In article ,
(Peter Smyth) wrote:

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

On Sep 9, 9:24 pm, wrote:

[snip]

The standard FCC ruse at Cambridge for those who want to return
within the evening peak is the buy an Off-Peak Day Return or Day
Travelcard from Ely which is cheaper than the anytime version.
Cambridge are happy to sell tickets from Ely, seeing as it's NXEA
and not FCC selling them.

Interesting - thanks for that, that's one to remember. For those not
clued up on these things (and I had to check!), FCC created the
concept of "zones A to E" so as to apply their off-peak evening
restrictions - Ely is in zone E whilst Cambridge is in zone D - and
yes, return journeys to zone E are exempt from the restrictions,
whilst zone D isn't.

FCC's off-peak restrictions and 'zones' are all explained here, along
with a link to a map of the zones:
http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk...iCmsPageId=134

Although the FCC website is clear that the restrictions do not
apply to Ely, the fares data has not been updated correctly. In The
Manual the CDR from Ely - London has the same restriction code as
Cambridge - London. Therefore online booking engines will not show
this ticket for travel during the evening peak.

I think FCC's printed material has it right. The Outers timetable booklet
labels two evening peak down trains as "[Relevant] tickets are not valid
during the *evening peak* for travel *from* stations tinted in red *to*
stations between Stevenage and Waterbeach/Peterborough inclusive."

The only error there is that no departure station is tinted in red but we
all know they mean King's Cross. :-)

--
Colin Rosenstiel