London Banter - View Single Post - Off-Peak Return tickets Cambridge-London

Roland Perry · November 6th 09, 05:20 PM posted to cam.transport,uk.transport.london

In message , at 11:09:36
on Fri, 6 Nov 2009, remarked:
I was told by the Cambridge ticket office clerk yesterday that I
couldn't use an Off-Peak Return ticket to travel on the 09:20 but
that I could use an Off-Peak Day Return. The clerk insisted even
though I said as far as I knew the off-peak rule for at least the
last 40 years has been "no arrival in London before 10".

How does the 09:20 "arrive in London before 10"? Is there some kind
of boundary line used for this purpose, as I always assumed it was
"arrive at a station in London" which in this case would be KGX at
10:13 or so?

It doesn't "arrive in London before 10". It arrives after 10 and is
therefore outwith the long-standing restriction. The change Barry Salter
refers to also seems to have escaped NXEA Customer Relations in Norwich.

It's pretty clear that what they really ought to do (rather than have
several mystic algorithms) is colour in a timetable showing which trains
which tickets are available on. Thameslink used to have one, I'm not
sure if it's carried over to FCC-Bedpan.

EMT have a rudimentary version, and I've got one of my own which I did
so I could know (mainly) which trains off-peak tickets are valid on,
from London to Nottingham - which varies enormously depending on via
Leicester or Grantham. It took hours to research!

If you go to the NXEC website before the 14th Nov (it may be disrupted
after that, who knows) then it has the next best thing - which is a
visual display of which trains you can catch if you select different
fares.
--
Roland Perry