Using a PlusBus not on the day you travel. Is this valid?

[phil35]

My instinct tells me this isn't valid, but I figured I would ask just to double check.

On Saturday I'm travelling from Leeds to Barnsley, and returning on Sunday. However, on the return journey we will be staying in Leeds city centre to watch a gig, and staying over in a hotel. I then need to get the bus back from Leeds on Monday to where I live. I was wondering, as I will be purchasing an Anytime Return, if I could get a PlusBus to use on Monday to get me back home, even though I completed my traiin journey the day before?

In simple terms, is it valid to use a PlusBus on a day that you don't travel by train?

Thanks!

 

[barrykas]

Both of these are answered in the PlusBus FAQs:

1) As Leeds PlusBus covers the whole West Yorkshire region, it wouldn't be available in conjunction with a journey from Bramley...unless it was Bramley in Hampshire.

2) Notwithstanding the above, PlusBus is only available on days you're travelling by train.

 

[phil35]

Thanks Barry. I assume you mis-read my initial post, my journey is from Leeds to Barnsley (South Yorkshire) and the question was regarding a Leeds PlusBus for the return journey. And thanks for clearing that up, I now know for future!

 

[Eagle]

2) Notwithstanding the above, PlusBus is only available on days you're travelling by train.

Could you claim it as a break of journey though?

 

[34D]

Could you claim it as a break of journey though?

What if his ticket was Pudsey to Barnsley day return, and coming home he could only do Barnsley-Leeds then have an overnight break.... Plusbus is available from new pudsey (same plusbus for anywhere in WY).

 

[telstarbox]

I think you'll have a hard time convincing a bus driver that a PlusBus ticket with the previous day's date on is valid, regardless of the overnight break of journey rules.

 

[Deerfold]

Is your bus fare over £3 from Leeds?

I rarely find the West Yorkshire plus bus to be worth it - if you're doing a day return with 2 bus trips or doing something else on the same day requiring a bus trip I can see it would be but there's few singles of over £3 in West Yorks.

 

[phil35]

The reason I get it is because I have a YP railcard which brings the price down to £2. A single to where I live is £2.70 so I try and use PlusBus when I can!

 

[Deerfold]

The reason I get it is because I have a YP railcard which brings the price down to £2. A single to where I live is £2.70 so I try and use PlusBus when I can!

Ah yes - I tend to forget about railcards with plusbus as it didn't exist when I was young enough to have one.

 

[Be3G]

The way I look at it is that PlusBus is designed to fill in the non-rail gaps at each end of one's journey from home to one's destination, that is to say:

HOME – PlusBus – train – PlusBus – DESTINATION

That's what phil35 wishes to do, only, the PlusBus to home part of the return journey happens to be on a different day to the train part of the journey. So morally, in this situation I wouldn't have any qualms about wanting to purchase a PlusBus ticket for the day after the train journey had been completed. In terms of practically, it should also be perfectly possible: an anytime return is valid for a month so as dave4jackie suggests, all that's needed is to tell the ticket office that the return journey will be on the Monday and ask for a PlusBus ticket. The bus driver to whom the PlusBus ticket is shown will have no idea which day phil35 travelled by train back to Leeds, so I can't see it being a problem.

 

[barrykas]

Thanks Barry. I assume you mis-read my initial post, my journey is from Leeds to Barnsley (South Yorkshire) and the question was regarding a Leeds PlusBus for the return journey. And thanks for clearing that up, I now know for future!

Mea culpa. Long day at work. For some reason I parsed Barnsley as Bramley, which is a different kettle of fish entirely.

Your basic issue will be whether you can get a Ticket Office or a Conductor to sell you your desired +BUS ticket. As I say, officially it's not valid if you're not travelling by train, but bus drivers don't usually ask to see the rail ticket, though there's nothing to say they can't.

 

[Be3G]

Are we sure about that last statement? (I'm not being rhetorical – it's a genuine question.) When I've bought PlusBus tickets I've never seen anything printed on them such as ‘not valid without train ticket’, and I imagine there must be stations for which PlusBus is sold which have ticket barriers. Therefore, if a passenger has separate train and PlusBus tickets, the train ticket would be gobbled up anyway at the end of the journey so it'd be impossible to show it to the bus driver… unless the passenger is supposed to ask to be let through the gates instead?

 

[IanXC]

As I say, officially it's not valid if you're not travelling by train, but bus drivers don't usually ask to see the rail ticket, though there's nothing to say they can't.

I think it would be unreasonable for the passenger to be required to show the rail ticket, in this case we are talking about bus travel following the rail journey, so the rail ticket could well have been retained by a ticket barrier.

 

[sheff1]

Your basic issue will be whether you can get a Ticket Office or a Conductor to sell you your desired +BUS ticket. As I say, officially it's not valid if you're not travelling by train, but bus drivers don't usually ask to see the rail ticket, though there's nothing to say they can't.

I would be amazed if a bus driver asked to see a rail ticket in addition to the Plusbus ticket, but if they did and the rail ticket had been retained by the ticket gates what would happen next ? (Notices have appeared around the Leeds area fairly recently stating that all used tickets will be retained by the gates)

 

[yorkie]

I would be amazed if a bus driver asked to see a rail ticket in addition to the Plusbus ticket, but if they did and the rail ticket had been retained by the ticket gates what would happen next ? (Notices have appeared around the Leeds area fairly recently stating that all used tickets will be retained by the gates)

Then the customer would simply explain that. The ticket would remain valid in that case.

But in the OPs case, which is different, the official answer has to be that no, it's not valid (though someone who only read the PDF document T&Cs may reach a different conclusion!) and before anyone says "but that's not enforceable" my answer to that is that wasn't the question and we can't advise doing anything that is a clear breach of T&Cs.

 

[sheff1]

I think it would be unreasonable for the passenger to be required to show the rail ticket

Not just unreasonable, but against the T&Cs:

It is not necessary to have a valid train ticket in your possession in order to use a PLUSBUS ticket for travel on a participating bus or tram operators services.

 

[island]

So the answer is yes you can buy the ticket (do it before making the trip on Sunday), but no you are not supposed to buy or use it.

 

[phil35]

The way I look at it is that PlusBus is designed to fill in the non-rail gaps at each end of one's journey from home to one's destination, that is to say:

HOME – PlusBus – train – PlusBus – DESTINATION

That's what phil35 wishes to do, only, the PlusBus to home part of the return journey happens to be on a different day to the train part of the journey. So morally, in this situation I wouldn't have any qualms about wanting to purchase a PlusBus ticket for the day after the train journey had been completed. In terms of practically, it should also be perfectly possible: an anytime return is valid for a month so as dave4jackie suggests, all that's needed is to tell the ticket office that the return journey will be on the Monday and ask for a PlusBus ticket. The bus driver to whom the PlusBus ticket is shown will have no idea which day phil35 travelled by train back to Leeds, so I can't see it being a problem.

I always thought that is what the PlusBus was for too. However, with the exception of a day return, in my experience, without railcard discount a PlusBus is actually more expensive the majority of peak bus singles. Which I find strange really. You would expect a PlusBus to cost less than a single on the bus, otherwise why would the majority of people ever buy it?

 

[SS4]

I always thought that is what the PlusBus was for too. However, with the exception of a day return, in my experience, without railcard discount a PlusBus is actually more expensive the majority of peak bus singles. Which I find strange really. You would expect a PlusBus to cost less than a single on the bus, otherwise why would the majority of people ever buy it?

PlusBus is a day ticket and so you can use it if you want to return on the same day or you need to change buses to get to the station.