Two trains a day ... how many fares to London? Guess!
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-02-04 09:59:42 - Graham Ellis
Up early ... and a lift to the station for the 07:20 train [from Melksham station]. Buying a ticket so unusual "it't the first of those I've sold in six years ... and I don't think any of my colleagues have either". Change at Swindon into the 07:58 to London - one of only a couple of trains scheduled to run non-stop through Reading all day. Off to connect with Eurostar at St Pancras; a training course in the Netherlands this week.
---OOO---
Railway ticketing is complex, with so many different fares available that it's almost impossible to understand. Much of the logic is lost in history, or at least needs the telling of a story starting "once upon a time, a long, long time ago" to explain it and offer some sort of background.
From Melksham to Paddington this morning, I would normally have had a choice of four single fares. Standard or First Class, and "any route" or "via Swindon". Of course, there's no first class on the train from Melksham, but those tickets doallow you to use First once you've changed. So that FOUR fares so far.
If I travelled on the next train, at 19:47 (that's right - over 12 hours later), I could use any of the four tickets above, or I could use standard class offpeak or supeoofpeak tickets too. That's four more fares, again there's an any permitted route or via Swindon, but I don't think there are first class off peak or super offpeak singles. Never the less, I'm up to EIGHT fares.
Travel plans are sometimes made at the last minute, and indeed I wasn't certain if i would be travelling on this train, or one a bit later, until the weeekend. So I couldn't take advantage of another range of fares that's available. Advanced tickets, sold in limited numbers (sometimes, one feels, limited to zero) can be bought for travel on a specific train. There are five price bands in standard and five price bands in First, and there are Swindon and Any Permitted fares too, so potentially that's a further 20 fares giving a total so far of TWENTY EIGHT different prices I can pay for an Adult Single from Melksham to London. Not bad going for a station that's got just 2 trains each way per day - only one of which has a decent connection from London in the outbound direction. (I call it indecent to make you hang around Swindon station from just after midnight until 0612 which is when one of the trains leaves there).
So - which of the 28 tickets did I buy this morning? NONE OF THEM! Travelling International overland / sea, you can but a ticket to "London International" instead of London Paddington. The advantage of these tickets is that they requires Eurostar to put you on a later train if your train into London is delayed, even if you've purchased a "this train only" ticket to the continent. You have probably guessed that this 29th ticket comes at yet another price. Buy on the day at 39 pounds single ... and a real bargain when compared to 76 pounds for a single to Paddington. Mind you, compared to using coach / driving all the way, it's not such a bargain.
And it won't surprise you when I tell you about a 30th ticket - there's another international transfer ticket available, at 76 pounds. I think its use is lost in history, and the 39 pound ticket is valid on any train these days ...
---OOO---
I have NOT considered
* Railcards, groupsaves and other concessions
* Split ticketing and overrun tickets
* Season tickets
* Tickets to other London destinations / travel cards
* Return tickets
That's right ... the THIRTY fares for the two-train service is just a starter!
I've actually purchased an international return at 66.50 this morning as it will get me back to Melksham when I'm back in the UK. And if there's no train to Melksham at the right time I can at least get to Chippenham on it. The trains are run by First, so are some of the buses from Chippenham to Melksham, but of course it's far too much to expect my train ticket to be accepted on the same company's bus, isn't it?
Last week, I made another journey from Melksham to London and back. Going up on Sunday evening, I paid around 30 pounds super offpeak single. Coming back, I felt that the 76 pound single was a ripoff, so I travelled to Didcot on a single for 28 pounds, the on another single at about 12 pounds to Melksham. Total price - 40 pounds and a few pence. Inconvenience - having to leave London 15 minutes earlier so that I was on a train that called at Didcot.
While these legitimate lower price fares are available, use them! The peak tickets cost as much as they do (overpriced, I think) because there are so many other good deals around. But really the system should be simplified. It's absurd to get something cheaper buying it in two halves. And it's absurd to get an extra guarantee of international connection and pay less than half the regular fare.
Up early ... and a lift to the station for the 07:20 train [from Melksham station]. Buying a ticket so unusual "it't the first of those I've sold in six years ... and I don't think any of my colleagues have either". Change at Swindon into the 07:58 to London - one of only a couple of trains scheduled to run non-stop through Reading all day. Off to connect with Eurostar at St Pancras; a training course in the Netherlands this week.