Return split ticketing

[soil]

Just checked the forum's split ticketing search for a single West Byfleet - Wimbledon.

This is priced:

£8.90 Sunday Out single

but it's £8.40 for a Sunday Out return from Wimbledon - West Byfleet.

Therefore one should buy the return instead, and only use the return half.

The split ticket engine should probably be amended to find this.

 

[Haywain]

The split ticket engine should probably be amended to find this.

And commit an accreditation failure in the process?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@soil. Are any ticket retailing sites set up so as to be capable of suggesting possible savings by buying returns in the "wrong" direction and then binning the ticket did the outward leg? And, if not, should they be?

 

[signed]

Is doing something clearly wrong here (you must have used your outward ticket before using your return) worth 50p?

 

[Haywain]

you must have used your outward ticket before using your return

That is incorrect. There is no requirement to use the outward portion but it cannot be used after the return portion.

 

[soil]

@soil. Are any ticket retailing sites set up so as to be capable of suggesting possible savings by buying returns in the "wrong" direction and then binning the ticket did the outward leg? And, if not, should they be?

I would imagine not, but it's a very simple check to perform, and much less prone to error than your common "three advance tickets" type of split.

 

[MrJeeves]

While paying for a return in the "wrong" direction may result in savings, it would probably end up costing more in confusion for passengers who wonder why they have ended up with a ticket going the "wrong way" and aren't generally clued up on split ticketing!

Discarding the return portion is something that the forum's site will already do, but I don't believe there are any plans to implement discarding of an outward portion.

 

[Paul Kelly]

In the early days of developing the FastJP journey planner (used by TrainSplit) - almost 10 years ago - we really wanted to be able to offer this option (i.e. use the return portion of a return for a single journey, discarding the outward portion). In practice it proved impossible to do reliably because the restriction data for so many return fares was setup wrongly - often there were no restrictions listed for the return portion - I presume someone had assumed no one could possibly want to use it without having first made the outward journey. So we would have ended up with a large amount of misselling. I think the restriction data is a lot more accurate these days in this regard so it might be worth someone looking at it again.

 

[signed]

That is incorrect. There is no requirement to use the outward portion but it cannot be used after the return portion.

I stand corrected

 

[Watershed]

In the early days of developing the FastJP journey planner (used by TrainSplit) - almost 10 years ago - we really wanted to be able to offer this option (i.e. use the return portion of a return for a single journey, discarding the outward portion). In practice it proved impossible to do reliably because the restriction data for so many return fares was setup wrongly - often there were no restrictions listed for the return portion - I presume someone had assumed no one could possibly want to use it without having first made the outward journey. So we would have ended up with a large amount of misselling. I think the restriction data is a lot more accurate these days in this regard so it might be worth someone looking at it again.

A lot of "loopholes" have been fixed in this area, but there are still plenty of fares whose return portions have no restrictions (or fewer than the fare-setting TOC would probably intend if used on its own).