Split Advance Tickets. Where do I stand with delays?

[markymark2000]

Essentially, I am going to travel from Chester to Motherwell. The fare stated on National Rail is £38 or so advance. However, If I split this advance fare, I can get the Northern to Warrington for £4 and then Avanti to Motherwell for £26. If I book as a through advance, if Northern cancel the first part, of course normal advance rules of 'next train' apply. If these are separate tickets though, where does that leave me as if Northern cancel, I can't get to Warrington for the connection and it could be argued that it is my fault for being late arriving at the station as my Avanti ticket is only valid for from Warrington.

While the risk of a cancellation may be low, it is something that has to be considered and of course I don't fancy forking out for a standard single last minute.


Thank you in advance.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You are entitled to use multiple contiguous tickets for one journey provided you leave the appropriate connection time. However you would be best advised to book them with an itinerary e.g. via Trainsplit to reduce arguments.

The Trainsplit "share of savings" fee is not hefty, I'd pay it. They might even find a cheaper option for you!

 

[markymark2000]

You are entitled to use multiple contiguous tickets for one journey provided you leave the appropriate connection time. However you would be best advised to book them with an itinerary e.g. via Trainsplit to reduce arguments.

The Trainsplit "share of savings" fee is not hefty, I'd pay it. They might even find a cheaper option for you!

Would they class it as 2 journeys though as it is 2 separate advance tickets. Even if you go via trainsplit or whatever, the tickets state separate journeys.


I did go through there and they found the cheaper price.



Essentially, it comes down to, do I pay the extra £8 for the security of less issues if something was to go wrong.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

Would they class it as 2 journeys though as it is 2 separate advance tickets. Even if you go via trainsplit or whatever, the tickets state separate journeys.


I did go through there and they found the cheaper price.



Essentially, it comes down to, do I pay the extra £8 for the security of less issues if something was to go wrong.

What makes you think there would be a guarantee of no issues with that?

 

[Watershed]

Essentially, I am going to travel from Chester to Motherwell. The fare stated on National Rail is £38 or so advance. However, If I split this advance fare, I can get the Northern to Warrington for £4 and then Avanti to Motherwell for £26. If I book as a through advance, if Northern cancel the first part, of course normal advance rules of 'next train' apply. If these are separate tickets though, where does that leave me as if Northern cancel, I can't get to Warrington for the connection and it could be argued that it is my fault for being late arriving at the station as my Avanti ticket is only valid for from Warrington.

While the risk of a cancellation may be low, it is something that has to be considered and of course I don't fancy forking out for a standard single last minute.


Thank you in advance.

Provided you have allowed the minimum connection time at Warrington (5 minutes), you can split as many times as you want and it is still one journey, with the same rights as if you had bought the equivalent through ticket.

If you buy it as one journey on TrainSplit then obviously it will be easier to demonstrate this if it comes to it, but ultimately a guard who is wont to reject a split ticket is likely to do so regardless of what you produce.

The other alternative you have is adding the two tickets to the basket separately, as you then won't be charged a 'share of saving' fee.

 

[XAM2175]

Would they class it as 2 journeys though as it is 2 separate advance tickets. Even if you go via trainsplit or whatever, the tickets state separate journeys.

You are allowed to construct a complete journey out of any number of individual tickets, so long as you travel on trains that call at the point/s where you're splitting tickets,* and so long as you leave enough time between connections to satisfy the minimum requirements.

When travelling on a multiple-ticket itinerary you have the same rights and protections as you would when travelling on one ticket, so long as you follow the operator and route requirements of each ticket for the relevant part of your journey.

As others have noted, you do not need to obtain an itinerary from a journey planner or retailer such as Trainsplit, but it can assist in case of (rare) dispute. Personally though I book through Trainsplit and pay the savings fee primarily because it's a useful service that I want to see stick around.

* = unless one of the tickets in the split is a season ticket or one of a few other types, in which case you are allowed to split by passing through without calling.

 

[yorkie]

Would they class it as 2 journeys though as it is 2 separate advance tickets. Even if you go via trainsplit or whatever, the tickets state separate journeys.


I did go through there and they found the cheaper price.

I don't think Trainsplit would say it is a 'separate journey' unless you add it as separate journeys.

If you buy each ticket individually on Trainsplit you would still be able to use the seat selector and the tickets are still valid as one journey. But what you wouldn't get is a through itinerary (you could generate and print one but it wouldn't be connected to the booking) and you wouldn't get their support in the event of any issues with the through journey, that would be down to you to contest it.

Essentially, it comes down to, do I pay the extra £8 for the security of less issues if something was to go wrong.

Paying the share of saving fee doesn't guarantee anything but it would make it a bit easier to demonstrate it is all one journey and likely secure additional support if you need it.

If you choose e-tickets, you'd get one PDF with all the tickets within the document (one ticket per page); if any train is re-timed it is easier to demonstrate it was a valid itinerary and it makes Delay Repay claims easier. In the unlikely event of a dispute with the TOC, if the TOC was not relenting I am sure Trainsplit would help you out if you booked it as a through journey with them. I am aware of them helping others. In the unlikely event of this happening, they have members of their team on this forum and I can contact them directly, so feel free to let me know.

I think the original poster of this thread would have been better off if they'd booked their journey as one journey:

Refund of multiple tickets from multiple retailers in case of cancellation

Just a hypothetical question, both my outward and inward journey consist of two legs and use more than one ticket, so say 2 outward legs with 2 tickets and 2 inward legs with 2 tickets, all are advance purchased from multiple retailers. If only 1 of the 4 legs got cancelled, is condition 30.1 of...

www.railforums.co.uk

However the main consideration is to use the same retailer. If someone really doesn't want Trainsplit to get the share of saving fee, then my advice would be to put each ticket in their basket on Trainsplit and this avoids fees and at least gives Trainsplit some commission. Also e-tickets help the retailer to avoid incurring losses that occur with paper (TOD) tickets

They might even find a cheaper option for you!

Yes sometimes it comes out with things that would not otherwise be obvious! If it ever isn't the cheapest (which is quite rare), I'd encourage people to let them know (also send me a conversation message and I can make sure the right person hears about it) and they may be able to tweak their systems to find the cheapest combination in future.

 

[Hadders]

The National Rail Conditions of Carriage states that you may use two or more Tickets to make a journey.

 

[markymark2000]

Thank you all, much appreciated.