I think potential buyers will need to do PLENTY of research beforehand to discover (for example) that they can travel direct from Manchester Victoria to Warrington Bank Quay (Northern) but not from Manchester Oxford Road direct to Warrington Bank Quay (TfW).
I’m baffled that you consider what I said to be some form of accusationTo be fair I think that my point has been lost for reasons of semantics. Basically I can have a jolly good day out taking multiple trains and visiting multiple places for a third of the price of an Explorer. I was accused of not doing research and having a positive outlook. I posted two routes which showed that I very much do have both. The plan seems to have been to somehow pick apart those routes for reasons I can't fathom.
I'm done
I agree that I can't see LNER ever accepting it between York and Darlington nor TPE for that matter but I can see a world in which TPE are persuaded to accept it between Redcar Central and York (via Yarm). It's a quieter route with plenty of capacity (usually) and after 0859 doesn't undercut the Anytime fare. I think it's unlikely to be clear (especially as TPE would no doubt require a restriction along the lines of that which applies to the Off-Peak Day Return which would confuse things!) but I can see a world in which that could be agreed.
From what I've seen in publicity so far, it can only be bought via the specific travelpass website.
It's available from TVMs and ticket offices (though non-Northern ticket offices might not be familiar with it!). I found it on the Longbeck Northern TVM in the rovers and rangers screen.
The leaflet says they're available from the Northern website, vending machines and ticket offices, only.
Except on its southern borders, it’s just as much a “local services only” ticket as a TIC specific one. It’s unfortunate that in this country we have several routes that are only served by inter-city style operators (and I’m definitely including TPE in that although I agree that they represent a bit of a grey area in places)
And a good number of routes through Leeds and York.
Had forgotten that they were TPE operated and definitely not even arguably “inter city”
Northern operate the Leeds-Huddersfield stopper on alternate hours (or at least they did before the TRU works).
As I said, plenty of research required to use this ticket, without being fined for being on the wrong coloured trains.
Has GBR actually delivered anything to date beyond issuing press releases and putting stickers on trains? The government boxed itself into a corner nicely with fares reform and future trials by committing to a fares freeze as well
What ever happened to that centralised Delay Repay system?Has GBR actually delivered anything to date beyond issuing press releases and putting stickers on trains? The government boxed itself into a corner nicely with fares reform and future trials by committing to a fares freeze as well
How long's it been, 6 years?
I think this is a good product, and we cannot keep throwing genuine innovations into the long grass by pointing at future fares reform as the "Do Nothing" justifier.
No more than any other operator-specific ticket.
Depends how they brand it.
I think Grand Central is the most likely to accept it over the current gap, due to other existing agreements between Northern and GC regarding staff travel.
There's a Northern Stopper between Leeds and Huddersfield, and there will be a second one being introduced in time.
But are you spending any significant time in these places or are you just on the train? It's easy to spend money, but not easy to spend it AND have days out in destinations.
It does apply. £26.60 for railcards. This is because it is a area based ranger.
It’s not exactly difficult to visit a number of places on a day rover and make it count. It does depend on what you want to do, of course, as well as where you want to do it.
Now if you want to do all that and do it in just a handful of hours, as well as cheaply, that’s where the issue comes in. I could easily use this rover to spend a couple of hours in Southport before moving on and visiting Cumbria for two very different parts of England, before then continuing to Lancashire. It would be a full day, of course, however I could easily make the most of it.
I’d combine lots of train action with some exploring, as alluded to in a previous post of mine. I personally think this rover is so useful I might recommend it to my sister who lives in the north. I know she’d have less use for it than I do, however there’s no part of me that thinks she’d not be able to capitalise on it at least once.
Of course, if I make it to this trip of mine before the end of the year, I’ll be sure to feedback my impressions. Final thought:
Should we not be celebrating a new rover? One of the best new tickets to be released in years, yet there’s loads of moaning about it
A rover ticket (by its very name and nature) is not intended to be best value for a simple out and back journey - though they may sometimes be precisely that. This starts to come into its own the minute things like triangular journeys and /or weekday early starts are on the table.
I think that just goes to show how mucked up the fare system is. I doubt that many people would actually contemplate that ticket, and it's possible to do it for 40% less with advance tickets, but even then the Rover is a no-brainer, even for us railcard holders!
