Kings Cross to Cambridge fare question

[KentonCanary]

Hello,

I’m looking to travel from London Kings Cross to Norwich on Sunday 11th September with a group of pals. We’re not using the Liverpool Street line due to engineering works.

Using Group Save Four (GS4) tickets looks to be the cheapest method, and by splitting the journey at Cambridge where we change trains further reduces the cost.

However when I was looking around at the train times and prices I saw that Kings Cross to Cambridge comes out at £21.00 return off peak, and using GS4 we can reduce this to a very reasonable £10.50 each for this leg of the journey.

But when I checked the journey the other way round and entered Cambridge to Kings Cross return the price came up as £16 return, and using GS4 we can reduce this to £8.00 per person!

The Cambridge to Norwich part of the journey is £14.60 either way and costs £7.30 per person using GS4.

As Sunday is off peak I understand we can travel on any train to get there and back provided we stay in our group and travel on a reasonable route which we intend to do.

So my question is - are we allowed to buy tickets from Cambridge to Kings Cross and use the these as opposed to Kings Cross to Cambridge?

Thanks,
Tim

 

[dzug2]

The outward half of a ticket has to be used before the return half

 

[Dewedin]

How curious. The flow into London has Super Off-Peaks while the flow out doesn't. Unfortunately, to use your out portions you must possess the unmarked return portions, so you can't use the returns first.

 

[yorkie]

The outward half of a ticket has to be used before the return half

To avoid confusion I wouldn't quite word it like that, as I do not believe that an outward ticket has to be used, ie if you wanted to make a single journey, you could throw away the outward and use the return, I believe that is quite legitimate.

However it is true that you cannot use the outward portion of a ticket without being in possession of an unused return portion.

Equally, there is no compulsion to return, the return portion could be chucked away after exiting the station having completed the outward journey. Again, I see nothing wrong with this.

There are occasions I have been given a lift back from somewhere and not used the return, and there are other occasions I have been given a lift to somewhere and not used the outward.

 

[KentonCanary]

Thanks to all for prompt replies. I thought it might be too good to be true, but worth investigating if there was a chance of saving the price of a pint per person.

After the first couple of replies I looked and found this on the www. I presume that the tickets we were planning to buy was covered by this in the T&C's.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/anytime_conditions.html

Conditions of use: -

The outward part of an Anytime Return ticket is only valid for travel when accompanied by an unused return part of the same ticket.

Cheers
Tim

 

[yorkie]

No problem. That is indeed correct. You can use only one portion if you wish, but the return half must be carried with the outward.

In reality the only scenario I'd expect to be asked to show an unused return portion, would be when travelling after the first day of validity on the outward portion of an Off Peak Return (SVR), Super Off Peak Return (OPR/SSR) or Anytime Return (SOR) - in those cases it is to be expected for obvious reasons to prevent misuse, in any other case I'd be very surprised to be asked, and never have been.

 

[jopsuk]

What time of day are you travelling? The 1128 from Liverpool Street will go to Cambridge (no buses) and there is a Super Off Peak fare of £14.70- you will of course be restricted to using the same line to return

 

[barrykas]

What time of day are you travelling? The 1128 from Liverpool Street will go to Cambridge (no buses) and there is a Super Off Peak fare of £14.70- you will of course be restricted to using the same line to return

The OP is actually travelling to Norwich, but the Great Eastern Main Line has Engineering Work in the Chelmsford area that weekend, so going from Liverpool Street would involve bustitution between Billericay and Colchester, giving a journey time of nearly 3 hours.

By going via Kings Cross and Cambridge (journey planners suggest changing at Ely rather than Cambridge in most cases, however), that can be reduced to 2 hours 20 minutes.

Cheers,

Barry

 

[LexyBoy]

The OP is actually travelling to Norwich, but the Great Eastern Main Line has Engineering Work in the Chelmsford area that weekend, so going from Liverpool Street would involve bustitution between Billericay and Colchester, giving a journey time of nearly 3 hours.

By going via Kings Cross and Cambridge (journey planners suggest changing at Ely rather than Cambridge in most cases, however), that can be reduced to 2 hours 20 minutes.

I think jopsuk was suggesting using a train from Liverpool Street in order to reduce the price of the London-Cambridge leg - at the expense of a longer journey.

Would GroupSave be valid on EMT services from Ely to Norwich? NRE claims EMT participate in GroupSave, but I know they don't on the MML - not sure about local services.

Also, anyone know why both NRE and WebTIS don't allow London-Norwich via Cambridge? I can't see why it shouldn't be allowed by the RG (or common sense).

 

[jopsuk]

I was indeed. That's why I said the 1128 from Liverpool Street to Cambridge... NXEA have cheaper fares than the "Any permitted" ones as they run a slower service.