East Cowes to Southampton

[pat okeeffe]

Just for fun today I embarked on a round trip today with my bike from Brighton to the Isle of wight and back via Havant, Portsmouth, Ryde, East Cowes and Southampton.

With the help of the National Rail website I worked out that the cheapest way with my 16-25 railcard and starting between 9:00 and 10:00 AM was to get an off peak return from Brighton to Southampton, (£12) a single from Havant to Ryde (£9.70) and then a single from East Cowes to Southampton(£5.00).

When I got to the ticket office at east cowes ferry terminal they said there was no £5.00 fare and charged me the full £7.60. becauase there was no rail link between these two points. When I got to Southampton Central the ticket office staff there said they were also instructed not to issue any tickets from Southampton Central to East Cowes even though I could purchase one from the ticket machine sitting opposite them - crazy! Unfortunately there was no such machine at East Cowes. Had I known this was the case I could quite easily have purchased this ticket at Brighton Travel Centre before I set out.

So - why cant anybody buy a ticket between East Cowes and Southampton Central from a human being at these stations/Ferry Terminals even though it appears on ticket machines and the national web site, and is avaiable from any other rail ticket office? Is this legal?
Can I get a refund?

 

[wintonian]

Yes a Southampton Central to Cowes East (or West) is available (both ways) I am not sure whether they can be sold from the ferry terminal but I see no reason why they can't be sold at Southampton.

There does seem to be a minimum fare using Red funnel of £13.00 for single tickets so it may have been cheaper to buy 2 separate tickets.

However I did earlier this year come across a situation at Portsmouth Harbour where the staff refused to sell me a ticket from Ryde Esplanade to Shanklin (I was getting the hovercraft) and have since found out from people here that there is an agreement dating back to BR days where these kind of tickets are delegated (if that is the right word) to Wightlink as far as Portsmouth Harbour are concerned.

 

[Lrd]

They can't do it in the Ferry terminals as it is classed as a rail ticket, printed on rail ticket stock. You can't combine ferry and rail together, but you can combine rail and ferry together, if that make's sense?

 

[wintonian]

They can't do it in the Ferry terminals as it is classed as a rail ticket, printed on rail ticket stock. You can't combine ferry and rail together, but you can combine rail and ferry together, if that make's sense?

I was at Portsmouth Harbour on Thursday going over on the ferry and I heard the Wightlink ticket office staff say to a customer "would you like me to add the rail to that?" the customer declined and they asked if they were sure and the customer was, I am not sure where they were going to as my ears only homed in after they mentioned through ticketing, but it should be the same for al IOW destinations.

 

[Lrd]

Wightlink offer the link between two railway stations (Portsmouth & Ryde), I always thought Wightlink were the main company to be traveling with and that route was the old BR Rail and Sail link or am I getting totally confused?

I just know for Red Funnel, they can't issue rail tickets, and any ticket coming from/going to a railway station is always printed on rail ticket stock when I check them coming on to the boats. The only tickets Red Funnel can issue are EC/WC-SO and SO-EC/WC.

 

[Supersaint]

Morning, I live in Totton (Southampton) & often go across to the Isle of Wight on day trips with the family, Totton ticket office ok with doing tickets (When Open) & we have a “Family & Friends” card brining the fare to around £30 for 2 adults & 2 kids. I think you have to start you journey from a station using a train going to Southampton, so starting from Southampton not using a train was the problem, agree as buying the tickets from the machine it’s fine, sometimes it’s cheaper for us to take the car & up to 5 passengers for £35, One thing I have noticed is that you cant do group save 3 or 4 . From Totton-Yarmouth you can do Group save 3 or 4, when you type in the whole journey it comes up £60 instead of £72 for 4 adults, but if you do Group save 4 to Lymington Town at £13 return then Lymington Town-Yarmouth IOW its £24 return, total £37. It is the Worlds most expensive water to cross for such a short distance & the Islanders get discount when travelling from the Island !

 

[Greenback]

Are railcard discounts given on the ferry for non rail tickets? If not, then the website might have shown the £5.00 fare in error. Groupsave is not available on the ferry.

