Tips on Paddington - Reading before 9.30am?

[sammyg901]

I'll soon be doing this trip 1-2 days a week and am rather shocked at the £43.30 return fare here!

I have a network railcard so obviously I can just buy as two singles and I'll do Clapham Junction - Reading via SW mainly to save on cost but am interested in any tips - e.g. any off peak returns valid on this flow? Especially something I could pick up at Vauxhall for the tube transfer.

Feel free to PM if you want to keep it away from prying eyes

 

[Deerfold]

I'll soon be doing this trip 1-2 days a week and am rather shocked at the £43.30 return fare here!

I have a network railcard so obviously I can just buy as two singles and I'll do Clapham Junction - Reading via SW mainly to save on cost but am interested in any tips - e.g. any off peak returns valid on this flow? Especially something I could pick up at Vauxhall for the tube transfer.

Feel free to PM if you want to keep it away from prying eyes

If you get a train stopping at Slough you can get a London - Slough anytime return and a Slough - Reading anytime return (£13.50+£9.90=£23.40)

 

[sammyg901]

Thanks for that! It's not a route I'm familiar with and I hadn't realised there are a reasonable number of London - Slough - Reading fast trains - thought I'd be stuck on a stopper

 

[bnm]

Alternatively, if you do take a semi-fast service that calls Slough you could get a Hanwell to Slough Anytime Day Return for £9.70 and a Slough to Reading Anytime Day Return for £9.90. Total £19.60

Start and end short at Paddington on the first ticket. Permitted route to travel Hanwell to Slough via Paddington with a positive easement in the Routeing Guide and booking engines offering itineraries for Hanwell - Slough via Paddington.

If you don't want to split (and call) at Slough then a Hanwell to Reading Anytime Day Return is £27.40 and you can take a non-stop service from Paddington to Reading.

 

[wibble]

Or pay £17.90 if you fancy the 1hr 20min journey from Waterloo!

 

[Tibbs]

Or pay £17.90 if you fancy the 1hr 20min journey from Waterloo!

Seriously - do NOT do this journey unless you're absolutely skint! I used to do this journey as far as Bracknell on occasion, and I almost opened a vein just to make the journey end sooner.

 

[Greenback]

Seriously - do NOT do this journey unless you're absolutely skint! I used to do this journey as far as Bracknell on occasion, and I almost opened a vein just to make the journey end sooner.

When I lived in Reading I used to take the Waterloo train now again if I wanted a change and was heading to somewhere in south or south west London.

I can't imagine doing it regularly, though, that would begin to get tedious very quickly!

 

[davetheguard]

When I lived in Reading I used to take the Waterloo train now again if I wanted a change and was heading to somewhere in south or south west London.

I can't imagine doing it regularly, though, that would begin to get tedious very quickly!

And of course when things go completely pear-shaped out of Paddington, everyone for Reading & beyond is directed to the half-hourly Waterloo - Reading service. Eight cars, but often full and standing with locals; and that's before you add any FGW passengers.

I think it's quite a shame that Waterloo - Reading via Basingstoke is not a permitted route; it would certainly help to ease the load when things go wrong out of Paddington (which is quite often at the moment with all the work going on for electrification and Crossrail).

Although a change at Basingstoke would be required, it would still somehow feel quicker than all those station stops on the direct SWT route to Reading.

 

[Greenback]

And of course when things go completely pear-shaped out of Paddington, everyone for Reading & beyond is directed to the half-hourly Waterloo - Reading service. Eight cars, but often full and standing with locals; and that's before you add any FGW passengers.

I think it's quite a shame that Waterloo - Reading via Basingstoke is not a permitted route; it would certainly help to ease the load when things go wrong out of Paddington (which is quite often at the moment with all the work going on for electrification and Crossrail).

Although a change at Basingstoke would be required, it would still somehow feel quicker than all those station stops on the direct SWT route to Reading.

You make a good point about Basingstoke, perception is often half the battle, and the number of stops on the Reading to Waterloo line makes it feel even longer than it actually is!

I also agree that the Waterloo trains are often full with local travellers, and the last thing they need is an influx of additional passengers displaced from the Paddington line. In fact, I used to say this when I worked at Reading myself, when I tried to persuade people not to travel to London at all if they didn't need to. I used to make it very clear to anyone who said they would go via Staines that the trains would most likely be rammed and very uncomfortable, not to mention slow!

