St Albans - Bridgend advanced ticket

[hawaii2468]

I have bought my tickets - two single tickets from St Albans to Bridgend and back which are cheaper than the Return ticket, why?

So my itenery is:
12:32 - St Albans 12:52 - London St Pancras Intl TRAIN (First Capital Connect)
12:52 - London St Pancras Intl 13:45 - London Paddington TUBE

13:45 - London Paddington 16:09 - Bridgend TRAIN (First Great Western)


As you can see, when I arrive at Paddington tube station, it is 13:45 so I won't have time to catch the train. I wonder if I could take an earlier train from St Albans to St Pancras International or even break the journey by exiting St Pancras International for an hour then come back and continue the rest of my journey?

 

[cuccir]

It doesn't take 50 minutes to get from St Pancras to Paddington - that's just your itinerary playing up, so there won't be a problem for you, you'll have plenty of time.

 

[causton]

The itinerary shows you as using all the time you possibly can to make the tube connection, both:

a) in case there is a delay
b) in case you think "that's lots of time, I'll stop on the way and grab a drink" and you stop - it makes you think the tube takes longer so you get to your next station earlier :P

 

[dzug2]

Your two single tickets are cheaper than a return for two reasons:

they are only valid on the trains you have booked
you have bought them in advance

If you had bought a return, you would not have had to buy in advance, and you would have had flexibility over which trains you could use.

and as cuccir has said the tube times are not the times of the tube - they are the overall time you have to make the transfer. The actual travel time is 15 to 20 minutes with departures every few minutes

 

[hawaii2468]

How about if one break out the journey at St Pancras for one hour or two? Is that allowed?

 

[island]

Break of journey is not permitted on Advance tickets other than to change trains, access station facilities, or to stay in overnight accommodation when your journey can't reasonably be completed in one day.

 

[MikeWh]

How about if one break out the journey at St Pancras for one hour or two? Is that allowed?

Break of journey is not permitted on Advance tickets other than to change trains, access station facilities, or to stay in overnight accommodation when your journey can't reasonably be completed in one day.

At risk of being told off I'm going to offer a suggestion on this. If the tickets are routed FGW&Connections or via a station between Paddington and Bridgend (eg AP Slough) AND the reservations coupon only mentions the FGW train specifically, then in practice you will probably be alright to break at St Pancras. I wouldn't recommend taking a train more than an hour earlier than the one on your itinery, but any FCC people are not going to know which train you should get to connect with your FGW one. You need to make sure you return to Kings Cross St Pancras tube station in time just in case there are any delays on the Underground. You must allow 45 minutes at least or you may not be covered.

I wouldn't generally offer advice suggesting breaking advance journeys, but around the cross London interchange times is an area where you just aren't going to hit problems. You need to be reasonable. If you try to depart St Albans at 0900 when your departure from Paddington was 1500, for example, then you might arouse suspicion; but allowing an extra hour or so will not be questioned.

 

[yorkie]

How about if one break out the journey at St Pancras for one hour or two? Is that allowed?

Break of journey is not allowed on all Advance tickets and the outward portion of some (Super) Off Peak tickets*.

BOJ is defined as follows:

16. Starting, breaking or ending a journey at intermediate stations
You may start, or break and resume, a journey (in either direction in the case of a return
ticket) at any intermediate station, as long as the ticket you hold is valid for the trains you
want to use. You may also end your journey (in either direction in the case of a return
ticket) before the destination shown on the ticket. However, these rights may not apply to
some types of tickets for which a break of journey is prohibited, in which case the relevant
Train Companies will make this clear in their notices and other publications.
If you start, break and resume, or end your journey at an intermediate station
when you are not entitled to do so, you will be liable to pay an excess fare. This excess
fare will be the difference between the price paid for the ticket you hold and the price of
the lowest priced ticket(s) available for immediate travel that would have entitled you to
start, break and resume, or end your journey at that station on the service(s) you have
used.
A ticket which entitles you to travel on the London Underground and/or
Docklands Light Railway does not entitle you to break and resume your journey at any of
the stations on these networks unless it is a Season Ticket or a Travelcard.
For the purposes of this Condition and Condition 11, you will be treated as breaking your
journey if you leave a Train Company’s or Rail Service Company’s stations after you start
your journey other than:
(i) to join a train at another station, or
(ii) to stay in overnight accommodation when you cannot reasonably
complete your journey within one day, or
(iii) to follow any instructions given by a member of a Train Company’s staff.

So, as you can see, it's not breaking your journey to have a meal at the cafe or pub at the mezzanine level, but it would be breaking your journey to have a meal at a restaurant outside the station.

How enforceable this is, depends on the location. It would be much easier for a TOC to enforce this at, say, Loughborough (LBO), than, Paddington (PAD), for example. But just because it is difficult to enforce doesn't mean I'll recommend it.

Also, according to the Conditions of Carriage it will be "made clear" that this is not allowed. The fact that so many people ask the question here, suggests that many people do not consider it to be "clear", but I couldn't possibly recommend a defence of breaking the rules on that basis!

(* okay some return portions of Super Off Peak priced by LM also carry this restriction, but I have to question how enforceable that is, and even LM staff have been known to advise breaking this condition)