Chester to Euston & Return to Flint

[Ydnaroo]

Hi. I need to go to London tomorrow morning (Sun 8 July) and would normally travel from Flint (FLN) on an off-peak return (£53 for senior) and return the next day on any train other than the 16:10.

The first train out of FLN gets into Euston (EUS) a bit late for my needs so I'm looking at going from Chester (CTR). Ideally I would like to return to FLN on Monday so I'm wondering if I could buy a return ticket to travel tomorrow from FLN today and get the train from CTR in the morning and return to FLN. I know there is an option to get a return from CTR and buy a single from CTR to FLN (£8!!) but the other problem is that there's a much greater restriction on the trains I can use to return to CTR than there is to FLN, all weekday trains between the 14:40 and 19:10 seem to be peak to CTR whereas its only the 16:10 to FLN. Appreciate that this is probable a no-no! Any ideas?

 

[mmh]

Hi. An off-peak return from Flint to London has restriction code VK, looking that up at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/VK shows that break of journey isn't permitted on the outbound leg, but only Monday to Friday, so break of journey is permitted, so your normal ticket is valid to start at Chester tomorrow.

This one-direction only restriction on break of journey on tickets from the north wales coast is purely to prevent Chester passengers from using less restrictive tickets from coast stations. It's one of my pet peeves, until about 10 years ago the coast was free of any peak times - the morning peak was first introduced to prevent people using a Shotton-London ticket from Chester. Since then the restrictions have slowly but surely been increasing.

The ticket might not open the automatic barriers, but I've always found the barrier staff friendly and efficient at Chester. I'd expect them to know that the restriction doesn't apply on Sundays (I also expect the only people who actually care about the restriction are Virgin Trains, it's purely for their benefit), but there's also the option of buying a Chester - Bache single from the ticket machine for 1.50 to get through the barrier with definitely not having to speak to anyone!)

 

[northwichcat]

the morning peak was first introduced to prevent people using a Shotton-London ticket from Chester. Since then the restrictions have slowly but surely been increasing.

The side effect of the restrictions is that some people now drive from the Wirral to Flint to catch trains to London. If it hasn't already Flint will end up like Hartford where all the station car park is always full from around 07:30 to 18:30 on weekdays.

 

[Ydnaroo]

Hi, thanks for that. I'd forgotten the outbound restriction only applies Mon - Fri (already discussed the restrictions in another thread a few weeks ago). Love the ticket to Bache idea. Thanks again.

 

[Ydnaroo]

The side effect of the restrictions is that some people now drive from the Wirral to Flint to catch trains to London. If it hasn't already Flint will end up like Hartford where all the station car park is always full from around 07:30 to 18:30 on weekdays.

Flint station car park has been full every day for several years now, things seem to have improved recently since they started charging £2 a day to park but no doubt people will soon get used to it.