Truro to Worcester: complicated journey and railcard help

[hst2cornwall]

Right guys bear with me please. I want to make a return journey from Truro to Worcester, it will be the wife and I travelling, with both have Disabled persons Railcards.

Here is where it gets complicated. After a couple of days visiting in Worcester, the wife is going to go on to Manchester for a few days, then she will come back down to Cornwall on her own.

In the meantime, I will meet up with my daughter in Worcester and come back down to Cornwall with her, she will stay a week or so and then go back to Worcester on her own.

Obviously my daughter won't be able to travel on my Disabled Persons Railcard, because even though, I am making a return journey from Truro to Worcester, she will only be with me on the Worcester to Truro leg, and on her return to Worcester she will be travelling on her own and not eligible for the discount.

Firstly do I just have to bite the bullet and buy a full price ticket for my daughter?

And in the case of my wife journey, is the best way for her to organise her tickets to buy a return Truro Worcester, and then sort out the Manchester leg separately given that she will be spending a couple of days in Worcester with me? Remember after her short stay in Worcester, she is then travelling to Manchester via Birmingham New Street, then back to Truro probably with a change at something like Exeter of something like that.

I thought about buying my daughter a 16/25 Railcard to make some savings, but I tent to travel 1st class because I have a large guide dog and I like the extra room, and we always seem to be able to get seats together when I sort out the journey assistance for the changes etc, not something that seems to happen in standard.

I know this sounds pretty complicated, but I thought someone on here might have some ideas or suggestions, maybe its not as hard as it sounds. Cheers guys.

 

[30907]

Right guys bare with me please. I want to make a return journey from Truro to Worcester, it will be the wife and I travelling, with both have disabled person's railcards.

Here is where it gets complecated. After a couple of days visiting in worcester, the wife is going to go on to Manchester for a few days, then she will come back down to cornwall on her own.

In the meantime, I will meet up with my daughter in worcester and come back down to cornwall with her, she will stay a week or so and then go back to Worcester on her own.

Obviously my daughter won't be able to travel on my disabled person's railcard, because even though, I am making a return journey from Truro to Worcester, she will only be with me on the worcester to truro leg, and on her return to worcester she will be travelling on her own and not eligible for the discount.

Firstly do I just have to bite the bullet and buy a full price ticket for my daughter?

And in the case of my wife journey, is the best way for her to organise her tickets to buy a return Truro Worcester, and then sort out the manchester leg separately given that she will be spending a couple of days in worcester with me? remember after her short stay in worcester, she is then travelling to manchester via new street, then back to truro probably with a change at something like exeter of something like that.

I thought about buying my daughter a 16/25 railcard to make some savings, but I tent to travel 1st class because i have a large guide dog and I like the extra room, and we always seem to be able to get seats together when I sort out the journey assistance for the changes etc, not something that seems to happen in standard.

I know this sounds pretty complicated, but I thought someone on here might have some ideas or suggestions, maybe its not as hard as it sounds. Cheers guys.

I've put in some paragraphs to make it easier to follow.

I haven't done any research on actual fares or split tickets, but for starters:

1. The only ticket that will cover your wife throughout is an Anytime Return which is valid for 5 days on the outward leg. This is probably unnecessarily expensive.

2. Splitting at Worcester creates a problem on the return as she would strictly speaking have to catch a train or trains via Worcester, rather than the direct Birmingham to Plymouth service. I'd be interested to know if this is enforced in practice.
Buying Truro to Worcester and Cheltenham to Manchester would work.

3. If you are prepared to commit to specific trains, then simply buy Advance tickets for each leg if they are cheaper. This should alow your daughter to claim discount one way.

I imagine an expert on Cross Country split tickets will be along shortly...

 

[hst2cornwall]

Hi thanks for the reply.
We could catch specific trains as we usually use some sort of journey care for the changes and finding the right seats etc.
At the moment I can't find another to do it other than:
2xreturn ticket, (truro worcester) allowing both of us to travel to worcester, and then my daughter to come back with me.
My wife then buys separate tickets, worcester to manchester, then manchester to truro.

 

[kieron]

If you're willing to commit to specific dates, it may help if you mention which dates you would like, and whether you have any requirements for departure/arrival times. If there are useful advance tickets, it wouldn't be possible to find them without these.

My understanding from what you've said is that you'd like to use first class where available when you (and the dog) are travelling, and you'd prefer to travel together if on the same journey, but your family would be happy travelling standard class otherwise. Is this all correct?

 

[Romilly]

A Truro-Worcester offpeak return with a disabled railcard ("DSB") is £61. (You can probably shave about £5 off this by buying separate return tickets for Truro-Plymouth, Plymouth-Tiverton, Tiverton-Bristol and Bristol-Worcester, but you would then have to be sure that you caught trains stopping at all of those stations and you might have difficulty ensuring that you reserved the same seats throughout).

