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Zero Fare

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Simon11

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What is the purpose of a zero fare and does anyone have any example of when it would be issued?
 
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yorkie

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Overdistance

Here's an example: Buying a ticket

Orpine wishes to buy a ticket that is not available from his origin, so he either has to buy on-board (which Chiltern don't want him to do) or buy the wrong ticket, and get an excess to the correct ticket. In that case the excess is zero as the fares are the same.

Change of route

See 4.2.1 Excess procedures: change of route In one case a passenger held a Winchester - Lancaster SVR via: Bannbury. But they wanted to travel via London, also at a time the SVR via: London was valid. Train Company staff could say "well the ticket held costs more, so no need for an excess", and indeed the first guard held that view. But problems arose when the passenger then tried to use LU, and further problems arose when the passenger encountered knowledgeable staff at the Euston gateline who were not trained in excess fare procedures and claimed a new ticket was needed. :roll: A zero fare excess issued by the first guard would have avoided those problems.
 
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TheEdge

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They normally pop up when excessing for a change of route I tend to find.
 

ainsworth74

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What is the purpose of a zero fare and does anyone have any example of when it would be issued?

Passenger wishes to buy a Redcar to Edinburgh Haymarket return, whilst buying on the train from Redcar they are issued a Redcar to Edinburgh return. Upon explaining to Darlington booking office they are issued an overdistance excess of £0 to Edinburgh Haymarket as the prices are identical from Redcar.
 

hairyhandedfool

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What is the purpose of a zero fare and does anyone have any example of when it would be issued?

A 'zero fare' is a fare that has no value or costs the passenger nothing, but which there needs to be proof of entitlement. This would include occasions where a ticket has been withdrawn by a member of staff, a 'zero fare' ticket might be issued to allow the passenger to complete their journey.

A 'zero fare excess fare' is an excess fare that costs the passenger nothing, examples have been given for this. Another might be changing an Advance ticket to travel on a different service where the fare for the new service is the same or less than the fare already paid (the admin fee is not included on the excess fare ticket).
 

Haywain

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Other examples would be replacement and duplicate season tickets, and even seat reservations (when issued through a TIS). It's worth noting that in railway terminology zero fare and free are not necessarily the same thing.
 

island

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Passenger wishes to buy a Redcar to Edinburgh Haymarket return, whilst buying on the train from Redcar they are issued a Redcar to Edinburgh return. Upon explaining to Darlington booking office they are issued an overdistance excess of £0 to Edinburgh Haymarket as the prices are identical from Redcar.

The passenger should not have asked for a station by the wrong name to begin with :) It is called Haymarket.
 

ainsworth74

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The passenger should not have asked for a station by the wrong name to begin with :) It is called Haymarket.

The passenger clearly asked the guard after the ticket was issued 'This is valid to Haymarket right?' to which the guard replied 'Yeah it is'. The passenger decided to check as they had a nagging doubt ;)
 

yorkie

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The passenger clearly asked the guard after the ticket was issued 'This is valid to Haymarket right?' to which the guard replied 'Yeah it is'. The passenger decided to check as they had a nagging doubt ;)
Without checking the Routeing Guide, it may well have been valid to Haymarket... via Carlisle ;):lol: Tickets from that origin to certain places which I won't mention have a lot of validity, so it wouldn't be that surprising ;)

The same could crop up with Leeds-York. Valid to Poppleton? Sure.. but only if you go via Harrogate, otherwise you need the excess.
 
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