Kings Cross to Peterborough rtn during commuter times

[londiscape]

Hi All,

I may potentially need to travel from London to Peterborough for a couple of days at the end of this month for business purposes, and am looking to find out predicted costs for project accounting and quoting purposes.

Times of travel will be circa 0800 KGX to PBO, with a return same-day journey circa 1800 PBO to KGX on weekdays (I prefer to travel on East Coast and do not want to board FCC if this can be avoided). Normally in the past when I have travelled from London outbound at these times on intercity services (eg to Leicester, Reading etc) I've had to buy an Anytime ticket.

However, on looking on NRE, when selecting the (for example) 0803 East Coast ex KGX (on a Monday), it advises me that an Off-Peak return at £67.50 is the best option (excluding Advances as I prefer flexibility).

Is this right that an Off-Peak ticket is valid at that time? Seems iffy to me...

Thanks in advance

 

[bb21]

That is correct. The restriction text for the £67.50 fare is here.

There is no northbound morning restriction after 0759 from King's Cross and there is no southbound evening restriction.

 

[londiscape]

Ahh I see - I didn't realise there was a specific restriction code on it (click the ticket name in the results and it just says "Off Peak Return" with no code showing!) I see now from your link that the restricted period ends at 0759 for trains ex London Terminals therefore anything after 8am is fine.

Many thanks for your help bb21 - appreciate it.

 

[swt_passenger]

Ahh I see - I didn't realise there was a specific restriction code on it (click the ticket name in the results and it just says "Off Peak Return" with no code showing!) I see now from your link that the restricted period ends at 0759 for trains ex London Terminals therefore anything after 8am is fine.

Many thanks for your help bb21 - appreciate it.

It's worth 'storing away for later' that for many people who travel mostly within the London area it is quite believable that there's some kind of 0930 blanket cut-off for off-peak fares, after all that's the time on Oyster PAYG and neary all local fares, and it's when certain railcard discounts become available.

But once you are travelling to destinations well away from London, or towards London from a good distance away, the time off-peak fares become available is highly variable. Famously one of the more recent transport ministers scored a bit of an own goal when he travelled from Southampton to London, and voluntarily paid the 'anytime' fare about 90 mins after the off-peak and become available...

 

[bb21]

Every non-Anytime fare (with a very small number of exceptions) has a restriction code which defines what the barred times are. Off-Peak has no uniform meaning and the same train might be barred for holders of one Off-Peak ticket, but at the same time not barred for those holding a different Off-Peak ticket.

National Rail Enquiries will give you the restriction code for a ticket in a rather roundabout way. Alternatively you can use www.brfares.co.uk to find out this information.

For an example of how different tickets can have wildly differing restrictions, see this post. Specific ticket restrictions might have changed but it still paints a picture reflecting the current situation.

 

[John @ home]

National Rail Enquiries will give you the restriction code for a ticket in a rather roundabout way.

In addition to the roundabout way, the details of a restriction code are now available in a more straightforward way. For example, Restriction 1T above is at nationalrail.co.uk/1T.