Two of those will get the OP and wife from Truro to Worcester, and the OP and daughter from Worcester to Truro.

A Cheltenham-Wolverhampton offpeak DSB return is £16.25. This is valid via Worcester or via the more direct route. If it is dated for outward travel on the date of the OP's wife's outward journey from Worcester to Manchester, it can be used to start from Worcester, and can be used via Birmingham New Street or via Smethwick Galton Bridge.

A Wolverhampton-Manchester offpeak DSB return is £20.95.

Having separate tickets to/from Wolverhampton means that the OP's wife must take trains to/from Manchester that stop at Wolverhampton, but most (if not all) do so.

The tickets mentioned so far will get the OP's wife back from Manchester to Cheltenham via Wolverhampton & Birmingham New Street.

A Cheltenham-Truro offpeak DSB single is £38.20 which will get her back to Truro (it might be possible to shave up to about £5 off this by splitting tickets at Bristol Parkway, Taunton & Plymouth but that might not be worth the bother).

All that's missing now is tickets to get the OP's daughter back from Truro to Worcester. As already advised in this thread, an Advance (or combination of Advances) may be best for this once the date and time of travel are known. A combination of singles for each of Truro-Plymouth, Plymouth-Taunton, Taunton-Bristol and Bristol-Worcester will cost £53.50 saving about £40 off a Truro-Worcester single. It shouldn't be difficult to ensure the OP's daughter catches trains that stop at all of Plymouth, Taunton and Bristol Temple Meads.

Total not using Advances is: £250.90

Having just re-read the OP, I realise that the prices I have given are for standard class, not first class. Also, the £53.50 for the OP's daughter to travel Truro-Worcester would be reduced by a further £18 or so with an 16-25 railcard, which would more than half pay for the railcard.

For two persons to travel with DSB 1st class return tickets from Truro to Worcester, the cheapest solution not using Advance tickets seems to be to buy Truro-Totnes 1st class DSB offpeak returns, Totnes-Cheltenham 1st class DSB offpeak returns (making sure that the trains used stop at Totnes), and Cheltenham-Worcester standard class DSB day singles. This would be about £260 instead of 2 x £61, making the grand total not using Advances about £389.

 

[30907]

I'm just a little uneasy about two people sharing an offpeak return, one using the outward half and one the return. I realise it's not going to be picked up in reality, but I can't see anything in the DSB t&cs which would override the normal NOT TRANSFERABLE.

 

[34D]

I'm just a little uneasy about two people sharing an offpeak return, one using the outward half and one the return. I realise it's not going to be picked up in reality, but I can't see anything in the DSB t&cs which would override the normal NOT TRANSFERABLE.

Possibly worth a separate thread in itself, but my own view is that as long as no money is changing hands, a company (or the head of a family) may buy a return ticket for different members to use.

Other interpretations are available.

 

[Romilly]

My instinct would be that the ticket for the outward journey would be being used by the person for whom it was bought and the ticket for the return journey would be being used by the person for whom it was bought.

 

[gray1404]

My instinct would be that the ticket for the outward journey would be being used by the person for whom it was bought and the ticket for the return journey would be being used by the person for whom it was bought.

It is for each person to decide if they wish to do it or not. I personally would. Others would say they never would, but most likely might. The vast majority of the public would not even understand the ticketing system enough to even realise they were doing anything wrong if they did. I highly doubt the train company would ever know and the chances of it being picked up on are so low. There would be no evidence to suggest it - unless you got the same guard who remember the exact ticket number of a outward part of a ticket being used by a different person. lol

 

[hst2cornwall]

Excellent, thanks for all the help, and sorry about my spelling, forums are not always that accessible when using a macbook with voice over, so its hard to do a spell check.
Right I think I can probably make things a little easier by dropping my daughter's journey from the equation, and organise that at another date, so this is what I have.
Mrs hst2cornwall and I travelling from Truro to Worcester, 1st class on Wednesday 15th October. I will then return to Truro on Monday 19th, and my wife will go on to Manchester by herself.
She then plans to come back to Cornwall on Friday 23rd October.
We both have disabled persons railcards, and she is happy to travel standard, but I think would go 1st if it was cheap enough. A separate thread I know, but FGW in my experience seem quite a lot cheaper mile for mile, than XC when it comes to 1st class tickets.
I don't know if its helpful or not, but we tend to change at Exeter and Cheltenham on the journey to and from Worcester. And my wife at Birmingham New Street when she travels from Worcester to Manchester.
Train times we are looking at so far would be the 10.42 from Truro on the out leg, and I would catch the 11.03 from Worcester Foregate Street on the return.
Thanks again.
p.s. The price I have for a 1st class off peak return from Truro to Worcester is: £152.25.