Split ticket guidance: Pangbourne to Paddington

[Mattlehat]

My employer has recently mandated 2 days per week in the office (Canary Wharf) which is double what I was doing previously so I have been looking into the cost of flexi season tickets. Previously I have been buying split tickets from Pangbourne to Maidenhead and Maidenhead to Paddington which worked perfectly as my train stops at Maidenhead. I have noticed that if I instead get a split from Pangbourne to Slough and Slough to Paddington I can save over £50 per 4 week period BUT my train doesn’t stop at Slough. I have read that season tickets don’t need to stop at the splitting station but my train is always packed in the morning and I would be mortified having to go through the whole conditions of travel rules etc on a crowded train. So my question is - how knowledgable are the ticket inspectors on the rules? Will the ticket checking machines that they use tell them that it’s not permitted or are they smart enough to know it’s ok? Thank you

 

[jfollows]

Well, some staff on the route are notoriously bad at knowing the rules, but it’s pretty clear,
https://assets.nationalrail.co.uk/e...3/National_Rail_Conditions_of_Travel_2024.pdf

Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or
another area based Ticket such as a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in
conjunction with another Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then the train does not need to
Call at that station for your combination to be valid.

and plenty of staff are aware of this.

 

[Watershed]

For reference, @jfollows is referring to the barrier staff at Paddington, who are notorious for making up their own rules regarding the use of Off-Peak tickets in the evening "peak".

However we have not had any reports of people having difficulty using split season tickets in this way. That's not to say it's impossible that it could happen, but it's a very clear contractual right so there is no room for argument.

 

[Haywain]

Further to the above comments, we would not recommend using split tickets on a non-stopping train if neither of them is a season ticket.

 

[Mattlehat]

Further to the above comments, we would not recommend using split tickets on a non-stopping train if neither of them is a season ticket.

Thank you. At least one will be a flexi season ticket