How many Season tickets would be required, for validity on all lines?

[tom73]

I'm just curious to know, hypothetically, how many season tickets, presumably long distance ones, would be needed to allow the holder validity to all stations on the network.
Also, hypothetically, would the holder of these tickets be able to have them all linked to one NR Photocard.
Feel free to move this post but it didn't really seem to fit the fares advice section.

 

[cuccir]

Anyone wanting validity for all stations would of course go for an All Line Rover, but I presume that's not the point of this question?

I suspect to answer your question would require quite a bit of computing skills rather than routeing guide knowledge. If you purely wanted to buy point to point season tickets - rather than rangers or rovers - if nothing else you'd need tickets to cover pretty much every branch that only has one connection to the rest of the network, as through tickets wouldn't, with some exceptions, cover them. So looking at Scotland alone, you'd need tickets to cover:

* Kyle of Lochalsh to Dingwall
* Thurso to Georgemas Junction
* Wick to Georgemas Junction
* Stirling to Alloa
* North Berwick to Drem
* Oban to Crianlarich
* Mallaig to Crianlarich
* Helensburgh Central to Cardross
* Balloch to Darleoch
* Milngavie to Westerton
* Edinburgh to Tweedbank
* Lanark to Carluke
* Lakhall to Hamilton Central
* East Kilbride to Pollokshaws
* Neilston to Cathcart
* Paisley to Glasgow
* Gourock to Port Glasgow
* Wemyss Bay to Port Glasgow
* Stranraer to Troon
* Largs to Ardrossan South Beach
* Ardrossan Harbour to Ardrossan South Beach

And that's before you've started to try and cover through routes with a clever understanding of the routing guide so that one ticket covers multiple routes between stations.

Now you wouldn't actually need 1 per branch line - you could find ways of combining them together (eg Largs - Adrossan Stations would cover two branches; Drem - Tweedbank would cover two branches etc etc) but still even if you only need an average 1 per 2 branchlines, and I think that's optimistic, then that's at least 10 or 11 just to cover Scottish branchlines. Expand that notion out to the national network and look how many branches there are (eg South Wales!) and there's plenty more to cover!! I'd be surprised if the figure was less than 50 tickets for the country as a whole.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Anyone wanting validity for all stations would of course go for an All Line Rover, but I presume that's not the point of this question?

I suspect to answer your question would require quite a bit of computing skills rather than routeing guide knowledge. If you purely wanted to buy point to point season tickets - rather than rangers or rovers - if nothing else you'd need tickets to cover pretty much every branch that only has one connection to the rest of the network, as through tickets wouldn't, with some exceptions, cover them. So looking at Scotland alone, you'd need tickets to cover:

* Kyle of Lochalsh to Dingwall
* Thurso to Georgemas Junction
* Wick to Georgemas Junction
* Stirling to Alloa
* North Berwick to Drem
* Oban to Crianlarich
* Mallaig to Crianlarich
* Helensburgh Central to Cardross
* Balloch to Darleoch
* Milngavie to Westerton
* Edinburgh to Tweedbank
* Lanark to Carluke
* Lakhall to Hamilton Central
* East Kilbride to Pollokshaws
* Neilston to Cathcart
* Paisley to Glasgow
* Gourock to Port Glasgow
* Wemyss Bay to Port Glasgow
* Stranraer to Troon
* Largs to Ardrossan South Beach
* Ardrossan Harbour to Ardrossan South Beach

And that's before you've started to try and cover through routes with a clever understanding of the routing guide so that one ticket covers multiple routes between stations.

Now you wouldn't actually need 1 per branch line - you could find ways of combining them together (eg Largs - Adrossan Stations would cover two branches; Drem - Tweedbank would cover two branches etc etc) but still even if you only need an average 1 per 2 branchlines, and I think that's optimistic, then that's at least 10 or 11 just to cover Scottish branchlines. Expand that notion out to the national network and look how many branches there are (eg South Wales!) and there's plenty more to cover!! I'd be surprised if the figure was less than 50 tickets for the country as a whole.

Agreed. For most of the arterial through lines, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a suitable ticket that covers a lot - and in particular I would be thinking of a (custom-priced) Penzance to Berwick-upon-Tweed season ticket as covering a lot of lines.

 

[Skipness]

An all line rover at £366.00 standard class with a discount railcard could offer an interesting seven consecutive days of travel (provided you were mindful of the pre 10.00h departure restrictions)

 

[philthetube]

Thurso to Georgemas Junction would be covered in any Wick southbound ticket.

