I was told it was valid

[sheff1]

Often on here people refer to passengers giving variations on 'the bloke on the platform/the last guard told me it was valid'. Earlier this week, I overheard just such a conversation which I thought I would share.

Travelling from Leeds to Preston, a gentleman boarded at Burnley Manchester Road (unstaffed) and sat opposite me. When the guard arrived to sell a ticket the exchange went thus:

Passenger: 'I want a return to Preston please which would allow me to come back via Manchester'

Guard: 'You want to go to Preston, then to Manchester, then back to Burnley?'

P: 'Yes'

Much tapping on the ticket machine, then:

G: 'That should be OK with a return to Preston'

P: 'With just a normal return to Preston'

G: 'Yes. It says the ticket is permitted for travel any way, so as long as you end up back at Burnley you can go whichever way you want'

P: 'Excellent. Thank you'

Ticket sold.

Unless I have missed something obvious, the ticket which is actually required is a Burnley to Manchester return, route Preston. If he was picked up later using a Burnley to Preston ticket somewhere between Preston and Manchester he would, presumably, quite genuinely say 'The guard who sold it me said I could go this way'.

 

[island]

I was about to say that's twice I've had to open the routeing guide in anger in the one day, but my last post on it was technically yesterday (Friday)

Burnley Mancr Rd's routeing points are Blackburn, Halifax Group, and Manchester Group, and Preston Lancs is a routeing point.

Let's see if any of the routeing points are inappropriate. BYM-PRE is £9 for an SDS (the only available fare from those that are permitted to be used for comparison), while MAN-PRE is £10.20, BBN-PRE is £4.90 and HFX-PRE is £17.60. That means Blackburn is the only appropriate routeing point.

Therefore, the journey should be made by going from Burnley Mancr Rd by the shortest route to Blackburn, and then using the maps to Preston. The only valid map for this one is NC, and Manchester isn't even on that map — Preston and Blackburn are adjacent routeing points.

We conclude that the ticket sold was not valid for a visit to Manchester. A Burnley Mancr Rd to Manchester Stns route PRESTON return (£15 off-peak, £16.80 anytime) would probably have done the trick (and if the traveller had wanted to return without going through Preston he could have a zero fare excess to route ANY PERMITTED which is cheaper than route PRESTON, or perhaps get the ANY PERMITTED ticket to start with at £12.30 (CDR) with an excess outbound to route PRESTON for £1.35).