London-Chester on OWW via Worcester

[LNW-GW Joint]

Another conundrum:
You can't do Chester (where I was starting from) or even Birmingham to London via Worcester and the Cotswold line, though I feel sure this was a permitted route in the distant past (a GW/WR route from Wolverhampton or Birmingham via Worcester and Oxford).
The Routeing Guide just doesn't allow it.
There are not even any fares from Birmingham to Oxford via Worcester (why not?), let alone Any Permitted variations. You can book intermediate journeys only (eg BHM-WOS, WOS-OXF) and the result is expensive.

Today I bought a Chester-London (actually Stratford International) Any Permitted SVR with senior railcard, and travelled out on Virgin on the WCML, with the intention of returning via Reading and breaking my journey there, travelling back via Banbury as the Routeing Guide allows.
When I restarted my trip at Reading, the first train north turned out to be for Worcester.
I sensed the possibility of a trip down the Cotswold line to try out the new infrastructure, and asked the guard if he wanted any more money for the privilege, but he was quite happy for me to route back via Worcester without surcharge.
I expected another debate with the LM guard from Worcester, but he didn't show up at all (no PIS or announcements on the brand-new 172 either).
So I did the Cotswold diversion without any surcharge.
Do any of you experts think this was OK, or should I have been charged a full single Oxford-Worcester-Birmingham extra?
(Just to confuse matters, I travelled Worcester-Smethwick Galton Bridge and changed to a Liverpool train there, missing New Street completely, I am glad to say).
I won't mention the trouble I had getting through the barrier at Reading for break of journey.

 

[4SRKT]

You can buy an off-peak return from Smethwick Galton Bridge to Paddington valid via Evesham for £44.30. It seems this route is off-peak all day.

Off peak return Chester > Smethwick via Shrewsbury £17.20 and Bob's yer sister's brother.

 

[LexyBoy]

Another conundrum:
You can't do Chester (where I was starting from) or even Birmingham to London via Worcester and the Cotswold line, though I feel sure this was a permitted route in the distant past (a GW/WR route from Wolverhampton or Birmingham via Worcester and Oxford).
The Routeing Guide just doesn't allow it.
There are not even any fares from Birmingham to Oxford via Worcester (why not?), let alone Any Permitted variations. You can book intermediate journeys only (eg BHM-WOS, WOS-OXF) and the result is expensive.

Birmingham-Oxford via Worcester would be a fairly big detour! The only way I would have thought Chester-London would be valid via the Cotswold Line would be via the Borders Line and Hereford, but this too is much longer than the alternative.

There are plenty of fairly reasonable-looking routes which are not permitted, and there are fairly ridiculous ones which are. My favourite example is that Reading-London isn't allowed via Guildford, but there is a Guildford to London ticket routed "Reading", roughly equivalent to a Birmingham-London route "York" ticket!

Today I bought a Chester-London (actually Stratford International) Any Permitted SVR with senior railcard, and travelled out on Virgin on the WCML, with the intention of returning via Reading and breaking my journey there, travelling back via Banbury as the Routeing Guide allows.
When I restarted my trip at Reading, the first train north turned out to be for Worcester.
I sensed the possibility of a trip down the Cotswold line to try out the new infrastructure, and asked the guard if he wanted any more money for the privilege, but he was quite happy for me to route back via Worcester without surcharge.
I expected another debate with the LM guard from Worcester, but he didn't show up at all (no PIS or announcements on the brand-new 172 either).
So I did the Cotswold diversion without any surcharge.
Do any of you experts think this was OK, or should I have been charged a full single Oxford-Worcester-Birmingham extra?

There's no "surcharge" as such possible. If you travel on a permitted route but one which is prohibited by the routeing of your ticket, then you'd be asked to pay an excess fare - the difference between the correct ticket and the ticket held. The route you took isn't a permitted route as defined by the Routeing Guide, so in this case it's slightly less clear-cut. You could either be charged for new tickets for the section not covered by your ticket - Oxford-Worcester and Worcester-Birmingham - or charged an excess calculated from the difference between the fare paid and the tickets needed - perhaps London-Worcester and Worcester-Chester. Either way, it would be expensive!

The guard probably considered it a "reasonable" route - the old measure of whether a ticket was valid or not. Unless you're on an obviously invalid route, or one where staff have been briefed not to accept particular tickets, this is a likely outcome.

I won't mention the trouble I had getting through the barrier at Reading for break of journey.

That surprises me, Reading are usually reasonably clued up. The barriers are even programmed for BoJ on some tickets!

You can buy an off-peak return from Smethwick Galton Bridge to Paddington valid via Evesham for £44.30. It seems this route is off-peak all day.

Restriction is 2C, valid into Paddington at or after 1010.

 

[4SRKT]

Restriction is 2C, valid into Paddington at or after 1010.

Travelling from Chester via this route I doubt it'd be possible to get there much before 10:10!

One of my favourite ridiculous tickets that is allowed is an advance from Edinburgh to Shipley via Glasgow and Appleby for £20.00. This is the same price as the Glasgow > Shipley advance, and is a whole lot cheaper than the cheapest fare from Edinburgh to Shipley direct to Carlisle. It's also a ticket I have cause to use as my employer has a branch in Edinburgh and I live in Shippers

I also recently discovered the existence of an advance from Gunnislake to Swindon via Plymouth, Westbury and Bath for £15! Kerr-ching! Coupled with the £3 Penzance > Gunnislake advance earlier in the day this makes the basis of a very pleasant and interstesting meander back from Penzance after enjoying a £49 solo advance.

 

[SickyNicky]

Reading are usually reasonably clued up. The barriers are even programmed for BoJ on some tickets!

The barriers don't open for Hereford-Paddington tickets, but I've never had any trouble breaking my journey there (other than staff insisting I put my ticket through the barrier first, even though I know it won't work).

Bob's yer sister's brother.

[PEDANT]My sister's brother? Surely that's me [/PEDANT]

Edit: no advances on the Cotswold line though :-x

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Thanks both, very interesting.
I'll remember it for my next diversion on the Cotswold line (probably after they redouble the rest of it!).

At Reading the gate refused the ticket, and the man at the barrier had some problem identifying the route I was trying to use (Stratford Int-Chester, at that stage planning to go via Banbury).

The gate at St Pancras on the outbound trip didn't like it either.

 

[4SRKT]

Gates can be a bit choosy about what they accept sometimes. The gates at Bradford Interchange don't accept tickets from New Pudsey to Saltaire via route Not Leeds! Armed with this knowledge I'm tempted to try to do it via the shortest route that avoids both Leeds and the Bradford barrier, which would be New Pudsey > Preston > Lancaster > Skipton > Saltaire. How far do you reckon I'd get?!

 

[dzug2]

Edit: no advances on the Cotswold line though :-x

Actually there are - but not to London.

They tend to be for places west of Swindon on the FGW network. And Gatwick IIRC

 

[SickyNicky]

Actually there are - but not to London.

They tend to be for places west of Swindon on the FGW network. And Gatwick IIRC

I can't find anything from Hereford or Worcester to anywhere via the Cotswold line - there may be something from stations ON the line though...

 

[stut]

[PEDANT]My sister's brother? Surely that's me [/PEDANT]

[PEDANT]Not necessarily, if you've got a brother...[/PEDANT]