Birmingham-Reading route mixing

[crosscity]

My grandson has a ticket for the Reading festival on Sunday the 29 August, and will have a 16/17 Saver Railcard. He lives in south Birmingham.

Ideally he would travel from New St to Reading on one of the hourly morning CrossCountry trains. Return is a bit more tricky as the last CC train from Reading is a bit early at 21:15. There are trains after this via London, and also to Worcestershire Parkway. We don't want him to come back via London and I am quite happy to pick him up from Worcestershire Parkway.

There are only via Oxford and via London fares from Birmingham and I presume via Oxford doesn't stretch to via Worcestershire Parkway . I see that there are Off-Peak Return tickets from Bromsgrove to Reading via Birmingham or Evesham (the via Birmingham one is the more expensive). Would the via Birmingham ticket allow him to travel back to Worcestershire Parkway, or would he need to excess it (for £0) at Reading?

Ideally he would go out and back via Worcestershire Parkway as it's much cheaper, but the Sunday morning service from Birmingham to Worcestershire Parkway is dire and just misses the Reading train he would want to catch.

 

[Paul Kelly]

Worcestershire Parkway to Banbury is valid both ways and could be used as part of a split combination, but it's (relatively) expensive.

 

[30907]

In his situation, I would be inclined to persuade/bribe/threaten/otherwise induce a trusted adult to drive him to WOP in the morning
Even a flexible return thence to Reading appears to be slightly cheaper than an Advance BHM-RDG and RDG-WOP.

 

[crosscity]

In his situation, I would be inclined to persuade/bribe/threaten/otherwise induce a trusted adult to drive him to WOP in the morning
Even a flexible return thence to Reading appears to be slightly cheaper than an Advance BHM-RDG and RDG-WOP.

I've not looked at Advance fares. The walk-on Anytime day return from WOP to Reading is a very reasonable £19.05 compared with the Bromsgrove-Reading via Birmingham £37.60 Off-Peak Return.

Worcestershire Parkway to Banbury is valid both ways and could be used as part of a split combination, but it's (relatively) expensive.

Now there's something worth thinking about. WOP-Banbury Off-Peak Day return is £12.50 plus an Oxford-Reading Off Peak Day Return of £5.20 is £17.70 and on the face of it does what I originally asked for. He would start short at New St, then start the return at Banbury breaking his journey at Oxford and sneaking his way down to Reading and back for the Festival before continuing to WOP.

 

[Class800]

Also, another consideration may be if he is an inexperienced traveller, the use of excess fares may prove difficult for him to use, even if it is something more experienced users could do.

 

[FGW_DID]

sneaking his way down to Reading and back for the Festival

Apologies if “sneaking“ is just a turn of phrase but for Festival weekend, Revenue Protection will be out in force!!

 

[crosscity]

Apologies if “sneaking“ is just a turn of phrase but for Festival weekend, Revenue Protection will be out in force!!

I meant in the time he would be breaking his journey at Oxford with his Banbury-Worcestershire Parkway ticket he would be going to Reading and back on his other ticket. It's a serious point - can you break your return journey with an Off-peak day return?

 

[Watershed]

I meant in the time he would be breaking his journey at Oxford with his Banbury-Worcestershire Parkway ticket he would be going to Reading and back on his other ticket. It's a serious point - can you break your return journey with an Off-peak day return?

The default answer to that is 'yes', on both portions. I can't think of any CDRs off the top of my head where break of journey is restricted, but even if such a restriction existed in the fares data, it would need to be communicated to you prior to purchase to be effective.