RAIL fares expert Barry Doe wonders why the National Trust has had a change of heart.
A number of readers have mentioned that the ‘automatic’ right to use Off-Peak Returns from Euston and other termini north of the Thames - on any train, however early, from all other stations in the old Network SouthEast area - is no longer quoted anywhere.
It always was part of the fare restriction code, as appears in the Avantix download or brfares.com - or indeed is quoted on tickets, so that they can be checked on the National Rail website.
An OP return from (say) Eastbourne to Liverpool via London (restriction code 9I) is merely shown nowadays as “not valid on trains timed to depart London Euston after 0429 and before 0926” (with more detail for other applicable termini, plus afternoon restrictions).
Now, it’s true that not mentioning that they may be used on any train out of Eastbourne does amount to the same thing as saying that they may be! However, I was intrigued, and asked fares experts at the Rail Delivery Group why the helpful clarity had been removed.
To my surprise, I was told that although nothing has changed, there is no automatic right any longer. It seems that, under consumer law, if Virgin Trains (which set the EastbourneLiverpool fare) wanted to say it can’t be used out of Eastbourne until 0900, it could.
Why would it want to? I can’t think of a reason, as all the operator is interested in is not having you travel on its own trains before 0926. Oddly, I can think of reasons why Southern or Thameslink might NOT want off-peak travellers on their busy morning services, but the crazy thing is that they have no say in it.
He who sets the fare has total control, even on the times a ticket may be used way outside their patch.
So, although operators may add a restriction, none has - although personally I still can’t see why assurance can’t be given, to clarify the situation for staff as well as for users.
Of course, the current system of having one operator set a throughout fare and still abiding by rules set by British Rail - however good those rules are - can lead to many anomalies.