Restriction US

[chipbury]

Good Morning,

I'm having a day trip to London on Tuesday 1st October and have bought an off peak day return from Freshford (from the forum service!).

The route is only valid via Warminster/Salisbury.

The return itinerary is to depart at 1823 from Waterloo changing at Salisbury.

The ticket has restriction US, I've had a look at this restriction but don't fully understand it. Can I get earlier/later trains?

Below is the restriction as described.

Thanks for any help.

 

[jfollows]

Yes, you can get any train from Waterloo after and including 09:00. The 18:23 is simply because booking sites force you to choose a train, and give you a seat reservation if they can, but your ticket allows other trains.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Can I get earlier/later trains?

Yes, you're not restricted to the 18:23.

 

[chipbury]

Thanks for the above, I thought that was the case but wasn't sure!

It makes life easier knowing that 'just one more pint' will not cause ticketing problems.

 

[RichardJ]

A strange part of those restrictions is the "seasonal variations". Presumably they're intended to be services on which the ticket is additionally valid, but it doesn't say that. There also isn't any "seasonal" aspect mentioned.

 

[The exile]

The 18:23 is simply because booking sites force you to choose a train, and give you a seat reservation if they can, but your ticket allows other trains.

This is absolutely ridiculous and should be stopped immediately. Not only is it conveying the wrong impression- but presumably also results in passengers who genuinely want to reserve being unable to do so because seats are reserved (sometimes for short distances) on trains which the people they’re reserved for have no intention of travelling on.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

The ticket has restriction US, I've had a look at this restriction but don't fully understand it. Can I get earlier/later trains?

The key point is the ticket type. As long as it doesn't use the word "Advance", it isn't restricted to any one train as long as that train falls outside the time restrictions. It looks as if you would face time restrictions if you chose to return via a Paddington, Reading and Basingstoke route. Confusingly you are buying tickets in advance of travel. "Restricted" might be more descriptive of the nature of an Advance ticket.

 

[redreni]

This is absolutely ridiculous and should be stopped immediately. Not only is it conveying the wrong impression- but presumably also results in passengers who genuinely want to reserve being unable to do so because seats are reserved (sometimes for short distances) on trains which the people they’re reserved for have no intention of travelling on.

Quite.

I had to explain this to my parents only last week. It's been years since they've taken the train anywhere. I told them to get a Two Together Railcard using the TrainPal promotion as the saving on the one trip they were making was more than the cost of the Railcard, but this meant they had to buy their ticket from TrainPal in order to activate the Railcard.

The journey was Waterbeach to Blackfriars. and the appropriate ticket an off-peak day return. TrainPal would only sell them that ticket with itineraries changing at Cambridge and using Thameslink from there.

It offered itineraries on the fast train Waterbeach to Kings Cross, but only with a London Underground transfer (rather than a timed Thameslink connection) to Blackfriars, for which it wanted to charge them an extra £11.50 each for a day travelcard.

Obviously I know that the workaround for this, if one has to use TrainPal (which was a necessary evil in this case), is to book the tickets against the itinerary via the Thameslink train from Cambridge, but then ignore it and take the obvious route via Kings Cross and St Pancras, but this does take some explaining to somebody unfamiliar with how the system works (and the fact cases where it doesn't, such as this, are commonplace). I think it did lead to them having seat reservations on both legs that they had no intention of using, and it definitely prevented them making seat reservations at the time of purchase on any of the trains they might have wanted to use.

 

[Haywain]

I think it did lead to them having seat reservations on both legs that they had no intention of using, and it definitely prevented them making seat reservations at the time of purchase on any of the trains they might have wanted to use.

Trains between Cambridge and London do not have seat reservations.

 

[redreni]

Trains between Cambridge and London do not have seat reservations.

Ah, okay, perhaps they were counted place reservations? Or perhaps TrainPal was just saying it had made reservations when it hadn't, or asking if my parents wanted reservations when none were available? I definitely had to spend a couple of minutes telling my mother, while she was booking the tickets, not to worry about the reservations.

 

[Haywain]

Ah, okay, perhaps they were counted place reservations?

Counted place reservations on GTR are only given for Advance tickets.

asking if my parents wanted reservations when none were available?

Probably that, it wouldn't be the only website to do so.

 

[jfollows]

This is absolutely ridiculous and should be stopped immediately. Not only is it conveying the wrong impression- but presumably also results in passengers who genuinely want to reserve being unable to do so because seats are reserved (sometimes for short distances) on trains which the people they’re reserved for have no intention of travelling on.

Of course it is, but I think it's been discussed at length here before.
The train operators want people to book and travel on specific trains, ideally with advance tickets. They don't like giving people flexibility, they want to count bums on seats on every train, ideally in advance.
Those of us who know what ticket we want but don't want to mess around specifying trains are not well served. I can tolerate this because I know what I'm doing; more "ordinary" passengers don't understand what is meant, as shown in this thread.
I can buy an off-peak return to Codsall knowing that it's valid via Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton, so I just want the ticket. Most people don't know the details and want to book specific trains.
But there continues to be a push away from a turn-up-and-go railway to a pre-booked-seat railway, which the operators want, and they don't train some of their staff properly to understand the alternatives either.