First of all, as others have said, since you have a season ticket, you're also allowed to start, finish, or break your journey, or change trains, for any reason or no reason at all, at any of the intermediate stations along these routes I'm about to describe. You may also travel as many times as you want during the period of the ticket's validity, so if it's convenient for you to perform two broken journeys "back to back" for some reason, you are perfectly allowed to do so. I will list here the end-to-end routes for which the ticket is valid, but you can get off at any intermediate station, or start or finish your journey there. There are some exceptions to this in general but none of them apply to this specific fare.
Your permitted routes are:
- Five ways to Ashchurch via University, then the line avoiding Droitwich/Worcester (always valid due to shortest route rule)
- Five ways to Ashchurch via any train that is advertised on station screens or in timetables as travelling from Five Ways to Ashchurch without any changes being required (always valid due to direct train rule)
- Routes that are permitted by the routeing guide:
- Using routeing points Birmingham Group and Worcester Group:
- Five Ways to Birmingham New Street, then back down via either of the two routes towards Barnt Green (either on a train that goes via University or one that avoids it), then via Droitwich and Worcester to Ashchurch
- Five ways to Birmingham New Street, then to Smethwick (either on a train from New Street or by walking to Moor Street), then via Stourbridge and Worcester to Ashchurch
- Using routeing points Birmingham Group and Cheltenham Spa:
- Five Ways to Birmingham New Street, then via any of the previously mentioned routes via Worcester to Cheltenham Spa, then doubling back to Ashchurch
- Five Ways to Birmingham New Street, then direct to Cheltenham Spa avoiding Worcester (once again, via either University or via the "fast" route with no intermediate stations), then doubling back to Ashchurch
- Five Ways to Birmingham New Street, then via Smethwick to Droitwich or either Worcester station (allowed double-back due to group stations rule for interchange purposes only), then from there back north to Bromsgrove, then south to Cheltenham Spa, then doubling back to Aschurch.
I couldn't find any negative easements that would prohibit these, but that's not to say there isn't one (perhaps I just couldn't find it!).
Note that while your fare as mentioned above is valid for doubling back at either end, exiting the station at Birmingham or Cheltenham might well cause you grief from less well-informed gateline staff. It's in fact surprising how generous this particular fare is with regards to double-backs, because most wouldn't be valid for this sort of thing. If you haven't yet bought the ticket I'd echo Henning's advice to buy one for the same price with more "obvious" validity, to save you potential hassle.
Through a very vague easement you could also possibly argue it's valid all the way to Gloucester but I wouldn't like to be the one doing that!
700093 Customers in possession of tickets routed "Any Permitted" may double back between Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa.