High Wycombe to Shrewsbury

[RussWWFC]

I am thinking of going to Shrewsbury on Saturday.

Looking to arrive in Shrewsbury around midday and depart around 18:00. Also looking to stop in Birmingham on the way home if time to spare.

I have a Network Railcard

Most favoured trains are

07:28 High Wycombe - Birmingham Moor Street 09:06 (not ideal but makes the most of the day)
10:22 Birmingham New Street - Shrewsbury 11:22
18:31 Shrewsbury - Birmingham New Street 19:32
20:13 Birmingham Moor Street - High Wycombe 21:49 (or 21:13 home)

Advance tickets don't save a huge amount and flexibility would be better.

Trainsplit suggests splits at Banbury and Leamington (£46.10 for the ticket cost) but charges a fee. I'm aware I can just get the tickets myself.

Easier to get is simple split at Birmingham - £30.90 + £18 (£48.90) which some apps can't find

Can it be beaten?

 

[MrJeeves]

A West Midlands Day Ranger covers Leamington to Shrewsbury (and further to Gobowen) via Birmingham, as well as many other stations and costs £32. No Network Railcard discount as it's not fully within the area.

Probably your best bet, and full flexibility. Valid after 9:00am Mon-Fri, or any time on weekends and bank holidays.

Main thing to point out is that you cannot travel from Crewe to Shrewsbury, or Shrewsbury to Hereford.

GB RAIL ROVER GUIDE - West Midlands Day Ranger

How to find rail rover and ranger tickets on the national rail network. Rover and ranger tickets are cheap tickets for rail travel

www.railrover.org

If you can find a decent advance up to Leamington or had alternative transport to be dropped off or park there, this could be an option. Otherwise I don't believe you'll get a better split.

 

[Birmingham]

Trainsplit suggests splits at Banbury and Leamington (£46.10 for the ticket cost) but charges a fee. I'm aware I can just get the tickets myself.

Banbury is not usually an economical split from High Wycombe to Birmingham but this will be because your Network Railcard is only valid as far north as Banbury so it does save you a few pounds. I think you couldn’t do better than the split at Banbury and Leamington Spa as suggested by Trainsplit in this case.

 

[Watershed]

A simple Super Off-Peak Return from London Terminals to Shrewsbury, routed "via High Wycombe", is £42.90 without Railcard discount. Whilst it's possible to get use your Network Railcard as far as Banbury, there is no point in doing so for this journey as splitting there is more expensive than the above ticket.

It probably seems silly that it's cheaper to buy a ticket from London and to 'throw away' the validity at each end, but the reason why this is the case is that Chiltern compete with Avanti & LNR between London and Shrewsbury, whereas they don't have any competition for travel from High Wycombe - hence why they have no incentive to offer cheaper fares from there.

An even cheaper option would be to drive (or take a bus) to somewhere like Berkhamsted or Tring, from where you can use a London Terminals to Shrewsbury Super Off-Peak Return routed "WMR, LNR and TfW only", costing £30.80. Technically there is a break of journey restriction but I cannot possibly see this being enforced (some retailers also do not inform you of it when buying your ticket, rendering it unenforceable). The same kind of ticket from Milton Keynes or Bletchley costs £24 FWIW; unfortunately the fare can't be bought to originate from intermediate stations between London and Bletchley.

It's worth noting that any of the above tickets could be Railcard discounted if you had an Annual Gold Card. You receive an Annual Gold Card if you buy any annual season ticket with an origin or destination in the Gold Card area, online or from a ticket office within the Gold Card area. The cheapest such season ticket is one from Hatton to Lapworth (incidentally both on the Chiltern route) at a cost of £196 a year.

Although that may seem a lot of money, it may still be worth it since the Gold Card area is wider than the Network Area, and the conditions are more generous. On weekdays there's no minimum fare and it's valid from 09:30 rather than 10:00, plus you can discount tickets for up to 3 adults and 4 children that travel with you. It can also be added to an Oyster card at any Underground station to provide discounted off-peak fares.

Finally, another offer worth noting is that if you buy a monthly or longer season ticket costing £150+ a month or £1500+ a year, for a journey to/from a Chiltern-served station and buy this from Chiltern directly, you receive free travel on all Chiltern services on weekends and bank holidays. See this page for details.

 

[MrJeeves]

A simple Super Off-Peak Return from London Terminals to Shrewsbury, routed "via High Wycombe", is £42.90 without Railcard discount.

Good find!

 

[CyrusWuff]

A simple Super Off-Peak Return from London Terminals to Shrewsbury, routed "via High Wycombe", is £42.90 without Railcard discount. Whilst it's possible to get use your Network Railcard as far as Banbury, there is no point in doing so for this journey as splitting there is more expensive than the above ticket.

Strictly speaking, there's a break of journey restriction on the outward leg of such tickets, but I haven't heard of Chiltern ever enforcing it...unlike London Northwestern, who use the same ticket type for their Super Off-Peak tickets.

 

[MrJeeves]

Strictly speaking, there's a break of journey restriction on the outward leg of such tickets, but I haven't heard of Chiltern ever enforcing it...

Me neither. In fact, I have broken at Leamington/Coventry a few times on Chiltern's super off-peak tickets to the West Midlands and not had any issues in doing so.

 

[yorkie]

I am thinking of going to Shrewsbury on Saturday.

Looking to arrive in Shrewsbury around midday and depart around 18:00. Also looking to stop in Birmingham on the way home if time to spare.

