Ticket advice for 3 separate journeys in the same day

[SirAlf]

I hope the experts can help. I’m intending to travel Chesterfield - Manchester Piccadilly - Birmingham New Street - Chesterfield on May Day bank holiday staying several hours in both Manchester and Birmingham. So a fairly early train from Chesterfield and a fairly late one from Birmingham. Any way I can do this on one ticket or will I have to buy 3 singles? Thank you in advance for any help

 

[signed]

Try inputing your itinerary as one return from Chesterfield to Birmingham on

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Use the cogwheel, disable "Use same options for return" and add a "change at" Manchester and add your Manchester stopover in the extra change time

 

[Watershed]

I hope the experts can help. I’m intending to travel Chesterfield - Manchester Piccadilly - Birmingham New Street - Chesterfield on May Day bank holiday staying several hours in both Manchester and Birmingham. So a fairly early train from Chesterfield and a fairly late one from Birmingham. Any way I can do this on one ticket or will I have to buy 3 singles? Thank you in advance for any help

Logically speaking you'd have thought a ticket to somewhere like Stafford would be valid both via Birmingham or via Stockport/Manchester, but ticket to Stafford are only valid via Stockport/Manchester, and tickets to Wolverhampton are only valid via Birmingham. Seems unduly restrictive to me, to be honest.

I think you will have to buy a combination of tickets for your journey, unless someone can come up with something I've missed. That said, if you buy Advance tickets then this will probably work out cheaper anyway.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Presume that the OP travelling back from Manchester Piccadilly to Chesterfield before then continuing on to Birmingham is out of the question?

 

[SirAlf]

OP here. Oops! My plan was football in the Manchester area and Birmingham area and I thought the one in Birmingham was evening - but it isn't. So I can't do both, it'll have to be an either/or which makes train ticketing very simple. Thank you all anyway, as always I appreciate the info I get from this site