Not that my efforts were that successful, mind you!

 

[GodAtum]

I found that Paddington - Maidenhead in the morning the train was empty as its the wrong way round for most commuters.

 

[davetheguard]

I found that Paddington - Maidenhead in the morning the train was empty as its the wrong way round for most commuters.

Yet it always used to be that more people commuted in to work in Reading than from it......

 

[LexyBoy]

Yet it always used to be that more people commuted in to work in Reading than from it......

That's not inconsistent: many more people on the line commute to London than to Reading, but more passengers at Reading are commuting to it than from it. (Or so I've heard).

The stoppers are packed by the time they arrive in Reading... most passengers will be getting on west of Slough though, hence quiet from London.

 

[Greenback]

Reading attracts commuters from places on the Waterloo line, the Oxford, Newbury and Basingstoke lines, as well as cities such as Swindon and Bristol all of these are in addition to those coming from the Maidenhead direction.

 

[thedbdiboy]

Alternatively, if you do take a semi-fast service that calls Slough you could get a Hanwell to Slough Anytime Day Return for £9.70 and a Slough to Reading Anytime Day Return for £9.90. Total £19.60

Start and end short at Paddington on the first ticket. Permitted route to travel Hanwell to Slough via Paddington with a positive easement in the Routeing Guide and booking engines offering itineraries for Hanwell - Slough via Paddington.

If you don't want to split (and call) at Slough then a Hanwell to Reading Anytime Day Return is £27.40 and you can take a non-stop service from Paddington to Reading.

The Routeing Guide does NOT permit the journey Hanwell to Slough via Paddington. (RJIS and IPTIS do not offer this journey).

The positive doubleback easement 700272 is not applicable. It only applies to journeys with an origin or destination at one the 3 Heathrow terminals.

 

[LexyBoy]

The Routeing Guide does NOT permit the journey Hanwell to Slough via Paddington. (RJIS and IPTIS do not offer this journey).

The positive doubleback easement 700272 is not applicable. It only applies to journeys with an origin or destination at one the 3 Heathrow terminals.

The easement is 40003, and the debate as to whether such easements apply to the ticket or the journey has been had repeatedly - I don't think either side will budge!

WebTIS (on FGW at least) did permit some of these doublebacks last I checked, although with misapplied restrictions for Off-Peak tickets; NRE was less accomodating but allowed some of the Greenford branch stations.

 

[sammyg901]

I've had a few PMs with lower prices that are straight forward stop short - so I'll give some of those a go in Feb when I start

I live in Vauxhall so the Clapham - Reading train is a reasonable option vs going up to Paddington anyway - but sometimes coming back into Paddington will suit and definitely need options for when either goes wrong!!

 

[cjohnson]

The easement is 40003, and the debate as to whether such easements apply to the ticket or the journey has been had repeatedly - I don't think either side will budge!

WebTIS (on FGW at least) did permit some of these doublebacks last I checked, although with misapplied restrictions for Off-Peak tickets; NRE was less accomodating but allowed some of the Greenford branch stations.

I see 40003 was amended a couple of months back to disallow going to Heathrow. Thought it was too good to be true when the booking sites were happy to sell a £3 Acton Main Line-Hayes & Harlington ticket going via Paddington, onto HEx then the Connect back to Hayes. Never quite had the courage to try that one...

 

[bnm]

The Routeing Guide does NOT permit the journey Hanwell to Slough via Paddington. (RJIS and IPTIS do not offer this journey).

Mention of RJIS and IPTIS suggest you work in ticket retailing. Permitted Routes are governed by the Routeing Guide.

As LexyBoy has mentioned the relevant easement for my suggested fares is 040003. With that easement being correctly applied by FGWs booking engine. Thus giving an intending passenger a valid itinerary to travel (or indeed start/stop short at an intermediate station as allowed by the NRCoC) from Hanwell via Paddington to Slough.

Now, maybe industry systems an NRE aren't applying the easement. That doesn't automatically make a route invalid. Any difference of opinion should favour the consumer.

It does annoy me at times when I see rail staff (apologies thedbdiboy if you aren't) respond here dismissing suggestions for saving money just because their 'computer says no'. Well, someone else's computers (namely ATOC's and FGW's) in this instance says 'yes'.