 

[bnm]

Are railcard discounts given on the ferry for non rail tickets? If not, then the website might have shown the £5.00 fare in error. Groupsave is not available on the ferry.

According to 'The Manual' the add on fares for the ferries to/from the IOW do allow Railcard discounts.

National Rail Enquiries should make clear though that the IOW ferry fares are add-ons that should only be sold with a valid rail ticket to/from Southampton Ctl. 'The Manual' entry seems to suggest that the add on is only valid with a ticket to/from Southampton Ctl. It follows that being an 'add-on' it cannot be purchased on its own. So if you have a train ticket to SOU then you can purchase the add-on. If you have no train ticket to/from SOU then the add-on fare will not be available to purchase on its own.

From The Manual:

To calculate the fare to/from Cowes East RFSHP use the fare in your TIS or the Fares Finder to/from SOUTHAMPTON CTL plus:

Add-on amounts:
£7.60— Single (FOS, FDS, FSX, SOS, SDS, CDS, OPD)
<snip>

Railcard...

Senior, 16-25, Family & Friends, Network, Disabled Persons and Annual Gold Cards are the only Railcards that allow the holder a discount on the Red Funnel section of the journey (Southampton/Cowes and vice versa). Thus for Senior, 16-25, Family & Friends, Network, Disabled Persons & Annual Gold Card holders, through tickets are issued simply by obtaining the full fare for the through journey and discounting in the normal way.....

I've edited out some irrelevant bits of info from this extract.

 

[wintonian]

I disagree that the manual suggests a ticket to or from Southampton Central is required.

Avantix shows fares from Southampton Central to Cowes West and East which are the same as the minimum fare.

If this question had been asked last week I could have tried it out, unfortunately I am not planning to go over for a while now.

 

[Lrd]

If you were to show ANY rail ticket with EC or WC as the destination (or as a start point for the return) and the correct date then we will accept it. Its up to Southampton Central ticket office staff if they sell it or not, because like as you said the machines sell them...

 

[bnm]

I disagree that the manual suggests a ticket to or from Southampton Central is required.

"To calculate the fare to/from Cowes East RFSHP use the fare in your TIS or the Fares Finder to/from SOUTHAMPTON CTL plus:"

"Add-on amounts:"

I agree with the ticket office at SOU that they shouldn't issue a ferry ticket at the 'add-on' rate without evidence of having travelled to SOU by train. Although if the TVMs are doing so then by all means exploit that loophole.

 

[Lrd]

They probably don't sell it because it is the same price as if bought from the ferry terminal, and wondered why anyone would bother.

 

[pat okeeffe]

Thanks everyone for your interesting contributions. Further to lewisrday`s point about Red Funnel Staff at East Cowes not being able to issue rail tickets.

They can, and at west Cowes too on the faster ferry, but wouldnt issue me one to Southampton Central and mysteriousy couldnt find the fare for St Denys one stop further up the line, which having checked just now on the national rail web site is £6.35 with a 16-25 card - still over a pound cheaper than their single fare. I wonder if their system filters out any fare lower than their own standard single rate of £7.60.

 

[wintonian]

Thanks everyone for your interesting contributions. Further to lewisrday`s point about Red Funnel Staff at East Cowes not being able to issue rail tickets.

They can, and at west Cowes too on the faster ferry, but wouldnt issue me one to Southampton Central and mysteriousy couldnt find the fare for St Denys one stop further up the line, which having checked just now on the national rail web site is £6.35 with a 16-25 card - still over a pound cheaper than their single fare. I wonder if their system filters out any fare lower than their own standard single rate of £7.60.

£6.35 is the single fare to East Cowes not West Cowes (£9.90) if that is what you were thinking?

 

[pat okeeffe]

Yes sorry my previous note was a bit ambiguous - thats right it was at East Cowes that I had a slight altercation with the person selling the tickets and couldnt sell me one to St Denys. I knew they could also sell rail tickets at west cowes on the faster ferry having tried that route a few weeks before.

 

[Lrd]

Well bugger me, to be fair, i don't venture into East Cowes or Cowes, only stay floating in the dock. Makes more sense... Thanks for the info.