A fine mess
 

I was conversing with my brother, a London resident, this afternoon and mentioned in passing that I'd been thinking of going to the Railfair at Chiswick on Saturday, 5th April. It occurred to me that it would be a good idea to check train times and look for the cheapest fare on the day.

Initially, no problem as I'd requested Dorchester to London (Waterloo) and return on the same day. The quoted fare was a very reasonable, not to say cheap, £23.50.

However, I just wondered if the fare would be the same to/from Gunnersbury which is one of the two nearest stations to the event.

£67.50 !!!!!!!!!!

The lunatics have definitely taken over the asylum.

Mike M.

I've also come across a similar thing when attempting to plan trips to the NEC from the North-West.
Reasonable fares are available to Birmingham New Street but not to Birmingham International :(

there are tons and tons of these, when I joined the railway some 10 years ago it was cheaper to travel from london to three bridges than to gatwick airport. it was also cheaper to buy three tickets to get from manchester to peckham rye (saving £15)

LOL ,
Whatever happened to a penny a mile. ?? as advertised many years ago by most of the railway companies ,?
or am i still in my steamworld fantasy ??
one wonders ..
Best regards Derbyroy

Your still in a steamworld fantasy!!!!!!

Take anything the TOCs tell the press as PR spin and anything the press say as libelous.

I remember Connex putting loads of posters up claiming that if you bought a yearly season with them you would only pay for 40 weeks, which sounds great, except that it is the rate you will get from anyone, a standard rate.

Absolute jungle are train fares! When my daughter was going around the universities it was cheaper to go to Swansea(change at Bristol Parkway) than it was to go to Bristol. Shame she visited Bristol first.
At the moment it is cheaper to go to london with Chiltern family ticket than it is to buy a saver return with a family railcard.
My eldest son has made a bit of a hobby buying tickets on the internet and has gone to the extremes of the country for next to nothing almost!

Richard

It is worth noting at this point that if you buy a ticket, which is cheaper than the valid ticket for your journey, which allows you to cover the journey you could be prosecuted for fare evasion.

EXCEPT: Combinations of tickets for a journey no longer than the intended journey. For rules regarding the use of combitions of tickets visit your local station, or try looking on www.nationalrail.co.uk

It depends what type of ticket you have, whether or not it's permitted. For example, you are not permitted to break a journey for the outward part of a Saver ticket, so you could get charged an excess if you tried to leave an intermediary station on the outward part of a Saver, but if you travel on a Standard Day Return you are permitted to break either part of your journey. See http://nationalrail.co.uk/system/gal...misc/NRCOC.pdf page 7

Well yes obviously taking into account any ticket restrictions for individual ticket types:mad:

So what we are saying chaps, is that everytime we travel on a train, the very fact that we have payed for a ticket to ride on that train, does'nt stop us running the risk of prosecution because we have'nt read the "small print" about the restrictions on travel.
Yes that says it all, and is as clear as mud. Why do they "bugger" something up that did'nt work all that bad before.
Am I getting old?
Paul.