 

[OwlMan]

RDG (ATOC) do sell an annual All-Line ticket. It is only available by direct application to them.

 

[paddington]

I doubt it's possible to travel enough on every branch line that having a season ticket to cover them all would be worthwhile. How many times can you go from Inverness to Wick and why would you need a ticket to cover Cornwall or Wales while you were doing that...

 

[robbeech]

I doubt it's possible to travel enough on every branch line that having a season ticket to cover them all would be worthwhile. How many times can you go from Inverness to Wick and why would you need a ticket to cover Cornwall or Wales while you were doing that...

I don’t think that’s the point here. Nobody has suggested the concept being useful.

Of course the argument of whether 2 season tickets combined are valid if the train doesn’t stop at the station which they change would come into play if you actually tried to make journeys.

 

[infobleep]

I don’t think that’s the point here. Nobody has suggested the concept being useful.

Of course the argument of whether 2 season tickets combined are valid if the train doesn’t stop at the station which they change would come into play if you actually tried to make journeys.

Of course if one only made journeys that were on trains that stopped at the season ticket changeover points.....

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

RDG (ATOC) do sell an annual All-Line ticket. It is only available by direct application to them.

It's called an All Points Season and I have actually seen one. Apart from the designation it was nothing out of the ordinary to look at although the price was not shown. The holder was a high level full-time employee of a national charity. I suspect a railfan winning big on the lottery might be tempted...

 

[infobleep]

It's called an All Points Season and I have actually seen one. Apart from the designation it was nothing out of the ordinary to look at although the price was not shown. The holder was a high level full-time employee of a national charity. I suspect a railfan winning big on the lottery might be tempted...

So how easy is it to devide up the Orcats on an All Points Season?

 

[bb21]

So how easy is it to devide up the Orcats on an All Points Season?

How does ORCATs work with All Line Rovers?

Considering the tiny quantity sold, we are talking peanuts money-wise so I doubt too many people will lose sleep over how much they get from it.

 

[Springs Branch]

It's called an All Points Season and I have actually seen one. Apart from the designation it was nothing out of the ordinary to look at although the price was not shown. <snip>

Given the regular reports we read on here about problems with Guards and gateline staff quibbling over tickets which are valid but they don't normally see or don't understand, or gatelines which capture or mangle tickets, I wonder how you'd go using this one over a year.

On the upside, I guess if you were one of the select few to have an Annual All Points ticket, you would presumably be the railway equivalent of a Super Premium Ultra Platinum Frequent Flyer on an airline and have a dedicated RDG Relationship Manager on call to sort any problems on the spot.
"Oh hello Mr Bloggs, nice to hear from you again. What's that? Kings Cross gate wiped the magnetic stripe again? No problems, I'll have a replacement couriered to your office straight away." Or maybe not!

 

[LOL The Irony]

It's called an All Points Season and I have actually seen one. Apart from the designation it was nothing out of the ordinary to look at although the price was not shown. The holder was a high level full-time employee of a national charity. I suspect a railfan winning big on the lottery might be tempted...

Out of curiosity, is a 1st class version available or is it 1st class anyways?

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Given the regular reports we read on here about problems with Guards and gateline staff quibbling over tickets which are valid but they don't normally see or don't understand, or gatelines which capture or mangle tickets, I wonder how you'd go using this one over a year.

Doubtless it helped that I had actually heard of such a ticket so understood the significance of the printed designation. Unlike a certain Strathclyde TE who doubted the existence of All Line Rovers just because they had never seen one before... Ultimately all a concerned member of staff need do is contact their Retail Control. Oh and in my training we were told that very often if we weren't sure of something ticket-wise it was best to let it go but seek clarification from a suitable manager later. Failing that obtain details and submit a TIR.

Out of curiosity, is a 1st class version available or is it 1st class anyways?

I have no idea, never worked a train with any 1st class.

 

[jon0844]

On the upside, I guess if you were one of the select few to have an Annual All Points ticket, you would presumably be the railway equivalent of a Super Premium Ultra Platinum Frequent Flyer on an airline and have a dedicated RDG Relationship Manager on call to sort any problems on the spot.
"Oh hello Mr Bloggs, nice to hear from you again. What's that? Kings Cross gate wiped the magnetic stripe again? No problems, I'll have a replacement couriered to your office straight away." Or maybe not!

But it's not an airline. It's the railway. So when your super premium ticket gets wiped, they'll probably make you pay a fee for replacement, then take your ticket and details for prosecution the next time the ticket doesn't go through a gateline...