No open off peak return possible?

[pelli]

If you are worried about the route being questioned I would recommend buying tickets online with the specific itinerary you (are most likely to) require, and preferably from the train company running the most questionable leg, so that even if staff claim it's an error you can (show the booking confirmation email and) say that you have a contract formed directly with their company and they must honour it. For example, you can search the LNWR website for BDM - BTN adding a via point of BLY, out this Sat and back on Mon (can't get any itineraries returning this Sun when there are no trains running BLY-BDM), and buy the two tickets for £70.70 (to be collected at the station):

 

[EMB]

If you are worried about the route being questioned I would recommend buying tickets online with the specific itinerary you (are most likely to) require, and preferably from the train company running the most questionable leg, so that even if staff claim it's an error you can (show the booking confirmation email and) say that you have a contract formed directly with their company and they must honour it. For example, you can search the LNWR website for BDM - BTN adding a via point of BLY, out this Sat and back on Mon (can't get any itineraries returning this Sun when there are no trains running BLY-BDM), and buy the two tickets for £70.70 (to be collected at the station):
View attachment 162746

Perfect - just booked direct with LNWR, I’m very thankful to this community for sharing so patiently how to navigate the system.

 

[Mainline421]

BLY office wouldn’t have the same problem as the Trainspilt site, in that they would force a “via BLY” and potentially not generate a result?

They won't need to generate any trains they can just type in Bedford to Brighton and sell an open ticket.

 

[Paul Kelly]

TrainSplit will not offer the BDM-BTN ticket via BLY because it's attempting the NFM64 fares check from Bedford St Johns rather than Bedford, and that is associated with Bletchley RP and will fail the fares check there.

Why is a fares check needed when the origin and destination are routeing points? Can you explain more?

 

[MrJeeves]

Why is a fares check needed when the origin and destination are routeing points? Can you explain more?

The issue stems from the fact that there is a Bedford stations group, but no Bedford Group routeing point.

When the journey planner works out the permitted routes, it uses the last station within the stations group it passes through, which is Bedford St Johns, to calculate the permitted route validity. As there is no Bedford routeing point group, it results in the fares check being applied, which then fails for Bletchley RP.

In an ideal world, RDG would create a new Bedford routeing point group, and assign both Bedford and Bedford St Johns to it to prevent this quirk.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I see thanks; removing the Bedford Stations group would have a similar outcome; I don't see why it is useful for anything since the stations are next to each other and all trains stop at both.

 

[Haywain]

the stations are next to each other and all trains stop at both.

Only the trains from Bletchley stop at both.

 

[EMB]

And confirming it all worked perfectly of course, we did via Victoria outwards, via St Pancras return, and had a lovely time in between. Thanks again to all for the advice and reassurances.