Old Timer
Established Member
It really harks back to the detail again !
In BR days (and I recognise that things HAVE moved on), the principle was that the correct fare was required to be paid for the journey being undertaken.
The journey was considered to consist of a single movement along the system stopping off simply to change stations along route as may be required.
Because of the nature of the pricing structure with the introduction of selective pricing in the early 1970s it was technically possible for two tickets to/from intermediate points en route to be cheaper than the throughout fare, although this was very, very much the exception in those days.
In order to both protect revenue as well as regularise the system the policy with regards to ticketing with multiple tickets developed as follows.
A person with a valid ticket for part of the journey would be excessed to the appropriate single or return ticket depending on which leg they were travelling on and whether or not they would be making a return journey. The excess was the difference between the fare or portion of the fare paid and the actual fare to the destination station.
Now in the case of two tickets being cheaper, clearly it would have been a difficult (indeed an impossible) job to explain that a person could not travel throughout when both tickets would be valid, so the requirement for the train to stop at the intermediate station concerned so as to protect revenue for the throughout section.
In the case of a Season Ticket however, where a person is travelling beyond the destination they MUST obtain a ticket for the correct portion BEFORE starting the journey. If the failed to do so, the excess Regulations required the Season to be withdrawn, and a full fare single/return to be issued for the whole journey.
Now of course the issue became how did we deal with people who worked (primarily) in London but returned home long distance at weekends ? Simples - Issue an excess, yes ?
But now however we have a problem. How precisely does one excess a Season Ticket ? There was no comparator to use as the base fare - a full price ticket would not have been appropriate as the Season Ticket holder would gain pecuniary advantage improperly as they were actually receiving a discount by virtue of having a Season.
Secondly of course the Regulations did not allow for a Season ticket to be excessed for the reason shown above.
Thirdly technically a person holding a Season Ticket should have bought the appropriate ticket for the journey before they started because it was not possible to excess a Season Ticket, and starting without tickets for the throughout journey was a Ticket Irregularity with a Season Ticket.
The answer whilst appearing to be simple and logical was not quite. Surely one should simply buy a new ticket from the destination on the Season Ticket, to the final destination ? Simples ??
Well not quite.
The Conditions required that the train stopped at the intermediate station where two tickets were being combined. This in itself would disadvantage a passenger say trying to go home to Leicester who was living in Elstree midweek, condemning them in effect to being passed by a fast train whilst they journeyed to St Albans, Luton or Bedford to pick up the next Northbound.
Secondly, it would not allow them to benefit from any reduced ticket such as a Weekend Return that would be available from St Pancras, but not necessarily for example from Elstree. Remember in those days not every station had a full range of reduced tickets, only those with a suitable traffic flow.
So the solution was to allow a Season Ticket to be excessed in situations where a person was making an "occasional" extension of their journey, and we did this by treating the section of the journey covered by the Season Ticket as having been discounted to either the value of the ticket type or to the value of the relevant ticket being used. In order to legitimise this what is now 19(c) was introduced. This removed the revenue protection requirement for the train to stop, so that both parties won out. We did not create a loophole and the Season Ticket passenger could benefit from the ability to buy a reduced rate ticket without being penalised and having to pay more than some doing the same journey.
A worked example of the "Elstree scenario"
London St Pancras to Leicester - Weekend Return £30.00
Elstree to London St Pancras Season
The excess would be the difference between the London St Pancras to Elstree CDR (say £2.50) and the London St Pancras to Leicester - Weekend Return at £30.00. Total excess charge would be £27.50
If the ticket was split, then they would have to pay as follows.
Elstree to St Albans singles = £1.00
St Albans to Leicester Weekend Return £27.00
If we treat the Season as having a value of £2.50, this brings the total cost journey cost to £28.50, but this excludes the value of the Season, thus the true cost would be £30.50.
In addition the trains would have to stop at St Albans City, therefore condemning the passenger to the 1600 St Pancras to Luton DMU where they would then catch the 1640 St Pancras to Bedford DMU in order to catch the 1726 St Pancras to Derby at Bedford due Leicester at about 1900-1910, whereas they could have travelled by the 1720 St Pancras to Sheffield first stop Leicester arriving at about 1850ish.
In those days despite the bile and spite written about BR, we did genuinely try to look after passengers best interests.
