Royston - Peterborough Route Query

[rdwarr]

If travelling Royston to Peterborough on the return half of a Super Off-Peak Return (no Operator restriction), when is it OK to change at Stevenage onto a VTEC service rather than at Hitchin for a GN one?
a) Never,
b) When NRE shows an itinerary via Stevenage at the time you wish to travel,
c) Whenever you like?
I gave some advice on Twitter which contradicted what the GN team were telling a customer and my post was deleted. Happy to admit I was wrong and apologise if I got it wrong.

 

[Silver Cobra]

If the fare in question was this one, I would say it should be at the minimum B. This particular fare is set by VTEC, so it would be strange to not be able to use them as part of the journey. As break of journey is permitted in both directions, there's nothing to stop a person using this ticket from breaking at Stevenage to catch a later VTEC service onward to Peterborough rather than strictly following an itinerary using only GN services. However, there is a restriction on using VTEC services from Stevenage on Mondays to Fridays between 0259 and 0919, and between 1507 and 1901 (1835 on Fridays).

If the customer mentioned they wanted to travel at a time that falls within the restrictions on using VTEC from Stevenage, that could be why the GN team took the action they did. Otherwise, they probably thought the customer was referring to the Super Off-Peak Day Return, which is restricted to GN only.

 

[methethpropbut]

https://twitter.com/GNRailUK/status/869914057511514112

This was the particular tweet, I believe, so yes I believe that was the correct fare albeit with a railcard discount. I believe there's lots of confusing things at play here - because the Royston - Peterborough GN only ticket is priced at the same £16.30 with no discount!

 

[Fuzzytop]

I'd agree with Silver Cobra - you can double back with impunity thanks to easement 700070. Break your journey at Stevenage and boom, VTEC away. If you wanted to have a printed itinerary to hand just use a WebTIS booking engine (such as VTEC's) to request a route via Stevenage.

700070
Customers travelling from Cambridge, Foxton, Shepreth, Meldreth, Royston, Ashwell & Morden, Baldock and Letchworth to Arlesey, Biggleswade, Sandy and beyond may double back between Hitchin and Stevenage. This easement applies in both directions.

 

[rdwarr]

Thank you. There's certainly room for confusion on both sides it seems as the fare also seems to be valid via Cambridge.
I believe it was the fare mentioned by Silver Cobra.

 

[yorkie]

I gave some advice on Twitter which contradicted what the GN team were telling a customer and my post was deleted. Happy to admit I was wrong and apologise if I got it wrong.

You've not had a post deleted here and no-one can delete your Tweets (other than Twitter themselves, which isn't going to happen)

Anyway you are correct.

 

[yorkie]

Thank you. There's certainly room for confusion on both sides it seems as the fare also seems to be valid via Cambridge.
I believe it was the fare mentioned by Silver Cobra.

Yes the fare is valid via Cambridge (within 3 miles of the shortest route) but I don't see how that causes confusion.

 

[Hadders]

VTEC's website will happily give an itinerary for Royston to Peterborough via Stevenage when using a Not Via London ticket.

I believe there used to be an easement permitting this but looking at the current Routeing Guide Easements List it isn't there - it probably should be there given that VTEC's own booking engine seems to use it.

Maybe a VTEC Pricing Manager will see this and arrange for the easement to be listed again!

 

[yorkie]

The easement is correctly applied by booking engines.

The human-readable text is far from ideal and should be changed.

 

[rdwarr]

You've not had a post deleted here and no-one can delete your Tweets (other than Twitter themselves, which isn't going to happen)

Apologies. I thought the tweet had gone but have just found it again.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Yes the fare is valid via Cambridge (within 3 miles of the shortest route)

Interesting to know. Someone with a grandchild fascinated by trains could see a lot of different rolling stock, travelling Royston - Cambridge - Ely - Peterborough and then on the return leg, Peterborough - Stevenage - Royston.
They could also get their first experience of the Hitchin flyover going that way round the 'circle'...

 

[philjo]

The OP doesn't say what day they would be travelling.
Just a heads up that if you are travelling at weekends, there are not that many VTEC services that call at both Stevenage and Peterborough, especially on Saturdays.
Weekdays are fine as there is the hourly Newark/York stopper most hours.
The new Saturday timetable now has the hourly Leeds service from Stevenage that is next stop Grantham (as it is on weekdays so a big improvement here to get to Yorkshire) but the Newark/York stoppers do not run so in general you have to use GN anyway to get to Peterborough. Though some evening southbound services call at both stations.