Botley - Lewes - London

[Mark_re]

Dear all,

I hold a Botley to London Terminals season ticket. I believe I'm right in saying that it's valid for a trip from Winchester to Lewes, but I may have misinterpreted the routeing guide. Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Romilly]

It seems to be from looking at the Scotrail journey planner. A £35 Botley-London Anytime Day Single is valid Botley-Winchester-London. It is also valid for Botley-Lewes-London. So Winchester-Lewes is part of a London-Botley journey plus part of a Botley-London journey. A season ticket is valid for journeys to and/or from intermediate stations on permitted routes.

 

[button_boxer]

Botley has associated routeing points Eastleigh and Portsmouth Group, which both seem to be "appropriate" for a journey to London as all three SDS fares Botley, Eastleigh and Portsmouth to London are the same (£35).

Eastleigh to London is valid via Winchester, Basingstoke and then either direct to London via Woking (all on map SW) or via Reading and Slough to Paddington (XR+RG - apparently not from Reading to Waterloo).

Portsmouth Group to London is valid on maps CW+LB, with CW covering the coast to Brighton and LB covering Brighton to London, importantly for you LB includes Brighton to Wivelsfield via Lewes as well as direct.

So you look to be valid either via Botley or via Clapham Junction/London. There's arguments both ways as to whether it'd be valid to go via Botley but not stop there, to be completely safe I'd make sure you're on a train that stops at the point where you switch from using your season on an "outward" to a "return" route or vice versa.

 

[Mark_re]

Thanks both!

Mark

 

[jkdd77]

So you look to be valid either via Botley or via Clapham Junction/London. There's arguments both ways as to whether it'd be valid to go via Botley but not stop there, to be completely safe I'd make sure you're on a train that stops at the point where you switch from using your season on an "outward" to a "return" route or vice versa.

For what it's worth, I believe that it is clearly valid, since a season ticket is a single ticket, which is valid for unlimited journeys- and thus unlimited travel- between intermediate stations on permitted routes, in much the same way that a rover ticket is valid for unlimited travel within its area of validity.

 

[button_boxer]

For what it's worth, I believe that it is clearly valid, since a season ticket is a single ticket, which is valid for unlimited journeys- and thus unlimited travel- between intermediate stations on permitted routes, in much the same way that a rover ticket is valid for unlimited travel within its area of validity.

This has been done to death in previous threads with no consensus, like I said there are valid arguments both ways.

Personally I incline towards saying you would have to stop at Botley - the season ticket is valid for any journey between Botley and London or any intermediate section of a valid route between Botley and London, but a train not stopping at Botley is only on a valid route between Botley and London if it would be valid to double back to/from one of the stops either side. I suppose you could buy a single between Hedge End and Botley to allow you to take advantage of condition 19(c).

Though it appears to be a moot point in this case - as far as I can tell all the direct Winchester to Fareham and beyond trains stop at Botley anyway.

 

[swt_passenger]

Though it appears to be a moot point in this case - as far as I can tell all the direct Winchester to Fareham and beyond trains stop at Botley anyway.

I think this would only become a possible issue if the OP happens to use the odd few SN services that run non-stop between Fareham and Eastleigh, IIRC all SWT services on the route call.

 

[yorkie]

I advise against going non-stop through Botley unless you have a letter in writing from SWT confirming their acceptance of this.

I recall infobleep obtained a letter from FGW confirming their acceptance of a season issued from Shalford, which was valid both via Guildford and via Redhill, on non-stop trains through Shalford.

It would be great if the rail industry could clarify in the iKB that this is allowed, but in the mean time I'd get it in writing from the specific TOC you are using.

I'm not aware that anyone has a letter from SWT confirming their acceptance, but if anyone has, please let us know.

 

[infobleep]

I did indeed have an email from FGW confirming it was OK to do it. I was pleasantly surprised at the time.