I moved to Reading Green Park (RGP) quite recently (and obviously it's quite a new station!) and, in this December timetable update, GWR have removed the first service of the day on a Sunday (which, given those services are hourly, it's a bit frustrating). It's led me to realise that the fastest route from RGP to London in the early mornings (and vice versa the last train home in the late evenings), especially if wanting to get to/from somewhere near Waterloo, is via Basingstoke (circa 1h 20) rather than via Reading on the fast GWR services into Paddington (1h), however an any permitted ticket from RGP to London is technically not valid via Basingstoke.
It doesn't feel like it's unreasonable to request a positive easement for passengers travelling from Reading Green Park to London to be able to travel via Basingstoke; there's only a trivial fare difference vs. Mortimer (next stop on the line) to London (which has fares to London via both Basingstoke and Reading for the same price). It's a relatively niche scenario where it's a new station that's on a small line and doesn't benefit in the same way as Reading West from a later service towards Newbury; the depot is also in Reading so the first service of the day is Reading to Basingstoke and last service is Basingstoke to Reading. For evenings out in London, travelling via Basingstoke gives a good extra 30 mins or so in London. Is there any formal way of requesting an easement like this and does it seem unreasonable / is there a reason for this not being allowed?
Separately, the Mortimer to London fares are either via Basingstoke or via Reading and both at the same price... other than season tickets, you can technically buy either and travel on either route as the excess is nil (I would always get the excess anyway to be on the safe side) and I assume this has historically been priced this way to apportion revenue to GWR/SWR; with GBR I would have thought the sensible approach would just make it valid either way?
As ever any thoughts very welcome!
It doesn't feel like it's unreasonable to request a positive easement for passengers travelling from Reading Green Park to London to be able to travel via Basingstoke; there's only a trivial fare difference vs. Mortimer (next stop on the line) to London (which has fares to London via both Basingstoke and Reading for the same price). It's a relatively niche scenario where it's a new station that's on a small line and doesn't benefit in the same way as Reading West from a later service towards Newbury; the depot is also in Reading so the first service of the day is Reading to Basingstoke and last service is Basingstoke to Reading. For evenings out in London, travelling via Basingstoke gives a good extra 30 mins or so in London. Is there any formal way of requesting an easement like this and does it seem unreasonable / is there a reason for this not being allowed?
Separately, the Mortimer to London fares are either via Basingstoke or via Reading and both at the same price... other than season tickets, you can technically buy either and travel on either route as the excess is nil (I would always get the excess anyway to be on the safe side) and I assume this has historically been priced this way to apportion revenue to GWR/SWR; with GBR I would have thought the sensible approach would just make it valid either way?
As ever any thoughts very welcome!
