PlusBus Railcard discount with non-discounted rail ticket

[IanD]

Does the rail ticket you hold have to have a railcard discount for you to get the railcard discount on a plus bus ticket?

Just noticed on RedSpottedHanky that if you ask for a railcard discounted ticket but a non-discounted ticket is cheaper (eg Groupsave or Margate Portas Pilot) then add a PlusBus to the ticket, they don't give the railcard discount on the PlusBus either. Surely this isn't correct!

 

[WillPS]

The same happened to me when attempting to book a service before 1000 (with a £12 minimum fare).

 

[A1]

I could be very wrong, but I thought the Railcard discount only applied if it was a <station+Bus> destination, rather than an added PlusBus at the end of the transaction.

At least that has been my general experience.

 

[transportphoto]

That is no longer the case and all plus bus tickets should be issued Station to Station+BUS eg Norwich to Norwich+BUS as a separate ticket.

Here is an example ticket, note that this has been discounted with a Family and Friends railcard.

TP

 

[IanD]

That is no longer the case and all plus bus tickets should be issued Station to Station+BUS eg Norwich to Norwich+BUS as a separate ticket.

TP

If only RSH etc. would allow you to buy tickets in that way!

 

[LexyBoy]

This is allowed AFAIK, certainly I do it all the time - my season ticket isn't discounted but I get a railcard discount on PlusBus. You'll have to get it at a station (or from the guard) I expect.

That is no longer the case and all plus bus tickets should be issued Station to Station+BUS eg Norwich to Norwich+BUS as a separate ticket.

Not to be confused with tickets including a bus connexion from a nearby railhead, which are issued as one ticket, e.g. Padstow Bus or Whitby Bus. Different to PlusBus of course.

 

[Oscar]

This is allowed AFAIK, certainly I do it all the time - my season ticket isn't discounted but I get a railcard discount on PlusBus. You'll have to get it at a station (or from the guard) I expect.

Not to be confused with tickets including a bus connexion from a nearby railhead, which are issued as one ticket, e.g. Padstow Bus or Whitby Bus. Different to PlusBus of course.

In the case of bus link tickets Railcard holders can buy a discounted ticket to the railhead and a non-discounted bus link ticket which is issued separately:

7.2 Bus & Tram links

Integrated tickets which permit a single or return journey by train and bus or tram are available to and from many non-rail served destinations. For some of these tickets the non-rail served location is only available as a destination (e.g. Leeds Bradford Airport) while in other cases the non-rail served location is also available as an origin (e.g. Whitby Bus).

Bus link fares are calculated by adding the appropriate Bus Day Single, Bus Day Return or Bus Period Return (return within a month) onto the rail fare. However, some bus link fares are not available to or from certain National Rail stations (e.g. You can get a ticket to Richmond Yks Bus from York but not from Northallerton).

Bus link fares can be sold manually from any station as an add-on to any valid ticket already purchased to this station. This also applies to Advance tickets although some clerks may be reluctant to offer such a bus link add-on to an Advance.

Some bus links are good value for money (York to Whitby Bus where the add-on Day or Period Return fare is £8.50 while the fares on the bus are £13 and £18.70 respectively). Others however are priced at or very close to the fare on the bus (Darlington to Richmond Bus for which the add-on Day Return fare is £6.70 whereas the Day Return bought on the bus was £6.50 in May 2012).

 

[philjo]

That is no longer the case and all plus bus tickets should be issued Station to Station+BUS eg Norwich to Norwich+BUS as a separate ticket.

TP

When I buy a SDR or CDR from a FCC GN station to Cambridge and ask for plus bus it always comes on one ticket (though with the usual separate OUT and RETURN portions) with Cambridge +bus shown as the destination.

 

[LexyBoy]

When I buy a SDR or CDR from a FCC GN station to Cambridge and ask for plus bus it always comes on one ticket (though with the usual separate OUT and RETURN portions) with Cambridge +bus shown as the destination.

Interesting - there are indeed fares set for e.g. Stevenage - Cambridge+Bus. I wonder if this is a hang-over or a fudge to allow TVMs to issue PlusBus tickets? IIRC one of the reasons for the change to a seperate bus ticket was to make it clearer for bus drivers to see that it's a valid PlusBus ticket.

In at least some examples you will be overcharged - Stevenage-Cambridge+Bus CDR is priced £14.90, whereas it should be £14.20 (Stevenage-Cambridge CDR + Cambridge-Cambridge+Bus).

edit: there seem to be fares from the Network area, plus a few other stations, to Cambridge+Bus.

 

[Deerfold]

Interesting - there are indeed fares set for e.g. Stevenage - Cambridge+Bus. I wonder if this is a hang-over or a fudge to allow TVMs to issue PlusBus tickets? IIRC one of the reasons for the change to a seperate bus ticket was to make it clearer for bus drivers to see that it's a valid PlusBus ticket.

In at least some examples you will be overcharged - Stevenage-Cambridge+Bus CDR is priced £14.90, whereas it should be £14.20 (Stevenage-Cambridge CDR + Cambridge-Cambridge+Bus).

edit: there seem to be fares from the Network area, plus a few other stations, to Cambridge+Bus.

I suspect this is something to do with the old system that was available at Cambridge which allowed a return trip to be made between the station and central Cambridge - there was some overlap when both this and PlusBus exisited - I remember buying some at Hitchin but having to direct the staff not to sell me a plusbus as the other was cheaper. They had to do a bit of searching but did find it. This would be about 6 or 7 years ago.

 

[philjo]

Yes there used to be 2 bus link destinations for Cambridge available for through ticketing.

H532 was for tickets issued to Cambridge City Bus Link which was for use on the bus from the station to the City Centre/Grafton Centre

I think the other one went to the City Boundary which was more expensive.
I once had an argument with a bus driver with one of those tickets as I was wanting to to to Anglesey Abbey & asked to pay for an additional ticket on the bus from the city boundary to Lode - he had confused the 2 tickets as he said it wasn't valid on that bus at all (it was valid as far as Marshall's according to the WAGN leaflet I had at the time)

 

[island]

You can have a discounted Plusbus with a full-fare rail ticket, assuming you hold a discount entitlement. Railcard minimum fares and time restrictions don't apply to Plusbus AFAIK. You may need to buy this at a booking office.

 

[A1]

You can have a discounted Plusbus with a full-fare rail ticket, assuming you hold a discount entitlement. Railcard minimum fares and time restrictions don't apply to Plusbus AFAIK. You may need to buy this at a booking office.

Ok cool. Perhaps I've been mislead somewhere in my booking processes.

If I buy a normal ticket (to say Cambridge), can I walk up to the ticket office there, flash my Network RailCard and get a Plus Bus ticket? Or does both transactions have to be at the same time.

 

[IanD]

If I buy a normal ticket (to say Cambridge), can I walk up to the ticket office there, flash my Network RailCard and get a Plus Bus ticket? Or does both transactions have to be at the same time.

Yes, but you should have to flash your Cambridge ticket as well.