Travel question: If a train is delayed is my ticket valid for off-peak travel?

Q Last Thursday I wanted to travel from Oxford to Reading, arriving at about 9.30am. The cheap rate starts at 9.01am. I pitched up at Oxford station at 8.55am, to find a late-running train to Reading, the 8.54am, would be leaving shortly after 9am. How fortunate, I briefly thought, I’ll catch that train. But they wouldn’t let anybody board it with an off-peak ticket because “it’s not an off-peak train”. Were they correct?

Peter K

A Yes, the platform and/or train staff correctly applied the rules for cheaper tickets. The exact restriction is: “Not valid on trains timed to depart before 09:01.” However late the train was running, as it was scheduled to leave Oxford at 9am or earlier then off-peak tickets would not be valid. However petty and annoying that rule might sound, there is logic to it. The 9am restriction is there to avoid too much crowding on rush-hour services.

Commuters from Oxford and stations further north heading to Reading pay handsomely in the form of season or anytime tickets. They could reasonably object to a different group of people – those fortunate enough to be flexible with timings – making the on-board experience even less comfortable than usual.

In addition, the railway staff will have been concerned to minimise the delay. Suppose the process of boarding an extra few dozen people added just 30 seconds to the time spent at the platform. As many travellers will know from bitter experience, once a train is running late then delays can quickly build. Any additional wait for more than the normal number of joining passengers could trigger problems further down the line.

The train has to join the Great Western main line at Didcot. It will have lost its original “path” – the right to run at specified times, as assigned in the working timetable. Now the train needs to be slotted in among many other passenger and freight services. The earlier the tardy train presents itself at the busy junction, the more options are open to the signallers to minimise the delay.

Having said that, railway staff are, in my experience, both professional and flexible. When there is no downside to allowing opportunistic off-peakers to travel on a peak train, they will often do so. But always check first to avoid an embarrassing and potentially expensive encounter on the train.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder