the route description. The National Routeing Guide may be used to find out how to reach the station shown in the route description. Where there are other permitted routes, these may also be used for the same journey provided the same or a lower fare applies.

Even if that sentence in the Routeing Guide didn't exist, the NRCoT simply requires that you pay the difference if travelling on a route not permitted by your ticket. If that difference is negative, there is self-evidently nothing to pay or do.

 

[miklcct]

The Routeing Guide:


Even if that sentence in the Routeing Guide didn't exist, the NRCoT simply requires that you pay the difference if travelling on a route not permitted by your ticket. If that difference is negative, there is self-evidently nothing to pay or do.

Unfortunately this isn't supported by retailers so that it can only suggest two singles if I try to enter different routings into the journey planners on a journey without any permitted tickets.

 

[yorkie]

Unfortunately this isn't supported by retailers so that it can only suggest two singles if I try to enter different routings into the journey planners on a journey without any permitted tickets.

You mean isn't supported by the data made available to retailers. It's not the retailers themselves blocking it.

 

[Hadders]

Unfortunately this isn't supported by retailers so that it can only suggest two singles if I try to enter different routings into the journey planners on a journey without any permitted tickets.

Excesses cannot be purchased online but in the case of a change of route excess there is no penalty for buying on board.

We’re starting to get off topic so any further talk about the rights and wrongs of excesses and obtaining them should go in a different thread.