Newbury to Westbury – Valid Routes

[coxy]

The GWR journey planner is throwing up a number of different routes for an Off Peak Day Return for Thursday 17th December.

1] Direct train between Newbury and Westbury.

2] Train from Newbury to Reading, then direct from Reading to Westbury.

3] Train from Newbury to Reading, followed by a train to Swindon and finally a train to Westbury.

I’ve had a look at the Routing Guide, which tells me the following:

Pink Pages
Newbury is associated with both Reading Group and Westbury Group.
Westbury is associated with Westbury Group.

Yellow Pages
Reading Group to Westbury Group use map PC (Reading, Swindon, Chippenham etc), or map WE (direct between Newbury and Westbury).

Can somebody please confirm that the £16.30 Off Peak Day Return ticket (route any permitted) is valid via Reading / Swindon / Chippenham. Has anybody used this ticket / route combination before.

Finally, could it even be used for Reading to Bath Spa, followed by a connecting service from Bath Spa to Westbury ?

 

[Paul Kelly]

As there is a common routeing point, only through trains, the shortest route, routes within 3 miles of the shortest route and direct trains to and from a common routeing point are permitted.

 

[LexyBoy]

As Newbury and Westbury share a routeing point, the only permitted routes are the shortest route, direct trains, and those permitted by an easement. Easement 700391 allows doubleback via Reading for "customers travelling from Newbury via Bedwyn".

I can't see why travel via Swindon would be permitted - I'd guess that the easement is interpreted incorrectly (e.g. "for journeys to/from Newbury, do permitted routes pass through Bedwyn - if so allow routes via Reading"). GWR's journey planner does allow via Bath. Conversely NRE doesn't allow travel via Reading even on Reading-Westbury directs.

If you plan to make the journey - or especially if your actual journey is Reading-Bath - I would strongly advise booking through GWR and getting reservations.

 

[Haywain]

If you plan to make the journey - or especially if your actual journey is Reading-Bath - I would strongly advise booking through GWR and getting reservations.

If your actual journey is Reading to Bath you might want to build in to your journey some time for the difficulty you are likely to encounter at the gateline at Bath.

 

[Kentish Paul]

I maybe a bit dim but why is anyone travelling from Newbury to Westbury looking at routes via Reading and Swindon?

 

[bnm]

I maybe a bit dim but why is anyone travelling from Newbury to Westbury looking at routes via Reading and Swindon?

To save money on a journey between intermediate stations perhaps?

I do it quite often on the route under discussion. Not with quite the same ticket though.

 

[coxy]

Thank you for the various suggestions, comments and conspiracy theories

There certainly seems to be some confusion of what is considered to be a valid journey and what "may" be permitted due to routing points/maps/easements. I have also noticed that advanced tickets (so booked trains only) are offering journeys via Reading/Swindon/Bath, so that can be thrown into the mix too.

As for why somebody would want to take a 90+ mile detour rather than go direct, well as a rail enthusiast I enjoy sampling various routes, different traction etc. So if a particular journey can be made by more than one route then that's fine by me.