Hi there, apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but I regularly travel Totnes to London on the 6.01, changing at Newton Abbot to the 6.31. Generally I try and book in advance directly with GWR, but have increasingly been using Trainline. I was recently told of a loophole if travelling on the day when there are no longer advance tickets, namely a buying a ticket for Totnes to Grantham as a Super off peak ticket via trainline with an itinerary for the 6.01 and 6.31 before undergroudn travel to Grantham for a 10.48 arrival. This comes in at some £50 pounds cheaper and according to the T&Cs allows for a break of journey at intermediate stations. As I work near Kings Cross I thought this would be perfect for the occasions where I don't have a cheaper advanced fare and the first time it proved, but on the second occasion I was charged an excess fare by the GWR inspector, who was adamant that the ticket was not valid on that service, despite the fact that I clearly had an itinerary, including seat reservations, for this service.
She did correctly note that you cannot buy that ticket through GWR, but it is available through Trainline, the Railforums own site, and interestingly comes up as an option on nationalrail, though when one tries to purchase this option through Hull Trains it's not listed. The interaction was unpleasant, with the inspector more or less stating Trainline was the wild west and they had no obligation to honour their tickets. I should add the inspector on the earlier Totnes-Newton Abbot train had no objection to the ticket on this or the previous occassion. I have checked the restriction code HD but that seems to apply to the Grantham leg. Is this a glitch on the part of trainline, or a slightly odd but wholly legitimate way of travelling to London? I have no intention of avoiding paying what's owed etc. but I cannot currently see why I cannot buy this ticket and use it in this way. I contacted trainline on this and they were fairly useless.
She did correctly note that you cannot buy that ticket through GWR, but it is available through Trainline, the Railforums own site, and interestingly comes up as an option on nationalrail, though when one tries to purchase this option through Hull Trains it's not listed. The interaction was unpleasant, with the inspector more or less stating Trainline was the wild west and they had no obligation to honour their tickets. I should add the inspector on the earlier Totnes-Newton Abbot train had no objection to the ticket on this or the previous occassion. I have checked the restriction code HD but that seems to apply to the Grantham leg. Is this a glitch on the part of trainline, or a slightly odd but wholly legitimate way of travelling to London? I have no intention of avoiding paying what's owed etc. but I cannot currently see why I cannot buy this ticket and use it in this way. I contacted trainline on this and they were fairly useless.
