West Ham to Grays via Pitsea

[RaymondT]

I have a question to see if I am using the routeing guide correctly. It looks to me (and the NR booking engine seems to confirm) that going via Pitsea is a valid route between West Ham and Grays.
West Ham has routeing point Barking.
Grays is a routeing point.
The map to use is UP which connects Upminster, Pitsea and Grays in a closed triangle, showing that Barking to Grays can be done via Pitsea.
This doesn't involve doubling back.
So if I were to purchase a ticket from West Ham to Grays, could I break my journey at Pitsea (assuming I was willing to have an argument with the person on the ticket barrier) or have I missed something?

The thing that makes me think this should not be valid is that there is an easement saying that a journey between London and Stanford Le Hope can be done via Pitsea. If West Ham to Grays via Pitsea is a permitted route, then this easement would be irrelevant.

 

[PermitToTravel]

The Routeing Guide is not recursive. Just because a journey from London to Grays is permitted via West Ham and Grays, it does not mean that it is permitted via all permitted routes from West Ham to Grays - you need to consider the actual origin and destination, and so that easement does serve a purpose. Not all easements do serve a purpose.

Expect for the loophole to be closed now that you've publicised it

 

[kieron]

The thing that makes me think this should not be valid is that there is an easement saying that a journey between London and Stanford Le Hope can be done via Pitsea. If West Ham to Grays via Pitsea is a permitted route, then this easement would be irrelevant.

It's not irrelevant. Without it, you couldn't travel from Limehouse to Stanford-le-Hope via Dagenham, Ockendon and Basildon (unlike West Ham-Grays, the tickets are all "via Grays" ones).

There are a lot of easements out there which have far less effect than they used to.
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ATOC are quite predictable in some ways. On 23/2 (i.e., the first weekday after the original post), they removed validity via Pitsea from London-Grays and Barking-Grays tickets, and also removed easement 29 (the one RaymondT mentioned).

 

[pne]

ATOC are quite predictable in some ways. On 23/2 (i.e., the first weekday after the original post), they removed validity via Pitsea from London-Grays and Barking-Grays tickets, and also removed easement 29 (the one RaymondT mentioned).

Who's going to do the Freedom of Information request asking whether appropriate bodies were consulted before this change and if so, why assent was given?

 

[button_boxer]

Who's going to do the Freedom of Information request asking whether appropriate bodies were consulted before this change and if so, why assent was given?

They'll only trot out the usual "we don't have to consult when we're correcting an obvious mistake" line.