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[email protected] · January 25th 10, 12:32 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (Clive Page)
wrote:

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?

I was really only thinking about the GN. I know that Thameslink gets
rather messier once you look South of London.

--
Colin Rosenstiel