On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 22:37:49 +0100, Spyke wrote:

There's also lots of silly differences, for example, I can buy an
all-zones travelcard with my Disabled railcard at a NationalRail station
and get one for a travelling companion at the same discounted price, yet
buying the same travelcard from a LUL station with the same railcard, I
can't get a discounted ticket for my companion.

What we need is for all LUL ticket offices to be brought up to the
standard of those on National Rail, able to sell any ticket that an NR
ticket office can sell with the same conditions and discounts.
Meanwhile, NR ticket offices should be able to sell through tickets to
any zone on LU.

When I asked TfL about this, they replied:

I can appreciate the points you raise. Indeed, I can confirm that Richmond
station, including the ticket office, is 'owned' by South West Trains so
only their ticketing range is available from this station. The situation is
the same at Gunnersbury and Kew Gardens stations. There are also other
similar situations elsewhere on the tube network. This can cause a problem
for bus ticket sales - either Bus Savers or Bus Passes - as National Rail
stations do not sell these tickets. All tube stations (owned by LU) do sell
the full range of bus tickets as do all high street Ticket Stops (eg:
newsagents). The latter are especially important in locations such as
Richmond, or any other National Rail-managed stations.

This is basically historical and down to the fact that we cannot provide a
fully integrated approach to transport in London as we are not responsible
for the National Rail network. The Mayor, and TfL, are keen to take more
control of the National Rail network in London to help improve these
services. The rationalisation of the fares systems of both networks would be
a major advantage should we be given these powers. I am sure part of this
work would involve the roll-out of the sales of bus tickets at these
locations to provide some uniformity across London.

The plans to hand control of London's rail services to TfL forms part of the
government's recent white paper on the future of the UK's rail network. We
hope to be handed more control in due course.