Why am I so stupid? Train fares again

[jack]

It seems the fares the journey planner website displays are limited by the other journeys listed in the same query. As far as I can tell, return-off-peak and day-return-off-peak are valid on slightly different times of day, but there's no way to ask (either an English language terms-and-conditions, or a lookup query) which trains a certain ticket is valid on, the only option is to try those routes and see if a ticket with the same name is available or not.

I know I shouldn't be surprised any more, but I always feel so incredibly wool-headed when someone is yelling at me that I urgently need "foo" but they refuse to tell me anything about what foo is or what it costs.

Comments

[blue_mai]

It's my understanding (based on a fair amount of checking and travelling CBG <-> LKX/LST at varying times of the day) that these are your options:

If you're going before 9 and not coming back, get an Anytime Single £19.10

If you're making a daytrip and are going before 9 AND/OR want to be able to come back between 4 and 7pm, get an Anytime Day Return £32.50

If you're going after 9 and can wait until after 7 to come back, get an Off-peak Day Return £20

If you're coming back tomorrow or any other time in the next month, the Peak Return is £37, an Off-peak Return is £28.90.

If you can wait until after 10am to head to London, and making more than 4 journeys in the next year, it might be worth getting a Network Railcard.

I find the Check Fares option in National Rail journey planner quite useful, it automatically shows the cheapest fare, but lets you see what the other options are. It doesn't give you information about what the rules are, but it shows you what time trains the prices change.

[jack]

Thank you everyone!