Railway silly season

[sten_super]

I had one of these non-flexible rail tickets coming back from Scotland last month. Although the ticket said Helensburgh to Brighton, it also said it was only valid with five specific named trains and change at designated stations. But if I got off at Euston and decided to hang around London for a bit and get a later train, I'd have done that and bought a single ticket from London to Brighton - but I wouldn't have been fined for doing so. That seems to be quite an anomaly to me -if you allow people to break their journey to change trains - why can't they break their journey other times?

The difference, as I can see it, is that you would have had a valid ticket for the London - Brighton leg of the journey. As I said many pages back, had this couple bought 2 singles from Southampton - Eastleigh (at a grand cost of £6.40) then what they had done would have been completely valid and they would not have been fined. However this couple took a train from London - Eastleigh and did not have a valid ticket for that journey.

I think your second point is a bit confused - you can't break your journey to change trains, as if you intend to use the ticket you still have to pick up the train that you are booked onto. You can alight at a change and choose not to use the final part of your ticket; but being practical there is no way the operators would be able to pick up on that.