Winnersh to Peterborough

[The Rattler]

Hi, only my second post so please carry on being gentle with me.

I've purchased the attached advance tickets. My booking confirmation states I should travel via SWT to Waterloo and then to Kings Cross. However, as I don't have an seat for this leg of the journey can I travel via Reading and Paddington?

 

[bb21]

Your profile says 5 posts, not 2.

But wrt to your question, I think strictly speaking the answer is "no", however if you avoid the reservable HSTs between Reading and Paddington (ie. only use the non-reservable Turbo services), you should be fine and an argument can be made that it should be valid that way.

 

[yorkie]

You can get itineraries via Reading, but there is no Advance availability on the HSTs from Reading to London at that time.

You'd therefore arguably need to be on the 1818 Reading-Padington Turbo (stopping service) as that's the last stopper that connects with the 2005. In order to catch that, you'd need to depart Winnersh at 1730.

I wouldn't recommend it.

Update: OK you could potentially catch:

Winnersh 1800
Reading 1815

Reading 1823
Paddington 1854

​

This is a valid connection at Reading (just!) however it depends on a favourable interpretation of the Advance fares T&Cs, and if either of the above trains were delayed it could cause you to do some explaining, so I still don't think I can recommend it.

 

[The Rattler]

Thank you - a lot more complex than I thought.

It's a journey I do quite regularly and back in September I was issued the attached fare. I travelled via Paddington and boarded the first HST to Reading. Even though it states a train on my booking as I didn't have a seat reservation for a specific train I assumed I could board the first train. Was I incorrect to do this?

Thinking that the above was indeed correct I thought I could probably do the same with my ticket for Wednesday - all be it in the opposite direction. Obviously not that simple - it must be some induction Guards / train managers go through.

PS Apologies 2 threads started now 6 posts

 

[bb21]

You are officially not permitted to join a reservable service without a reservation on an Advance ticket. but this is not always enforced (or even enforceable sometimes).

In reality you may get away with it.

 

[FenMan]

You are officially not permitted to join a reservable service without a reservation on an Advance ticket. but this is not always enforced (or even enforceable sometimes).

In reality you may get away with it.

I think the OP ought not to have a problem using a reserveable train for the Paddington to Reading leg. Whenever I look at Advances for journeys from Blackwater to destinations north of London, via Reading itineraries are shown as valid including reservable trains.

Example: Blackwater to York on 25 November shows this itinerary for £34:-

Blackwater 10:36 - Reading 10:59
GW
First and standard class

Reading 11:09 - London Paddington 11:38
GW
Reservations available
First and standard class
Buffet service

London Underground from London Paddington to London Kings Cross
Station

London Kings Cross 12:30 - York 14:31
GR

 

[bb21]

It may do but that completely misses the point I was making.

The rule is that if you do not have a reservation for a particular leg, you may use any unreservable service. If the original itinerary included the reservable HSTs, such as the one you gave as an example, a reservation coupon would have been issued.

The OP has no reservation coupon, because he was never given an itinerary using one of the HSTs so officially the answer is "no".

Whether he will get away with it is a completely separate issue.

 

[FenMan]

Fair enough. I don't recall receiving reservation coupons when travelling north via Reading on an Advance, however the last time was several years ago.

 

[LexyBoy]

It is my understanding that guards are not strict about reservations between Reading and Paddington for long-distance journeys on Advance tickets. I cannot say whether this is policy however, so I wouldn't advise relying on it, although I would be very surprised if a guard objected to the ticket on the grounds that there are no reservations for the Winnersh-London leg.

I would also point out that the publicly available T&Cs state "If the ‘Route’ also states ‘and Connections’, travel is allowed on appropriate connecting trains where shown on the ticket(s) or other valid travel itinerary". The rule about only being allowed to use unreservable trains is part of the internal ticketing guidance.

If it were me I'd be going via Waterloo (or more likely Vauxhall for the Vic) as it's about the same time, one fewer change, and avoids the delay-prone GWML and horrid HSTs.