Advance Tickets through RailUKForums

[Peter0124]

Hi,
I am currently on a train between Cheadle Hulme and Crewe. The guard scans my ticket fine and says no problem. However 10-15 minutes later someone who was doing ticketing surveys on behalf of Northern scans it and says that Advance Tickets cannot be broken mid-journey.

But what I don't understand is, I've legitimately used the Rail Forums ticketing system to buy a ticket between Manchester and Crewe and deliberately put a long stopover at Cheadle Hulme. There was an Advance for £5.65 which I bought.

I have never had any issues with this with guards, it's only today I was told that you can't break the journey, even despite the fact I put a legitimate stopover in the intinerary, and it offered me such.

Would someone be able to advise whether my ticket was valid/not valid to travel on the 12:46 between Man Picc and Cheadle Hulme, and the 15:24 between Cheadle Hulme and Crewe?

Thank you, I have attached a screenshot of my ticket below.

 

[AlterEgo]

It's valid and the ticketing survey person will be employed by an agency and be clueless. You haven't broken your journey.

 

[MalaiseForever]

Very obviously valid just from looking at the reservations. It is ridiculous there are railway staff who couldn't work that out, even if they didn't know the rules, just from reading the ticket!

 

[Peter0124]

Not to mention I didn't even leave the station!

It's valid and the ticketing survey person will be employed by an agency and be clueless. You haven't broken your journey.

 

[tutacre]

Just to confirm - you had no intention of leaving Cheadle Hulme station? You don't have a "stopover" - as in, you are not allowed to leave the station and "stop over" - you are only allowed to change or access station facilities (although, in practice, it is not easily enforced, assuming the railway wanted to in the first place). You have increased the transfer time - not given yourself the ability to spend time wandering around Cheadle. Random ticket checks do occur at Cheadle Hulme though, with revenue teams.

You cannot break your journey with this ticket.

You, obviously, can, change trains on an Advance, if specified in the itinerary.

I think the terminology from both you and the member of staff needs to be clarified here. Although it sounds clear cut, I suspect the wording being used is what has clouded things.

It would be incredibly odd and somewhat suspicious not to leave the station for that amount of time for 99% of people! This forum obviously excepted

 

[Peter0124]

Just to confirm - you had no intention of leaving Cheadle Hulme station? You don't have a "stopover" - as in, you are not allowed to leave the station and "stop over" - you are only allowed to change or access station facilities (although, in practice, it is not easily enforced, assuming the railway wanted to in the first place). You have increased the transfer time - not given yourself the ability to spend time wandering around Cheadle. Random ticket checks do occur at Cheadle Hulme though, with revenue teams.

You cannot break your journey with this ticket.

You, obviously, can, change trains on an Advance, if specified in the itinerary.

I think the terminology from both you and the member of staff needs to be clarified here. Although it sounds clear cut, I suspect the wording being used is what has clouded things.

The visit to Cheadle was to spend time trainspotting. I did not leave the station and had no idea this would even cause issues given it's in the itinerary. I did indeed increase the change time to 120 minutes to spend more time there.

Therefore was I in the wrong?

 

[speedy1]

You were absolutely fine. Forget about it.

(I decline the invitation from those ticket survey people to show my ticket - I see I may be vindicated again. They're not used to being told 'no' - they're a bit uppity as they attempt to make out they're basically DfT staff lol - but if you're polite and firm, they eventually get the message. I'm of course more than happy if they wish to relay any concern about my ticket to the guard/revenue who checked my ticket 5 seconds ago, with whom I would fully co-operate)

 

[tutacre]

100% legal.

However, if you mentioned "breaking your journey" - that means something else entirely, and is where confusion may have crept in - really depends on the exact phrasing used, not easily remembered afterwards - but this is all fine!

For future reference, it's simply "changing trains" at X - rather than "breaking my journey at X".

I don't quite think it's entirely fair for others to say that the staff were entirely wrong - the terminology used by both sides has probably just resulted in a miscommunication.

If you've only just started doing this - also be aware that CCTV may find you lurking there for 2 hours suspicious, particularly where fast trains pass through - might help to use the information help point or tell the station staff, but you don't have to.

 

[Adam Williams]

(I decline the invitation from those ticket survey people to show my ticket. They're not used to being told 'no' - they're a bit uppity as they attempt to make out they're basically DfT staff lol - but if you're polite and firm, they eventually get the message. I'm of course more than happy if they wish to relay any concern about my ticket to the guard/revenue with whom I would fully co-operate)

Yeah, in my experience some of them actively mislead people as to their role and the fact that participation is entirely voluntary.

Usually my reasons for being on the train are to a) get from A to B and b) to crack on with some work. Obviously co-operating with actual revenue protection/TOC staff is one thing, but I'm not there to waste time chatting to the Tracsis team.

 

[speedy1]

I don't quite think it's entirely fair for others to say that the staff were entirely wrong

Who wrote that they were entirely wrong?

AlterEgo just commented that it's valid with no mention about the staff being wrong. Just that the staff are "employed by an agency and be clueless" - first part is correct, second part mostly correct in the general sense.

MalaiseForever wrote the situation was ridiculous (that they couldn't work it out)

 

[Starmill]

The thing about access to station facilities used to be mentioned in the NRCoT. Now it isn't, so it isn't really important.

If your ticket says you must travel on reserved trains, then the rule is that you must travel on those trains. Anything else you choose to do in between them is entirely your own business, not the railway's. As long as you don't miss the train!

Who wrote that they were entirely wrong?

AlterEgo just commented that it's valid with no mention about the staff being wrong. Just that the staff are "employed by an agency and be clueless" - first part is correct, second part mostly correct in the general sense.

MalaiseForever wrote the situation was ridiculous (that they couldn't work it out)

Indeed so. I think suffice to say that the person who gave the OP the advice was mistaken. The OP doesn't need to worry, as others have clarified.