Gloucester to Birmingham - splitting at Worcestershire Parkway

[ValleyLines142]

Morning,

Heading to Birmingham this afternoon. An Off Peak Return (26-30 RC) from Gloucester to Birmingham is £18.70. Splitting at Worcestershire Parkway brings it down to £14.70. However by the time I finish work I'll just miss the direct Cardiff to Nottingham train which stops at Worcestershire Parkway, so will most likely pick up a Voyager from Cheltenham. Does my train need to stop at Worcestershire Parkway for a valid split, or can I go pass non-stop?

Or, is there any other cheaper scenario?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hadders]

Morning,

Heading to Birmingham this afternoon. An Off Peak Return (26-30 RC) from Gloucester to Birmingham is £18.70. Splitting at Worcestershire Parkway brings it down to £14.70. However by the time I finish work I'll just miss the direct Cardiff to Nottingham train which stops at Worcestershire Parkway, so will most likely pick up a Voyager from Cheltenham. Does my train need to stop at Worcestershire Parkway for a valid split, or can I go pass non-stop?

Or, is there any other cheaper scenario?

Thanks in advance!

The train must call at the station where you change from one ticket to another, unless one or both of the tickets is a season ticket.

 

[Watershed]

Worth noting that a weekly season ticket from Worcestershire Parkway to Birmingham is only £36.80, so if you do this journey with any regularity, it might be a worthwhile option.

I'm pleasantly surprised at XC's pricing policy for Worcestershire Parkway - I had expected them to try and set higher fares than those from Worcester (despite the fact that Worcester tickets are valid via Parkway, whether you're heading north or south). In fact, their override fares are slightly cheaper than those from Worcester.

That leads to the rather unusual situation of the fares being cheaper to the station with a better service (certainly to/from the south).

 

[ValleyLines142]

The train must call at the station where you change from one ticket to another, unless one or both of the tickets is a season ticket.

Fair enough, thank you!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jun 2021 ==

Worth noting that a weekly season ticket from Worcestershire Parkway to Birmingham is only £36.80, so if you do this journey with any regularity, it might be a worthwhile option.

I'm pleasantly surprised at XC's pricing policy for Worcestershire Parkway - I had expected them to try and set higher fares than those from Worcester (despite the fact that Worcester tickets are valid via Parkway, whether you're heading north or south). In fact, their override fares are slightly cheaper than those from Worcester.

That leads to the rather unusual situation of the fares being cheaper to the station with a better service (certainly to/from the south).

Yes, I've always been quite surprised at how cheap it is!

 

[yorkie]

Morning,

Heading to Birmingham this afternoon. An Off Peak Return (26-30 RC) from Gloucester to Birmingham is £18.70. Splitting at Worcestershire Parkway brings it down to £14.70. However by the time I finish work I'll just miss the direct Cardiff to Nottingham train which stops at Worcestershire Parkway, so will most likely pick up a Voyager from Cheltenham. Does my train need to stop at Worcestershire Parkway for a valid split, or can I go pass non-stop?

It needs to call

Or, is there any other cheaper scenario?

Thanks in advance!

If there is, Trainsplit would find it

 

[ValleyLines142]

It needs to call

If there is, Trainsplit would find it

I'll have another look on Trainsplit.

I've never actually purchased a ticket from there before. I imagine it provides a e-ticket or a booking reference to collect them from a machine at the station?

 

[SickyNicky]

I'll have another look on Trainsplit.

I've never actually purchased a ticket from there before. I imagine it provides a e-ticket or a booking reference to collect them from a machine at the station?

Yep. E-tickets will be given as one PDF with all split tickets together. If you're collecting tickets from a machine, it can take a while to print them all!

 

[HST274]

Interesting to see that it is allowed to go from Birmingham to Worcester via Worcestershire Parkway- I believe it is the same price for a ticket to parkway as to foregate/ Shrub hill so if you go via parkway it is effectively a free journey to Worcester on GWR.

 

[Watershed]

Interesting to see that it is allowed to go from Birmingham to Worcester via Worcestershire Parkway- I believe it is the same price for a ticket to parkway as to foregate/ Shrub hill so if you go via parkway it is effectively a free journey to Worcester on GWR.

There are good connections at Parkway during most of the day (albeit mostly a tight ~5 minute connection in the southbound direction), so the ability to go that way effectively offers a "second train per hour" between Worcester and Birmingham.