Valid ferry ticket?

[gunn13]

Wondering if anyone can satisfy my curiosity on this:

Today a passenger boarded my train and was trying to decide if she wanted to buy a combined rail/ferry ticket in advance from me on the train or just wait until the day she is travelling and get it then.

Had a little chat and I had a play around with Avantix and found a few strange fares.

She would have been travelling from Glasgow Queen St. [GLQ] - Craignure (Mull) [CRU] via Oban [OBN].
The regular fares for that journey are an Anytime Day Single (£26.70); Off-Peak Return and an Anytime Return, both priced at £46.30.
We were trying to see if there was a cheaper method. As she was only going for the day, I suggested that it might be cheaper to get an Off-Peak Day Return from GLQ-OBN (£29.00) and get a separate ferry ticket. I decided to enter OBN-CRU in Avantix to see if it might give the ferry prices.
It gave an SFS (Ferry Single) at £4.30 and an SFP (Ferry Period Return) at £8.50. The return had the same validity as an Anytime ticket, ie. valid for one month.

This got me thinking as to whether or not these would actually be valid tickets to travel on the ferry with. The prices are far cheaper than CalMac's own tickets.
A single ferry trip apparently costing £5.40 and a return (only valid for 5 days) costing £9.05.

Basically what I would like to find out is if a passenger was to attempt to board a ferry with one of these SFS or SFP tickets, do you think it would be permitted, despite it being cheaper than the actual published ferry fares?

Thanks

 

[bb21]

It would appear, according to The Manual, that these fares are add-on amounts for through passengers from a National Rail station to Craignure. I have looked at a few different origins and the price differential between fares to Oban and fares to Craignure appear to match these add-on amounts.

Not all National Rail stations have through fares defined in Avantix for travel to Craignure. Therefore I suspect that these fares exist solely for the purpose of allowing the passenger in these circumstances to still pay the through fare add-on (giving a discount over paying rail travel and the ferry journey separately) but be issued with a separate ferry ticket as Avantix may not be able to print the through fare on one ticket.

I could be wrong though. We have a few ScotRail staff on here who will be able to point out my mistakes if so.

 

[Greeby]

Generally these days, if there's an add-on available, you can get it as a separate fare. Partly so you're not restricted on your choice of rail fare. But also it helps avoid the pitfalls of "making up" the ticket using Manual Fare. I've found this out the hard way:

As none of the stations from Northampton southwards have an Any Permitted or Via London SVR to Zone U destinations, they have to be "made up" using the chapter and verse laid down in the Manual. Problem there is the ticket can only be non-issued by the same shift. So when I sold one to a passenger as my last ticket, closed down my window and logged off. Then a few minutes later she came to another window and wanted to get it changed. They couldn't non-issue as there was no fare to be had. So it had to go on a refund form which didn't make her happy in the slightest.

 

[sheff1]

Not all National Rail stations have through fares defined in Avantix for travel to Craignure. Therefore I suspect that these fares exist solely for the purpose of allowing the passenger in these circumstances to still pay the through fare add-on (giving a discount over paying rail travel and the ferry journey separately) but be issued with a separate ferry ticket as Avantix may not be able to print the through fare on one ticket.

That would then suggest that CalMac staff would happily accept the 'add on' ticket, if presented by itself, as they would have no way of knowing (or any reason to ask) where the passenger had originated from.

 

[IanD]

That would then suggest that CalMac staff would happily accept the 'add on' ticket, if presented by itself, as they would have no way of knowing (or any reason to ask) where the passenger had originated from.

If they ferry ticket is supposed to be an add-on then there is a reason to ask to see the rail ticket on to which it has been added. Whether they will or not is a different matter.

 

[gunn13]

Interesting. I may put this to the test myself and ask CalMac if I can board a ferry with one of these "add-ons" the next time I'm at the port.

Funny that the combined rail/ferry tickets don't always seem to offer the best value for passengers. I think there should definitely be a greater selection of tickets with "day" validities available for these combined journeys.

 

[pjnathanail]

If they ferry ticket is supposed to be an add-on then there is a reason to ask to see the rail ticket on to which it has been added. Whether they will or not is a different matter.

But as I understand it the split suggested in the OP would have been valid

 

[IanD]

But as I understand it the split suggested in the OP would have been valid

But she still would have had a train ticket.