Route:. (full stop)

[Bletchleyite]

If you don't leave the station, then you clearly are not using a dubious route as a means to go somewhere on the cheap. Therefore, 'Any route, without break of journey' ought to be OK. The only people who would take advantage are cranks - normal passengers just want to reach their destination.

TBH I don't see why the railway doesn't give up being bothered about cranks using an obscure-routed ticket as a day ranger, and as you say concentrate on the real sources of income - the genuine passengers just going somewhere.

It's almost more like they prefer to play a game of stopping the former at the expense of options for the latter when things go wrong.

Does it, for example, *actually* matter if someone goes, say, from London to Manchester via Bristol just for the fun of it? There aren't going to be millions doing it, so it's hardly going to cause overcrowding problems. And you could then do revenue allocation based not on the complexity of the Routeing Guide, but based on surveys of what people are actually doing, which most of the time will be whatever is faster or easier.

In any case, though, I think it's return-fare pricing that causes the need for this. If we moved to single-fare pricing tickets could be routed far more prescriptively, as you'd just buy the one you wanted for each leg, like you can in Switzerland. (The TVM can calculate and issue any single fare with any routeing you like, I've done some quite silly almost-circular[1] ones to save having to stop off and rebook).

Re BoJ I think abolishing it entirely would be annoying - no popping out to the shops between trains - but with single-fare pricing I think overnight BoJ could go without too many problems, because you would just split your tickets. The number of people who do a spontaneous overnight break of journey having already started their journey except where disruption forced it is going to be absolutely tiny.

[1] It won't do actual circular routes, but you can do such stuff as Vevey to Montreux via Zweisimmen, Bern and Lausanne as a single ticket, say.

 

[greatkingrat]

If you don't leave the station, then you clearly are not using a dubious route as a means to go somewhere on the cheap. Therefore, 'Any route, without break of journey' ought to be OK. The only people who would take advantage are cranks - normal passengers just want to reach their destination.

That makes it very easy to fare dodge. Just buy a ticket to the next stop down the line, use it travel halfway across the country, and then buy the cheapest ticket that will get you out at your destination.

 

[najaB]

If you don't leave the station, then you clearly are not using a dubious route as a means to go somewhere on the cheap. Therefore, 'Any route, without break of journey' ought to be OK.

That means I can go meet my friend at Birmingham New Street with a Dundee-Glasgow return ticket.

 

[Merseysider]

If you don't leave the station, then you clearly are not using a dubious route as a means to go somewhere on the cheap. Therefore, 'Any route, without break of journey' ought to be OK. The only people who would take advantage are cranks - normal passengers just want to reach their destination.

Wait till word gets out!

It'd be ridiculous.

"You can use a £5 ticket from London to Wimbledon via Ardwick as long as you don't leave at Ardwick. Now we know it's an unstaffed station, so you'll have to give us your word you won't use this as a cheap way of getting to Manchester".

 

[xotGD]

So honest passengers have to face restrictions due to the actions of criminals and fare dodgers. Oh well.

 

[yorkie]

What criminals are we talking about?

I have no idea what you are trying to say, but it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the matter of "valid by any permitted route" being replaced by a dot or simply nothing, or - in some cases - by a rather obvious route 'restriction'.

Incidentally Sheffield to Darlington is now routed via "York"; this is considered to be a major victory by the Department of Transport, as previously confused people who wondered if travel might be permitted via Carlisle and Newcastle now only have to wonder if they can travel via Chesterfield, Nottingham and Grantham.

This ticks all the DfT's boxes and makes things much simpler.

 

[sheff1]

Incidentally Sheffield to Darlington is now routed via "York"; this is considered to be a major victory by the Department of Transport, as previously confused people who wondered if travel might be permitted via Carlisle and Newcastle now only have to wonder if they can travel via Chesterfield, Nottingham and Grantham.

What about via Hull and Seamer