Inter-rail last day validity within UK

[peteb]

With a single day left on a multi-country inter-rail ticket I'm tempted to try to get as far as possible from the Midlands via Eurostar.

In this case the outward from UK date is unused. So far so good.

However, if I were to return on that same day by air, let's say from Frankfurt late evening, I assume any onward journey within the UK back home is not permitted, as the inbound journey date has already been used.

Am I correct?

 

[Flying Snail]

On a paper pass it would be an issue but with the app it will let you add/activate the trains and you can always deactivate previous journeys to mitigate against the incredibly tiny possibility of anyone checking the ticket to that extent and taking issue with it.

 

[DeverseSam]

Also on the digital ticket there is no distinction between inbound/outbound day. You can’t specifically designate an outbound day

 

[30907]

On a paper pass it would be an issue but with the app it will let you add/activate the trains and you can always deactivate previous journeys to mitigate against the incredibly tiny possibility of anyone checking the ticket to that extent and taking issue with it.

You can untoggle journeys in the app, but that doesn't delete any scan history AFAIK.

 

[Mike395]

In reality you'll almost certainly be fine - if an operator uses TTK (a particular developer's software) on their scanners they could theoretically see the scan events but this is exceedingly unlikely to be checked, and in any case even if it was there would be little problem in arguing both the inbound and outbound journeys were simply on the same day.... the very small amount of staff who would actually care at all *and* are clued up on Interrail rules would only really care about it being used as an all-line rover for the day!

 

[scragend]

The home country travel days aren't "outbound days" and "inbound days", they're just "outbound/inbound days", i.e. they can be used for either. So you could use both of them to travel outbound twice, and not use any inbound, or vice versa.

I don't see anything to prevent the same "day" being used in both outbound and inbound directions, unless I've missed something. If your inbound journey is on a train originating from an airport station it would be perfectly plausible (as well as actually being true!) that that's what you had done.

In practice whenever my Interrail pass has been checked on a UK train I've just said "outbound Interrail" or "inbound Interrail" as I've shown the ticket on my phone and the response is invariably "yeah fine" and the inspector has walked away.

This is with digital passes. I haven't had a paper pass since 2003 when outbound/inbound days didn't exist so I don't know about paper ones.

 

[Watershed]

Technically the rules do state that you're only entitled to make one outbound and one inbound journey, but as everyone else has said, so long as an "outbound/inbound day" is activated in the app and the train has been added to your travel diary, I can't foresee any issues.

 

[Starmill]

I don't see anything to prevent the same "day" being used in both outbound and inbound directions, unless I've missed something.

I don't believe that's the rule, as you say. You are permitted to use them both if you want for just an outbound, or just an inbound, that takes two days.

 

[peteb]

Another query: this time I've one day left on a global pass. I've used up both "out from" and "return to" the UK days, but was wondering if travel from Belfast to Dublin (Irish Republic) counts as an out from UK day or not?

 

[Watershed]

Another query: this time I've one day left on a global pass. I've used up both "out from" and "return to" the UK days, but was wondering if travel from Belfast to Dublin (Irish Republic) counts as an out from UK day or not?

No; Interrail has separate residence categories for Great Britain and Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). So you are free to use a GB-residence Global pass in Ireland without using up a domestic day.

 

[peteb]

No; Interrail has separate residence categories for Great Britain and Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). So you are free to use a GB-residence Global pass in Ireland without using up a domestic day.

Ah, ok, excellent, I'll have a day trip to Ireland next week!

 

[Starmill]

I'm fairly sure if you look at the bottom of your Pass ticket it will say something like "Home Country: Great Britain". Sometimes if you try to put an NIR service (not a cross-border one) in though it doesn't work properly.

 

[mad_rich]

Interrail is odd, because on the one hand it ignores the UK and considers GB as one territory and Ireland (North & South) as another.

But on the other hand when you select your country of residence, there is no option for 'GB', only UK.

Do NI residents need to choose Ireland as their CoR in order to have unlimited travel days in GB?

 

[MrJeeves]

Do NI residents need to choose Ireland as their CoR in order to have unlimited travel days in GB?

There's been a discussion on the Interrail community about this, and NI residents must select United Kingdom as their country of residence, and in exchange get unlimited travel within the island of Ireland, while only getting two days in GB. If they have an Irish passport and no other documents to support UK residency, they can pick Ireland as their country of residency instead.

Interrail for residents of Northern Ireland | Community

I live in Northern Ireland. Given that the whole island of Ireland is regarded as a single entity for Interrail purposes does this mean that a Global pass which I buy would be valid for unlimited travel in Great Britain? Similarly, am I able to buy a Great Britain single country pass (as would...

community.eurail.com

I understand this might be confusing. The official answer on this topic is:

1. Choose the country of residence (CoR) based on where you are currently physically residing at the moment. You will need to prove the residency with official documents.

2. If you are not able to prove your residency with official document, you will have to choose the CoR that matches your passport.

So for Northern Ireland citizens, for no 1 above, they will choose 'United Kingdom' as a CoR during checkout: However, in case someone residing in Northern Ireland and is holding a passport of the Republic of Ireland rather than a UK passport, and cannot prove their residency with other official documents, they can choose 'Ireland' as their CoR.

If there is any question, please let me know.