Off peak question

[trigpoint]

Trains from my local station run to Crewe every 2 hours which means I am not on the earliest off-peak train from Crewe to London.

Can I use an off-peak ticket from my local station on the earlier train and simply wait 45 minutes at Crewe or do I have to be on the later train?

The on-line planners seem to be obsessed with the shortest wait at Crewe.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Trains from my local station run to Crewe every 2 hours which means I am not on the earliest off-peak train from Crewe to London.

Can I use an off-peak ticket from my local station on the earlier train and simply wait 45 minutes at Crewe or do I have to be on the later train?

The on-line planners seem to be obsessed with the shortest wait at Crewe.

I'm not an expert on this, but I think that the analysis goes

There's no such thing as an off-peak train, just off-peak tickets

So to find out which trains you can use with your off-peak ticket, it would help to know where you are starting your journey to London from.

 

[SaltAndVinegar]

If it’s the stations between Nantwich and Shrewsbury…

Let’s look at the £103.80 off-peak return from Prees to Euston

Purchase flexible walk-up fares for any British train journey

Purchase flexible single/return tickets & Travelcards – in 3 clicks. Full details of all British rail fares shown, with built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

There are no restrictions on your connecting travel to Crewe.

The restriction is on the time you arrive at London Euston. There are also restrictions on arriving at Watford Jct (not before 10:44) and Milton Keynes (not before 10:55).

So you can travel to Crewe, then wait for the first service timetabled to arrive in Euston after 1129.

Restrictions on arrival time at Watford/MK/Euston do not apply on Fridays.

Please note there are also restriction on return travel, try to analyse the restrictions table at the bottom of the brfares page I linked above… or just follow what an official journey planner suggests for the return.

You could use the forum’s ticketing website to buy your ticket, playing around with the “via Crewe with X minutes extra wait time” option to try and get the itinerary you want.

 

[trigpoint]

If it’s the stations between Nantwich and Shrewsbury

Thank you for your reply, very helpful.
Its Wem and wouldn't normally have been a problem which is why I booked the Eurostar I did. However the train that would have been the pretty reliable Shrewsbury-Crewe shuttle but has been replaced with extra stops on a Birmingham-Llandudno service, which according to realtimetrains has been late both Monday and today meaning there is a high chance of missing the London train at Crewe and later ones would give me less time in London.
I am aware of the return restrictions and the return gives me plenty of chance to catch an off-peak train out of London.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@trigpoint. Are you essentially looking at catching the 0818 TfW from Wem to Crewe (arrive 0859) and then waiting at Crewe for the 0955 Avanti from Crewe to London Euston (arrive 1135)? The journey made with a £103.80 (route "via Crewe") Off Peak Return?

 

[Watershed]

Worth noting that you could take the 09:13 Crewe to London Euston service (operated by London Northwestern/West Midlands Trains) and still get to Euston 11 minutes earlier. If you did this you'd want to buy split tickets to get the cheapest fare, since the 09:13 would be valid to take on a much cheaper London Northwestern only Off-Peak Return costing £55.10.

Annoyingly you'd need to buy two rather pricey (£12.90) Anytime Day Singles between Wem and Crewe and back if returning the next day or after, for a total cost of £80.90 - there's no period return fare from Wem to Crewe. That said, Advance tickets are generally available at cheaper prices for Wem-Crewe even on the day of travel, so you wouldn't necessarily need to commit a long time ahead to achieve a saving.

 

[A S Leib]

Its Wem and wouldn't normally have been a problem which is why I booked the Eurostar I did.

My knowledge of these isn't great; is a ticket to London International (CIV) likely to be useful in this case?

 

[Watershed]

My knowledge of these isn't great; is a ticket to London International (CIV) likely to be useful in this case?

Unfortunately not particularly, as Avanti seem to have - accidentally or otherwise - removed all the return fares they price to London International CIV. Meaning that you only have the option of a Euro High Saver priced based on 70% of the usual Off-Peak Return fare, or a Euro Standard Single priced at 50% of the extortionate Anytime Return.

 

[yorkie]

Trains from my local station run to Crewe every 2 hours which means I am not on the earliest off-peak train from Crewe to London.

Can I use an off-peak ticket from my local station on the earlier train and simply wait 45 minutes at Crewe or do I have to be on the later train?

The on-line planners seem to be obsessed with the shortest wait at Crewe.

What exactly is your desired itinerary?

It may be worth trying the forum's ticketing site, by specifying the following advanced option: Change at: Crewe with additional 35 mins.

 

[trigpoint]

@trigpoint. Are you essentially looking at catching the 0818 TfW from Wem to Crewe (arrive 0859) and then waiting at Crewe for the 0955 Avanti from Crewe to London Euston (arrive 1135)? The journey made with a £103.80 (route "via Crewe") Off Peak Return?

That is the plan, I'll get a coffee and breakfast at Crewe.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Thursday at 00:21 ==

Unfortunately not particularly, as Avanti seem to have - accidentally or otherwise - removed all the return fares they price to London International CIV. Meaning that you only have the option of a Euro High Saver priced based on 70% of the usual Off-Peak Return fare, or a Euro Standard Single priced at 50% of the extortionate Anytime Return.

I have never found those options.

 

[Gaelan]

I have never found those options.

The trick is to book a ticket to station code “LNE” using TrainSplit, brfares.com, or an especially competent and/or patient ticket office. Sounds like these tickets aren’t particularly useful on Avanti’s patch, but they’re useful elsewhere as they often have far less onerous peak restrictions and include the tube trip to St Pancras. Conventional wisdom is that they also give you better rights in the event of disruption, but I’m not convinced this is true (CIV rights don’t normally apply across separately booked tickets) and in any case, Eurostar and British operators are usually pragmatic about each other’s delays regardless of ticket type (though getting a hotel if you miss the last train, or getting anywhere if the rest of the day’s Eurostars are booked out, is likely to be a struggle).

 

[trigpoint]

Thank you. I did find that on brfares.
Certainly something to bear in mind next time I book a Eurostar on Monday to Thursday.
Had I know at the time I booked I would be on an earlier Eurostar.