Travel permitted via any route

[missmm12]

I am planning to travel with an open return ticket from Stockport to Stevenage via London Euston (avanti).

My ticket says travel permitted via any route, on my return would I able to go direct from Stevenage to Stockport via changing at Doncaster (with LNER & Transpennine) ? Or do I have to go back via London?

 

[Haywain]

My ticket says travel permitted via any route

It actually says by 'Any permitted route'.

on my return would I able to go direct from Stevenage to Stockport via changing at Doncaster (with LNER & Transpennine) ? Or do I have to go back via London?

That would be fine, because that route is permitted.

 

[Watershed]

To perhaps explain a bit further, the railway has a concept of "permitted routes". In other words, the range of routes that it allows you to take between any two stations.

If your ticket is routed "Any Permitted" then this simply means you can use any of the above routes. It doesn't mean that you can use any random route you like, and indeed there are quite a lot of reasonable routes that aren't permitted.

For Manchester to Stevenage the permitted routes are:

• All the Manchester to London permitted routes, e.g. via the West Coast Main Line (including detours via Warrington/ Birmingham/Northampton etc.) to Euston. Or via the Chiltern route to Marylebone, or via Reading to Paddington.
• Then between the relevant London Terminals on the Underground, Thameslink or Elizabeth line via any "reasonable route"
• All the London to Stevenage permitted routes, e.g. St Pancras, Kings Cross or Moorgate to Stevenage via Welwyn or Hertford
• Alternatively, several routes that avoid London, e.g.
  • via Sheffield, the East Midlands (Nottingham/Leicester/Derby) and Peterborough
  • via the WCML, Nuneaton, Leicester and Peterborough
  • via the Calder Valley or Huddersfield to York/Leeds/Doncaster and then down the ECML and its branches
  • via Sheffield, Doncaster and the ECML
  • via Crewe/Stoke, Derby, Leicester/Nottingham and Peterborough

So you have quite a broad range of routes to choose between.

 

[realaledrinker]

Is their a publically accessible database of permitted routes?

 

[walkingsophie]

Is their a publically accessible database of permitted routes?

Routeing Guide | National Rail

This guide shows the full range of permitted routes available for use with tickets on the National Rail network

www.nationalrail.co.uk

 

[Watershed]

Is their a publically accessible database of permitted routes?

The Routeing Guide can be used to work out the permitted routes. For most medium and long distance journeys these are determined using the mapped route(s) referred to in the Routeing Guide's Yellow Pages. Those can in turn be looked up one at a time here.

In practice you will probably find it a lot easier using a non-official site like @Vexed 's Vail Data site to visualise what that means.

If what you're asking is, whether something like the above is written out for every combination of origin & destination station, the answer is no. The easiest way to query permitted routes in general is to see what journeys come up with the fare you want to use, when you enter an ppropriate via point into National Rail Enquiries. Some retailers, like TrainSplit/the forum ticket site, offer multiple via points but you'd have to turn off splits to make sure you're just seeing what through tickets are valid.