Valid routes for season tickets

[zander56]

Hi
Apologies if this is going over old ground as I am new to the forum and couldn't locate anything relevant - this is my first post. I wondered if anyone knew anything about the valid routes for season tickets with Southeastern

I need to buy an annual season ticket from Dover Priory to Ashford and the cost is 1912.00 per annum. However, I did a bit of comparison on the SE fares page and discovered that if I buy an annual season ticket from Dover Priory to Canterbury West with Ashford as a 'via' option, the price falls to around 1300 per annum. I also noted that SE say and annual season ticket is valid for use to and from any station along your permitted route. That being the case, would it be permissible to buy a Dover to Canterbury season ticket for daily journeys to and from Ashford, thus saving around 6oo pounds a year? I would use the ticket on occasion to travel to Canterbury as well. It sounds too good to be true - is it?

 

[button_boxer]

Interesting one - the £1300 ticket is Dover Priory to Canterbury Stations - Canterbury East has Dover Priory as one of its routeing points but Canterbury West does not.

The routeing guide states that when the origin and destination share a routeing point then the only valid route is the shortest route, so the question is whether you can choose which of the stations in the destination group is your actual destination, or whether the fact that one of the Canterbury stations shares a routeing point with the origin is enough to preclude you using the ticket to the other one.

 

[CyrusWuff]

The Dover - Canterbury ticket would actually be to Canterbury Stations, rather than explicitly to Canterbury West. Can't see it being valid via Ashford myself, but we'll give it a go.

The eNRT gives Dover Priory - Ashford as being 21.25 miles, Dover Priory - Ashford - Canterbury West as 35.5 miles and Dover Priory - Canterbury East (direct) as 15.5 miles, so it fails on the "shortest route" rule by a significant margin.

The good news is that Ashford and Dover are both routeing points, so we don't need to undertake a fares check for that.

Canterbury West has routeing points of Ashford International and Ramsgate Group (Minster and Ramsgate).

Doing a fares check:

Canterbury - Dover Anytime Day Single (SDS) is £8.10
Ashford - Dover SDS is £11.00
Ramsgate - Dover SDS is £9.50
Minster - Dover SDS is £9.30

As the fare from both routeing points to Dover is higher than that for the through journey, only the shortest route is permitted, which I would suggest would be direct from Canterbury East (which has Dover as a routeing point, so wouldn't need a fares check anyway).

 

[kieron]

That being the case, would it be permissible to buy a Dover to Canterbury season ticket for daily journeys to and from Ashford, thus saving around 6oo pounds a year? I would use the ticket on occasion to travel to Canterbury as well. It sounds too good to be true - is it?

I'd print something out which shows this as a valid route and take that with me. As you're not buying a day ticket, I'd click on the "i" thing by one of the services, and print the screen it shows with that there.

It appears to me that this is something WebTIS (the journey planner Southeastern use) shows as being valid when there's no clear reason why this should be. The route to Canterbury West through Sandwich is shorter. Canterbury-Dover singles are cheaper than Ashford-Dover ones. There are no obvious easements to benefit this route.

But, if Southestern's own web site says it's okay, you have to trust them.

 

[Merseysider]

I would suggest you play around with stations in the area and find a ticket where the shortest route rule (entirely by rail, no out of station interchanges) means you can make your intended journey. There is a far cheaper alternative but it may bring a lot of hassle.

 

[zander56]

Thanks for taking the time to those who answered my query. It looks like it was too good to be true after all.

 

[SETCommuter]

Have a little look at Bekesbourne - Chartham. You may be very pleasantly surprised just what you can do with that ticket.....