RST Online Leisure Card

[165009]

Hi, I've just got my first RST Online Leisure card - when looking to book a trip for tomorrow, I can select an Anytime return, but have to choose a specific journey time.
Is this just because you 'have' to select a train to purchase the ticket, even though surely it's valid on any journey?
I've looked at the RST FAQs but can't see this mentioned.
Thanks

 

[Wallsendmag]

All depends which TOC you’re travelling with

 

[Watershed]

Hi, I've just got my first RST Online Leisure card - when looking to book a trip for tomorrow, I can select an Anytime return, but have to choose a specific journey time.
Is this just because you 'have' to select a train to purchase the ticket, even though surely it's valid on any journey?
I've looked at the RST FAQs but can't see this mentioned.
Thanks

An Anytime ticket is valid on any train at any time of day, subject to any operator or route restrictions which the ticket has, as well as the staff travel restrictions in this case.

The only operator whose trains are actually reservations compulsory (on a regular basis) is Caledonian Sleeper. For all other trains, whilst they may be marked as "reservations compulsory" in the timetable data, 99% of the time that will be false as you don't actually need a reservation to travel.

Therefore it doesn't matter which train you select when booking - you can use your ticket on any train, subject to the above-mentioned limitations.

 

[165009]

Thanks. It's SWR into Waterloo so will just select one around 8am and head in whenever

 

[CyrusWuff]

As the Rail Staff online booking site uses the Worldline (formerly Atos) WebTIS "Mixing Deck" format, it should be possible to just choose the desired ticket and buy it without needing to pick specific trains.