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Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
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Direct questions and answers, this room is not for general discussion please
Direct questions and answers, this room is not for general discussion please
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- Lemon Slice
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Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
Does anybody know what is 'Anytime Short Distance Return'?
Whilst booking got a pop-up inviting a purchase through the above scheme.
On checking the details via various pages, it tells you all about booking, travel dates, returns etc., etc., etc..
But not what constitutes A SHORT DISTANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anybody know?
Regards,
ep
Whilst booking got a pop-up inviting a purchase through the above scheme.
On checking the details via various pages, it tells you all about booking, travel dates, returns etc., etc., etc..
But not what constitutes A SHORT DISTANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anybody know?
Regards,
ep
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
eepee wrote:Does anybody know what is 'Anytime Short Distance Return'?
But not what constitutes A SHORT DISTANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Perhaps the context would help. Who is the ticket seller or which train company?
Anytime Return means that you get a ticket from A to B and B to A at one combined price without time restrictions on the first day and with return from B to A at any time of day up to a month later. There's also often available a ticket, usually at a cheaper price which covers travel from A to B and back again but only on the same day. This may be to what they are referring but using incorrect technical jargon. By their very nature, journeys on these tickets can be over a short distance.
Last edited by Alaric on September 24th, 2021, 3:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- The full Lemon
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Re: Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
eepee wrote:Does anybody know what is 'Anytime Short Distance Return'?
Whilst booking got a pop-up inviting a purchase through the above scheme.
ep
I expect it's some scheme for which the journey you were booking is eligible.
Did it offer any savings or other benefits? Did it want you to sign up for something and read T&Cs? Your call.
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
eepee wrote:Does anybody know what is 'Anytime Short Distance Return'?
Are you sure it wasn't "Anytime Short Return"? Where "short" refers to time, not distance.
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fa ... 98925.aspx
Scott.
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- Lemon Slice
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Re: Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
I think you are right in thinking their jargon is confused.
When checking other pages for a definition they all appeared to have dropped the 'Distance' word - this only appeared on the TrainLine page whilst booking.
With the telephone virtually impossible to use, I will ask at the station.
Question is: Will they know??? )
Regards,
ep
When checking other pages for a definition they all appeared to have dropped the 'Distance' word - this only appeared on the TrainLine page whilst booking.
With the telephone virtually impossible to use, I will ask at the station.
Question is: Will they know??? )
Regards,
ep
Re: Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
eepee wrote:With the telephone virtually impossible to use, I will ask at the station.
Question is: Will they know??? )
Depends who you ask!
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
RiskyPete wrote:eepee wrote:With the telephone virtually impossible to use, I will ask at the station.
Question is: Will they know??? )
Depends who you ask!
At my local station, asking the station cat would likely have achieved a more sensible answer than from speaking to any of the staff. I could never work out whether it was down to the people the employed or whether there was something contagious the other side of the glass.
They were so useless that I gave up trying to buy tickets from them, even on occasion needing to print out the National Rail page to prove to them that the tickets existed, and just ordered online to print from the machine.
Re: Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
AF62 wrote:RiskyPete wrote:eepee wrote:With the telephone virtually impossible to use, I will ask at the station.
Question is: Will they know??? )
Depends who you ask!
At my local station, asking the station cat would likely have achieved a more sensible answer than from speaking to any of the staff. I could never work out whether it was down to the people the employed or whether there was something contagious the other side of the glass.
They were so useless that I gave up trying to buy tickets from them, even on occasion needing to print out the National Rail page to prove to them that the tickets existed, and just ordered online to print from the machine.
The people to ask are the inspectors. There should be one loitering by the barriers if it's a manned station with gates (these are the people who give you a fine if you don't have a ticket). Had a friend who used to work on the platforms and they once gave me this advice.
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- 2 Lemon pips
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Re: Rail Travel - How long is a piece of string?
Yes, the difference is that you can only use the outward ticket on the day it's dated for - normal Anytime Return tickets are valid for 5 days on the outward half. So unless you needed that flexibility there's no difference.
As to what's a short distance - there isn't any official rule as far as I'm aware, and really it doesn't matter. The ticket is either available or not. If there's a journey where it's not available, not matter how short, you can't buy it. If there's a journey where it is available, no matter how long, you can buy it.
As to why - I suspect it's down to fraud prevention. On a short trip the ticket is less likely to be checked, so someone could get away with using it more than once in the five days. On a long trip it's virtually certain to be checked at some point, so there's not so much risk of offering the five days. On the other hand, I suspect that a tiny number of people will use that flexibility, so simply changing all Anytime Returns to only be valid for one day on the outward half (as already applies to Off Peak) would inconvenience practically nobody and avoid creating yet another ticket type.
As to what's a short distance - there isn't any official rule as far as I'm aware, and really it doesn't matter. The ticket is either available or not. If there's a journey where it's not available, not matter how short, you can't buy it. If there's a journey where it is available, no matter how long, you can buy it.
As to why - I suspect it's down to fraud prevention. On a short trip the ticket is less likely to be checked, so someone could get away with using it more than once in the five days. On a long trip it's virtually certain to be checked at some point, so there's not so much risk of offering the five days. On the other hand, I suspect that a tiny number of people will use that flexibility, so simply changing all Anytime Returns to only be valid for one day on the outward half (as already applies to Off Peak) would inconvenience practically nobody and avoid creating yet another ticket type.
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