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Clive Page[_4_] · January 24th 10, 06:56 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In message ,
writes
FCC seem, after a false start, to have got this a bit clearer.

I'm not sure about that, or maybe I'm just not clever enough to
understand the current rules in all their glory.

On the FCC Bedford to London route, the evening restrictions apply (I
quote from the current FCC timetable booklet) where the "ticket covers a
return journey departing from area B to area D" - whe
B covers stations from East Croydon to West Hampstead inclusive,
C from Cricklewood to Radlett,
D from St.Albans to Bedford.

If you have a London 1-day Travelcard from area D you can avoid the
restriction by taking a train which calls at Elstree (which is within
the London Travelcard area and also in FCC area C). The journey from
London to Elstree can be done under TfL rules and so has no time
restrictions. The Travelcard clearly allows one to make a multiplicity
of journeys in the London area, plus one final journey back to one's
origin station from, say, Elstree. The second journey on the ticket
starts at Elstree (area C) and goes to area D, so is also unrestricted.
Of course you don't actually need to get out at Elstree, just be on a
train which gives you the opportunity to have done so.

I have done this several times, and have explained what I am doing at
the ticket barriers and had no trouble (but the automatic barriers are
not programmed to allow this). I think I have seem somewhere (but I
can't find it now) that FCC accept that travel on the stopping trains is
not subject to the restrictions: there is no reason that it should be
because (when things are running normally) they are always seats spare
on stoppers even in the evening peak.

On the other hand, if you have a simple day return rather than a
Travelcard from, say Luton to London Thameslink, can you do the same? If
you do a nominal break of journey at Elstree then you do one section B
to C, then another C to D. But the argument then depends on what one
means by a "journey". In this case one is clearly taking advantage of
the "break of journey" rules, which implies that B to D is the overall
journey, and the ticket presumably only covers one journey each way, one
to London and then one from London. So it could be argued that what I
have called the B to C and C to D sections are not separate journeys but
only parts of one single journey, so the restrictions would apply.
I really have no idea which argument would prevail, which is why I say
that things are still unclear.

I don't know if there are similarly placed stations on the Cambridge
line where the same conditions would apply? If so has anyone tested the
rules with a variety of tickets?

--
Clive Page