Return Train Ticket

[tali1]

I have return train ticket Coventry to Macclesfield but want to travel from Birmingham to Chelford.
Chelford and Macclesfield are virtually same distance .Will i be able to travel on that Coventry to Macclesfield ticket?
Or do i have to travel to Macclesfield and get a ticket to Chelford ?Sorry , newbie at this!

[DaisyNonna]

Do trains actually go and come back?

[EDDIE51]

No a ticket is only valid between the 2 stations it was bought for.
Not sure what you mean here , what are your start and finish points?

[Buenchico]

I used to run a railway station and 'permitted routes' are a nightmare to work out. There's a website specifically devoted to the subject, where you have to get to grips with 7 pages of diagrams and detailed instructions before you can even start to find out what is, and isn't, a 'permitted route:
http://data.atoc.org/routeing-guide

However, a quick look at the train route for the Coventry to Macclesfield journey shows that you'd normally be expected to travel via Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent. Birmingham to Chelsford is via Stafford, Crewe and Wilmslow. So the only obvious overlap is on the Birmingham to Stafford section.

So you'll need to buy an additional ticket. The quickest way would be to change at Stafford for an hour's journey to Chelford for £17.90 (single). The cheapest way would be to travel through to Macclesfield, for an hour's journey to Chelford, costing £7.80.

[tali1]

Buenchico I decided to "risk it" and just one stop away from Chelford....the inspector turns up.Oddly , for some reason he never entered into my section, despite being a few feet away !

[Buenchico]

You must look particularly fearsome, Tali1 ;-)

[tali1]

Ha! -i was thinking "why! -99% there and he turns up!" I thought he must turn up sooner or later , but he had his back turned.Bizarrely, as i exited at the doors he arrived and looked at me impassively.Strange!
If he did inspect -would i have been fined? , or just pay extra fare from Macclesfield ? And what about factoring in that i was almost there anyway ?

[Buenchico]

If that part of the rail network isn't designated as a 'Penalty Fare Zone', you'd have had to pay the full single fare from Macclesfield to Chelford (without, for example, any 'off-peak' discount).

If that part of the rail network falls within a Penalty Fare Zone (as increasing parts of the network now do), you'd have to pay TWICE the full single fare to the next station (OR £20, whichever is the greater). If the next station wasn't the one that you wanted to get off at, you would then have to also pay the full single fare from there to your destination:
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46592.aspx

The foregoing assumes, of course, that you travelled by Macclesfield. If the line is in a PFZ, you could have been charged £20 to the next station after the ticket inspector caught you, plus the fare from there to Chelford. If you went the quicker route from Stafford to Chelford (andit's in a PFZ) you could have ended up paying over £40 extra in total.