I have a Network Railcard

Most favoured trains are

07:28 High Wycombe - Birmingham Moor Street 09:06 (not ideal but makes the most of the day)
10:22 Birmingham New Street - Shrewsbury 11:22
18:31 Shrewsbury - Birmingham New Street 19:32
20:13 Birmingham Moor Street - High Wycombe 21:49 (or 21:13 home)

Advance tickets don't save a huge amount and flexibility would be better.

Trainsplit suggests splits at Banbury and Leamington (£46.10 for the ticket cost) but charges a fee. I'm aware I can just get the tickets myself.

Yes, you can put each ticket in your basket separately to avoid the finders fee. That's fine providing you still book through Trainsplit (or, even better, our affiliate site )

Easier to get is simple split at Birmingham - £30.90 + £18 (£48.90) which some apps can't find

Can it be beaten?

If the forum's site is not finding the optimial combination, can you send me the full itinerary you are looking at, and I will try to investigate why.

 

[Watershed]

Strictly speaking, there's a break of journey restriction on the outward leg of such tickets, but I haven't heard of Chiltern ever enforcing it...unlike London Northwestern, who use the same ticket type for their Super Off-Peak tickets.

For the Chiltern Super Off-Peak fare, there is nothing in the restriction code text to convey this so the restriction is fundmentally not a term of the contract/ticket. For the LNR Super Off-Peak fare, the restriction is noted in the text (for the outward portion) but again most retailers do not adequately convey this to make it enforceable.

In either case, as you say, break of journey does not seem to be a problem in practice.

 

[RussWWFC]

A simple Super Off-Peak Return from London Terminals to Shrewsbury, routed "via High Wycombe", is £42.90 without Railcard discount. Whilst it's possible to get use your Network Railcard as far as Banbury, there is no point in doing so for this journey as splitting there is more expensive than the above ticket.

It probably seems silly that it's cheaper to buy a ticket from London and to 'throw away' the validity at each end, but the reason why this is the case is that Chiltern compete with Avanti & LNR between London and Shrewsbury, whereas they don't have any competition for travel from High Wycombe - hence why they have no incentive to offer cheaper fares from there.

An even cheaper option would be to drive (or take a bus) to somewhere like Berkhamsted or Tring, from where you can use a London Terminals to Shrewsbury Super Off-Peak Return routed "WMR, LNR and TfW only", costing £30.80. Technically there is a break of journey restriction but I cannot possibly see this being enforced (some retailers also do not inform you of it when buying your ticket, rendering it unenforceable). The same kind of ticket from Milton Keynes or Bletchley costs £24 FWIW; unfortunately the fare can't be bought to originate from intermediate stations between London and Bletchley.

It's worth noting that any of the above tickets could be Railcard discounted if you had an Annual Gold Card. You receive an Annual Gold Card if you buy any annual season ticket with an origin or destination in the Gold Card area, online or from a ticket office within the Gold Card area. The cheapest such season ticket is one from Hatton to Lapworth (incidentally both on the Chiltern route) at a cost of £196 a year.

Although that may seem a lot of money, it may still be worth it since the Gold Card area is wider than the Network Area, and the conditions are more generous. On weekdays there's no minimum fare and it's valid from 09:30 rather than 10:00, plus you can discount tickets for up to 3 adults and 4 children that travel with you. It can also be added to an Oyster card at any Underground station to provide discounted off-peak fares.

Finally, another offer worth noting is that if you buy a monthly or longer season ticket costing £150+ a month or £1500+ a year, for a journey to/from a Chiltern-served station and buy this from Chiltern directly, you receive free travel on all Chiltern services on weekends and bank holidays. See this page for details.

That's an incredible find, thanks. I am guessing the barrier will just let me through with this. First train into Wycombe from London gets in at 06.32 so there can be no argument that my journey wasn't logistically possible if I encounter a pedant.

 

[Watershed]

That's an incredible find, thanks. I am guessing the barrier will just let me through with this. First train into Wycombe from London gets in at 06.32 so there can be no argument that my journey wasn't logistically possible if I encounter a pedant.

No problem! I would be surprised if it worked the barriers to be honest, since tickets have to be individually programmed to work if they are not to/from the station in question. But you shouldn't have any difficulties being let through.

Equally, there is no actual requirement for the journey to have been possible to make from the printed origin to 'start late' - but in the case of travel from High Wycombe towards Birmingham, trains start at London anyway so this is a moot point.

 

[paul1609]

An even cheaper option would be to drive (or take a bus) to somewhere like Berkhamsted or Tring, from where you can use a London Terminals to Shrewsbury Super Off-Peak Return routed "WMR, LNR and TfW only", costing £30.80. Technically there is a break of journey restriction but I cannot possibly see this being enforced (some retailers also do not inform you of it when buying your ticket, rendering it unenforceable). The same kind of ticket from Milton Keynes or Bletchley costs £24 FWIW; unfortunately the fare can't be bought to originate from intermediate stations between London and Bletchley.

I think that these tickets (Super Off Peak WMR, LNR and TFW) are restricted to "not to depart London and other stations" northbound before 10.30 on saturdays now.
I used to use them for football awaydays but have switched to National Express Coaches or Advance tickets this season including Port Vale this coming saturday.

 

[CyrusWuff]

No problem! I would be surprised if it worked the barriers to be honest, since tickets have to be individually programmed to work if they are not to/from the station in question. But you shouldn't have any difficulties being let through.

Given High Wycombe still has manual wide gates, it's entirely possible those will be open anyway!