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"Any permitted route" Via Warrington?

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koksy

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I have an off peak return from Stone (SNE) to Manchester. Ticket says "any permitted route". As there are no trains from Stockport to Manchester this coming week (rail replacement bus), can I go via Warrington? How do I find out if it's a permitted route?
 
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CyrusWuff

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If you can get the journey planner on nationalrail.co.uk (or an accredited retailer) to show it as valid for travel via Warrington, it's a permitted route.

Not surprisingly, NRE says you'd need to buy multiple tickets as it's planned Engineering Work. That said, travel via Warrington also takes about fifteen minutes longer than taking the bus from Stockport.

If you want to do a Routeing Guide check, there are two questions to look at before going deeper:
  • Is it a direct train?
  • Is it the shortest route (or within three miles of the shortest route?)
In this case, the answer to both of those questions is no.

To do a full routeing guide check, the first thing you need to do is look up the possible routeing points for the origin and destination.

Stone has three potential routeing points:
  • Rugeley Trent Valley
  • Stafford
  • Stoke-on-Trent

Manchester is a Group Routeing Point.

To determine which Routeing Points are appropriate for Stone, you need to compare the September 1996 Single fare from Stone to Manchester with those from each of the possible routeing points to Manchester. You can use any where the fare is the same or lower than that from Stone.

Stone - Manchester was £6.40 Single in September 1996
Rugeley Trent Valley - Manchester was £11.00
Stafford - Manchester was £11.00
Stoke-on-Trent - Manchester was £6.40

So only Stoke-on-Trent is a valid routeing point.

You then need to look at possible map combinations between Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester. In this case there's only one, map SK.

That map only shows the direct route via Stockport as being valid.
 

koksy

New Member
Joined
13 Feb 2026
Messages
2
Location
Stone
If you can get the journey planner on nationalrail.co.uk (or an accredited retailer) to show it as valid for travel via Warrington, it's a permitted route.

Not surprisingly, NRE says you'd need to buy multiple tickets as it's planned Engineering Work. That said, travel via Warrington also takes about fifteen minutes longer than taking the bus from Stockport.

If you want to do a Routeing Guide check, there are two questions to look at before going deeper:
  • Is it a direct train?
  • Is it the shortest route (or within three miles of the shortest route?)
In this case, the answer to both of those questions is no.

To do a full routeing guide check, the first thing you need to do is look up the possible routeing points for the origin and destination.

Stone has three potential routeing points:
  • Rugeley Trent Valley
  • Stafford
  • Stoke-on-Trent

Manchester is a Group Routeing Point.

To determine which Routeing Points are appropriate for Stone, you need to compare the September 1996 Single fare from Stone to Manchester with those from each of the possible routeing points to Manchester. You can use any where the fare is the same or lower than that from Stone.

Stone - Manchester was £6.40 Single in September 1996
Rugeley Trent Valley - Manchester was £11.00
Stafford - Manchester was £11.00
Stoke-on-Trent - Manchester was £6.40

So only Stoke-on-Trent is a valid routeing point.

You then need to look at possible map combinations between Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester. In this case there's only one, map SK.

That map only shows the direct route via Stockport as being valid.
Thanks for working that out. Rail replacement bus it is then.
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
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6 Jun 2005
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78,271
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Stone to Newton-le-Willows is valid via either route.

A return to NLW could be used for a 'circular' journey Stone - Warrington - NLW - Manchester - Stone.

There is a small premium, which you may feel isn't worth paying to just avoid the bus in one direction

 
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