Step By Step Guide - Ticket Restriction Information

How to find out when a Off Peak ticket is valid for a particular journey

Believe it or not , Off Peak ticket restrictions vary depending on where your travelling from/to and don't have a set time throughout the country therefore here is my handy guide on how to find those confusing and unknown restrictions.

1. Go to www.nationalrail.co.uk

2. Enter a Origin and Destination station in the My Train Times and Fares box plus a return journey and any other details as neccesary. Click Go.

3. Next Click Fares adding your railcard information if appropriate

4. Click the Show the cheapest banner and deselect anything but Off Peak Fares and Click Update.

5. Click "as return from...."

6.  Select an Outward and return journey. Now select the arrow at the side of the outward fare selection. If there are more than 1 Off Peak selection listed you may need to go through the process more than once altering your selection at this stage.

7.  Click "Or View Summary"

8. Below Ticket Summary click the ticket type link betlow Outward Journey. This will usually be either Off Peak (Day) Single/Return, Super Off Peak (Day) Single/Return

9. Scroll down the page and at the very bottom there will be a section Named Restrictions. There will be two links in this section. You should click the top one to find out the Restriction Code for your Off Peak Journey however you may need to go back and select the second one if you need to refer to any other restriction codes mentioned in the additional restriction code text.

The Off Peak Myth

This is something I hear from people so often, they think that Off Peak always starts at 0930. This however is wrong and I'm going to tell you why.

Off Peak and Super Off Peak ticket use Restriction Codes, these usually comprise either a letter and a number or two letters. There are approximately 269 Restriction codes in use and each journey you make with an Off Peak Day Return,Off Peak Return,Super Off Peak Day Return,Super Off Peak Return has one.
These restriction codes tell you when you can use the ticket. This is why Off Peak tickets can range from being valid "Any Time" to after 1000 which many different validity times in between  from after 0400 to at or after 0900 and  "any train arriving into x at or after 1000. Some Off Peak (and Super Off Peak tickets) have evening restrictions preventing use between 4 and 7 for example. It's no wonder people find it confusing even staff because it is.
Super Off Peak tickets vary less because they are the cheapest and for that reason more restrictive. They can be valid from after 0930 to as late as around 1100 and can have restrictions on Saturdays on some routes. There are also some exceptional cases of ones which are only valid at Weekends.

The message I am trying to convey is use the rail company journeyplanners as these are usually very good showing at what time the cheapest tickets are valid if you look closely.

In my next blog entry I will give you instructions on how to find the validity time for the Off Peak ticket for your journey on Nationalrail.co.uk after you have done a journey search.