Split ticket confusion

[ge-gn]

Morning, if I may pick the brains of those with greater knowledge i shall be grateful.

I’ve done a search this morning for return tickets from Norwich to Chester le Street for two people with a 2 together railcard. The price I’ve been given is very reasonable, however when I look at the details, the return leg goes down to Newcastle before picking up a Southbound LNER service, which in itself is fine, but looking at the ticket details, they don’t seem to include Newcastle. Here is a screenshot of the ticket details. And below is a screenshout of the journey details.

Are these tickets valid for this journey?

Many thanks.

 

[Jurg]

They look fine. You don't have to change trains at the points where the tickets are split.

 

[AlterEgo]

Isn’t Chester le Street to Durham valid via double backing at Newcastle?

 

[Haywain]

They look fine. You don't have to change trains at the points where the tickets are split.

I think what @ge-gn is asking is whether the Chester-le-Street to Durham single is really valid for changing at Newcastle. In my view it does look questionable but a ticket bought in conjunction with an itinerary, such as from a website, is always considered valid for the specific trains shown even if it would not normally be valid.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

I saw the title of this post and thought it was someone having difficulty getting a ticket to Split (the City!)

 

[Watershed]

There are two sides to consider - the contractual validity and the intended validity.

Contractually, any ticket(s) you are sold by an accredited booking site are valid on the trains shown in the itinerary. The itinerary is an inherent term of the contract and train companies are bound by whatever their agents (the booking sites) sell. So regardless of the exact details or reasons why something has been offered, you're entitled to rely on what you're offered.

In terms of intended validity, firstly you don't need to change trains at the locations where you have split your ticket. Secondly, a ticket from Durham to Chester-le-Street is valid either on the ~2 hourly direct service, or via Newcastle or via Darlington provided the journey is made on direct services to and from those stations. By travelling via Newcastle, you are doubling back between Chester-le-Street and Newcastle, but there is nothing about this which is inherently forbidden.

This is because Durham to Chester-le-Street is deemed a "local journey" under the Routeing Guide (the document which defines the permitted routes for a journey). Darlington and Newcastle are common Routeing Points to both stations and accordingly you may travel on a direct train, the shortest route (i.e. a direct train), a route no more than 3 miles longer than the shortest route (that doesn't permit any additional routes in this case), or on direct trains to and from the common Routeing Points, i.e. Darlington and Newcastle.

With stations such as Chester-le-Street which receive an infrequent service, it is often faster to double back and in many cases - including here - this is permitted. Therefore it is a perfectly reasonable route, on top of being valid.

Finally, I would point out to the OP that derivatives of TrainSplit.com such as SplitTicketing.com charge additional booking fees, which you can avoid by using TrainSplit directly. All TrainSplit sites also add on a "share of saving fee" of 15% of any saving found by splitting, which in this case adds up to a not insubstantial £12.72.

If you are thus inclined, you can avoid this fee by adding the relevant tickets to your basket separately, although you would then no longer have the benefit of having everything laid out as one journey with one PDF if you go for e-tickets, and it is more hassle to book it this way.

 

[Jurg]

I think what @ge-gn is asking is whether the Chester-le-Street to Durham single is really valid for changing at Newcastle. In my view it does look questionable but a ticket bought in conjunction with an itinerary, such as from a website, is always considered valid for the specific trains shown even if it would not normally be valid.

NRE website shows the Off-Peak day single ticket included in the split to be valid for the journey, changing at Newcastle as per the itinerary.

 

[ge-gn]

Thank you all so much for the help. I will go ahead and book without anxiety.

 

[yorkie]

CLS-DHM is valid via Newcastle

However given you have exposed the anomaly, what perhaps might happen now is for the existing priced tickets to be re-routed "Not via Newcastle" and for the "Any Permitted" to be priced a little bit higher.

 

[Starmill]

You're not really gaining any financial advantage by going via Newcastle to Durham, as someone who started short at Newcastle would do if they bought a ticket from Chester-le-Street.