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Breaking Your Journey

Depending on your ticket, you may be able to stop off on the way to your final destination

Many tickets allow you to break your journey – getting off the train at a station somewhere on the route between your start and end stations before continuing your travel. Breaking your journey means you do not have to make the whole of your journey at the same time or, where allowed, on the same day.

For instance, if you have a permitted route of

Station A > Station B > Station C

and you have an Anytime Single ticket from Station A to Station C, you could travel from Station A to Station B, stop off, and complete your journey from Station B to Station C later in the day. If you have an Off-Peak Return ticket, in some cases you can break the return journey overnight.

This is explained in detail in Section 16 of the National Rail Conditions of Travel (PDF, 1.1MB).

Advance tickets

With an Advance ticket you are not allowed to break your journey, except to change between trains.

Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak tickets

With an Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak ticket, in most cases you can break your journey at any point, or more than once if you wish. Where this is not the case it will be stated in the restrictions shown on your ticket.

Anytime tickets

With an Anytime ticket, you may need to travel by a specific route or train company but your ticket will state this. You are allowed to break your journey at any point, or more than once if you wish. This means that you do not have to make the whole of your journey at the same time or, where allowed, on the same day.

Restrictions

When you buy an Advance, Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak train ticket, it will have a restriction code. This tells you any times or routes that your ticket is not valid. Permitted routes cover all reasonable routes available for making your journey, including direct services and suitable connecting services. You can check your ticket with our Ticket Validity Finder tool.