Split ticket where the station is only passed through

[dotdash1979]

Hi, I'm looking at commuting to work in the near future and the season ticket is almost £2000. but I've worked out if I can save almost £200 by doing the following.

Journey is from New Pudsey to Rochdale

My plan is to get a West Yorkshire metro card for rail zones 2 -5 and use that to Walsden, then buy a national rail season ticket from Walsden to Rochdale.

The only issue is that only some services will stop at Walsden and the rest pass through. The train I want to get will pass through, can I still do a split ticket or dose the train have to stop in order for it to work?

I've been looking at the NRCOC, and I'm not sure.

19. Using a combination of tickets
You may use two or more tickets for one journey as long as together they cover the entire journey and one of the following applies:
(a) they are both Zonal Tickets unless special conditions prohibit their use in this way. The Ticket Seller will, if you ask, advise you whether you can use a Zonal Ticket in combination with another ticket.
(b) the train you are in calls at a station where you change from one ticket to another;

or
(c) one of the tickets is a Season Ticket (which for this purpose does not include Season Tickets or travel passes issued on behalf of a passenger transport executive or local authority) or a leisure travel pass, and the other ticket(s) is/ are not.

Another cheaper option is NR season tickets for New Pudey to Walsden then Walsden to Rochdale but I think the train has to stop there for this to work. However the Metro pass is a zonal pass so section c will work.

 

[Deerfold]

Hi, I'm looking at commuting to work in the near future and the season ticket is almost £2000. but I've worked out if I can save almost £200 by doing the following.

Journey is from New Pudsey to Rochdale

My plan is to get a West Yorkshire metro card for rail zones 2 -5 and use that to Walsden, then buy a national rail season ticket from Walsden to Rochdale.

The only issue is that only some services will stop at Walsden and the rest pass through. The train I want to get will pass through, can I still do a split ticket or dose the train have to stop in order for it to work?

I've been looking at the NRCOC, and I'm not sure.

19. Using a combination of tickets
You may use two or more tickets for one journey as long as together they cover the entire journey and one of the following applies:
(a) they are both Zonal Tickets unless special conditions prohibit their use in this way. The Ticket Seller will, if you ask, advise you whether you can use a Zonal Ticket in combination with another ticket.
(b) the train you are in calls at a station where you change from one ticket to another;

or
(c) one of the tickets is a Season Ticket (which for this purpose does not include Season Tickets or travel passes issued on behalf of a passenger transport executive or local authority) or a leisure travel pass, and the other ticket(s) is/ are not.

Another cheaper option is NR season tickets for New Pudey to Walsden then Walsden to Rochdale but I think the train has to stop there for this to work. However the Metro pass is a zonal pass so section c will work.

Yes, that should be fine - as you say, a Metrocard (travel pass issued on behalf of a passenger transport executive or local authority) is explicitly excluded from the definition of a season ticket.

If you have two season tickets you'll likely get fed up of having to get the 1tph that stops at Walsden - it might be worth looking at splitting at Todmorden instead.

 

[dotdash1979]

Yep looked into Todmorden, which brings down the saving to £108 per year. But I'll know that will defiantly work.

The other Metro pass route will save me £160 per year but it's a little more risky.

It's a bit like countdown do I go for the risky 7 or stick with the safe 6?

 

[Deerfold]

Yep looked into Todmorden, which brings down the saving to £108 per year. But I'll know that will defiantly work.

The other Metro pass route will save me £160 per year but it's a little more risky.

It's a bit like countdown do I go for the risky 7 or stick with the safe 6?

It's possible that not all guards on the route will be aware of this rule (though I wouldn't be surprised if there's a few people doing similar splits already).

My experience of guards on this line has always been very good - but I'm only occasionally using funny tickets and going over the border.

 

[dotdash1979]

Where would I get an answer from that I can have in writing that can't be disputed?

Thanks for the help by the way.

 

[Deerfold]

Where would I get an answer from that I can have in writing that can't be disputed?

Thanks for the help by the way.

The rule is quite clear (so far as I can see) in condition 19c. You could ask Northern to confirm that it is acceptable (and if in the unlikely case they claim it isn't, complain). However whilst we can confirm it's valid no-one can guarantee you won't get it disputed if you're unfortunate enough to encounter one of the minority of guards who won't listen to an explanation - last year I was held for 15 minutes at London Bridge station by a member of staff who refused to check with anyone that my ticket could be valid (fortunately he had to return to the gateline and the member of staff he handed me over to was more reasonable). In that case Southeastern apologised to me after the event and hopefully reminded their staff to accept the ticket I was using but he even told me he'd had people using the same ticket as me with letters confirming the validity of the ticket from Southeastern but "they were wrong". In a case like that there's not a lot you can do. I wasn't even using split tickets or easements though there was only one service I could have used into London Bridge on which it was valid.

 

[dotdash1979]

I've spoken to National Rail and Metro and they have said I'm fine to go ahead with it.

I expect to have some guards who won't be happy and expect to have some kick back in the early days, but I know I'm in the right and will be polite.

Worst thing is I'm kicked off early, but I'll have my bike with me most days so I'll just ride into work.