Yate to London this weekend

[Mr T]

Hello,

I'm looking to travel from Yate to London, outward this Friday and returning on Saturday with a 16-25 Railcard.

I can see that there is a Super Off Peak Return fare from Yate to Surbiton via Salisbury costing £37.60. I would then use a zones 1-6 travelcard to complete my journey into central London.

My question is about the return journey. This fare has restriction code BD which I can see would not allow me to use this ticket to depart London Waterloo, Vauxhall or Clapham Junction between 1600-1900, even on Saturdays.

Am I right in thinking that using National Rail Condition of Travel 14.3 I could use a off peak day travelcard to board at London Waterloo on say the 17:23 departure, and then let the Super Off Peak Return fare come into use at Surbiton?

Hope that makes sense and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

[jfollows]

What’s 14.3?
Please post the text!

 

[Mr T]

What’s 14.3?
Please post the text!

Ah, sorry!

'14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination to be valid.'

 

[Watershed]

Your question is essentially whether the evening restrictions in code BD apply when you're using it in combination with a Travelcard on a non-stop split.

I think the answer has to be that yes, they do. You couldn't validly board the 17:23 just with the Travelcard on its own - you are reliant on holding the other ticket from Surbiton. That other ticket from Surbiton is subject to restrictions on boarding trains at Clapham Junction etc. in the evening, which still apply as you are using the combination of the two tickets to board the 17:23.

SWR-priced Super Off-Peak tickets to stations outside the London Zones (e.g. Esher) don't have the evening restrictions - they're simply valid from 12pm onwards. Of course you can't perform a non-stop split when you're combinining two single/return tickets (e.g. Yate to Esher, Esher to London) so you might as well just go back to splitting at Surbiton. To validly do so in the evening, I think you'd need to take a train that stopped at Surbiton.

 

[Mr T]

Many thanks for your advice. I shall take it onboard and plan to pick up a Salisbury train at Woking to be on the safe side. Cheers.