Not Via London v Via Evesham

[Goatboy]

Chaps,

When travelling from Malvern Link to Basingstoke there are two SVR's offered.

Route Not Via London for £48 and Route Evesham for £52.

Why is this? The logical route is via Reading which would make the Route Evesham ticket completely pointless, purchasing you zero additional flexibility for the extra £4. Is it valid via London or something daft (It has no cross london validity so I cannot see how it is intended for use that way)?

 

[LexyBoy]

At a guess, the Route: Evesham ticket might have originally been set by Thames Trains / FGWL, and the the Not London by FGW. Although strangely NRE won't acknowledge any ticket via either Newport or Cheltenham for this journey.

Route: Evesham has CDR and SDR tickets available, and the SOR is cheaper for this route than Not London (typical of the Cotswold line pricing vs. GWML).

More curious is the existence of an Any Permitted ticket (again no cross-London marker).

 

[Romilly]

The East Coast website will sell me the £63.50 offpeak return (route: Any permitted), but neither the £48 or £52 ticket, for journeys via Newport (South Wales) and either Reading or Salisbury (and on the return leg for journeys via Salisbury, Bristol & Cheltenham). But likewise I had difficulty getting NRE to validate this option.