The amazing routeing question

31^st July 1998

Dear Sir or Madam,

I recently purchased a ticket from London to Glasgow, route "Any Permitted". Since I knew that I would have plenty of spare time for the return journey, I asked the station staff what "Any Permitted" actually permitted me to do. This led to a protracted session with the ATOC Routeing Guide, and I have since examined the guide further.

According to the guide, there are three kinds of permitted route:

1. the shortest route using mileages in the Passenger Timetable;
2. any train running directly from a London terminal station to Glasgow;
3. any other route provided by the guide.

In the third case, the procedure to be applied appears to be as follows.

• Determine the associated routeing points for the origin and destination. Both London and Glasgow are routeing points.
• Determine the relevant sets of maps. For London to Glasgow this is either AS or ZZ. The latter applies only to sleeper services and can be ignored.
• Using map AS, any route from London to Glasgow that does not pass through the same station twice is permitted.

This is where the anomoly appeared. Map AS includes a route from London King's Cross to Inverness via Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and then to Glasgow Queen Street via Aviemore and Stirling.

Question 1: is this a permitted route? If it is not, please can you explain what rule forbids it and how to determine what routes are permitted?

Note that, while travelling via Inverness might be seen as unreasonable (though if it is a valid route then it is reasonable by definition), there could easily be good reasons for travelling via Perth or Stirling. In general it might be hard to say what is and isn't reasonable.

Discussing this matter with other people who are familiar with the guide, the only possibility that has been raised is in step 4 on page A3:

it is an appropriate route only if that fare is the same or lower than the fare for the throughout journey

However, step 4 concerns the process of determining the applicable routeing points when the origin and/or destination is not a routeing point. For example, consider the journey from Huntingdon to Hull. Routeing points for Huntingdon are Cambridge, Finsbury Park, and Peterborough. This rule requires me to examine the fares:

Cambridge to Hull
Finsbury Park to Hull
Peterborough to Hull

and reject those routeing points where the fare is higher than the Huntingdon to Hull fare. It does not mention any of the other routeing points on the journey (such as Doncaster).

Question 2: does this rule apply other than for the routeing points associated with the origin and destination ?

If the route via Inverness is forbidden, then presumably it is on the basis that the fare to Inverness is greater than that to Glasgow. Since rail fares are not obviously related to distance, the only way I can determine this is to check the relevant fares (London-Inverness and Inverness-Glasgow). However, it is not clear which fares I must compare. For example, is the Peterborough-Aberdeen fare relevant when checking this journey ? What about the Knebworth-Arbroath fare ?

Question 3: if I am required to check fares other than those from and to the routeing points associated with the origin and destination, which fares am I required to check ?

You may be interested to know that this is not the only anomoly associated with this route. It has been suggested to me that I should have purchased a ticket to Carlisle instead of Glasgow. The maps for this journey are: LM, LM+ER, MM, ZZ, LM+CS, and ER+MM. The second of these allows me to travel via Inverness, on the same logic as before.

While I am writing to you, I have a number of additional questions about the Routeing Guide; these are not directly related to the above matter, but I would like them answered nonetheless.

Question 4: where a ticket is routed via some intermediate station (or "via London"), it is not entirely clear how I determine permitted routes. I can see two obvious possible rules:

1. Determine all permitted routes, then delete those that do not pass through the intermediate station. However, this will not work if the intermediate station is not on any permitted route (including the shortest).
2. Determine all permitted routes from the origin to the intermediate point and, separately, from the intermediate point to the destination. In other words, treat it as two independent journeys for this purpose.

Which of these applies ? If neither, what is the rule?

Question 5: what are the permitted routes where a ticket is routed "not London"? In particular, what if the only route given in the guide is "London"?

Question 6: if a permitted route involves two or more maps, is it necessary to use all those maps? For example, if a route is given as CS+MM and both routeing points are on map CS, is it necessary to utilise map MM as part of the route?

Question 7: if a journey involves two maps and both origin and destination routeing points appear on both maps, is there a specified order or can I use the maps in either order? Similarly, if a journey involves three maps and one or both routeing points appear on more than one map, can I apply the maps in any order or is this restricted? I notice that maps are listed in the same order for both directions of travel.

Question 8: there is a relaxation of the rules when a journey goes through a station in a group. Does this relaxation apply to all routes, even when the only permitted route is the shortest distance? For example, if travelling from Sandy to Royston, am I permitted to change trains at Stevenage rather than Hitchin, given that these two stations form a single group.

Question 9: can a journey involve a walk between stations? For example, map WA includes both Hertford East and Hertford North, on different lines. Would it be legitimate to travel from Cambridge to London via Stevenage, Hertford North, Hertford East, and then Broxbourne? Or, for that matter, via Stansted Airport, Broxbourne, Hertford East, Hertford North, Stevenage, and then Welwyn? Does it matter if the stations involved are in the same group or not?

Finally, I would like to note that I received incorrect advice from at least two enquiry offices on the matter of routes to Glasgow. The staff at the Virgin office at Euston became abusive when I suggested that routes north of Glasgow might be valid. The member of staff at Glasgow Central did not even mention the routeing guide, but stated that "you tell me where you want to go, and I'll decide if you can". In particular, she stated that the Settle & Carlisle was not a valid route, even though it turns out to be shown on map AS and might even form part of the shortest route.

Yours sincerely,

signed

Clive D.W. Feather

Copies to ATOC and ORR.