With the upcoming Glossop line featuring a guard mode scenario where you have to check tickets, a question i always had about the uk ticketing system came to my mind that might be important looking for vaild Tickets: Peak time. Ive only used an interrail Pass (the reason no one has to pay more than 226£ for an anytime return) on UK trains, so i never came into contact with the conventional ticketing system. In Germany, tickets are time wise either limited to the trains you booked, a day, certain number of hours or number of Trips instead of time of day eg Peak or off peak. Regional train tickets cost the same over the day, and long distance train prices are dynamic to the current demand and service, ICs being generally cheaper than ICEs and so on. So how does it work in the UK, when is peak time by definition, whats the price and ticket difference and what happens when you make a Journey that begins during peak hours and ends off peak?
Peak time is usually in the morning, between 6am until 9am. Pretty much rush hour time. Train companies charge more for tickets between those times when people are going to work. They used to have a peak afternoon time too, between 3pm and 6pm for the same reason, but that's not the case anymore. If any info is wrong, please correct me
Peak time is generally a weekday morning, between around 5am to 9:30am, as a rough overall estimate. It varies slightly depending on the route and journey you are taking. They charge more as it's when the network is at it's busiest with commuters, as well as to discourage leisure travelers and tourists etc from clogging up the network when they don't really need to be travelling at that time. That's why there are no peak tickets during the weekend. You'll always pay the peak fare if the journey begins during peak hours, when it ends is irrelevant, especially as you're usually allowed a break in the journey whenever you like. Also bear in mind that peak time tickets aren't JUST used for peak periods. They're called "Anytime" tickets, and can be used, well, anytime you like. As for how much they cost, well, it varies depending on the route. As far as I know there's no fixed percentage it rises by, Anytime tickets can sometimes be extremely expensive, especially if it's a major route into a London terminus. This won't bother commuters as they'll likely have some sort of pass or season ticket, so it's mainly to deter people from travelling at a time they don't need to. In addition to Anytime and Off- Peak, we also have advance tickets, which are only valid on one particular train, and have to be purchased in advance. These tend to be more expensive during peak hours, but they're always significantly cheaper than both Anytime and Off- Peak tickets, at the expense of having no flexibility. Finally, in some cases we have "Super Off- Peak" tickets which are cheaper still than regular Off- Peak tickets. I'm not too sure about when these start to become valid, and not every route seems to have them. I assume they're issued when the network is at it's quietest, such as midday during weekdays. Hope that's helpful, I'm by no means a ticket expert, and everything above is just from personal experience.
Originally Peak was before 9am on weekdays - but it varies by area. Some it's 8:45, others 9:30 There are peak restrictions leaving London in the afternoon rush hour too but for the most part outside of London there isn't an afternoon peak period. The Exception being fares set by Cross Country which have peak restrictions in both morning and afternoon from all stations I
