[x-posted to uk.transport.london]
[original thread on uk.railway]

On Apr 8, 10:02*pm, Mark Morton wrote:
What are the rules on how to get across London to a station that has
both London Underground and National Rail services.

Today I went, from Leeds, to Kenton, which is on both the Bakerloo Line,
and on the Watford DC Line between Euston and Watford Junction. I went
Kings Cross-walk down Euston Road-Euston-Kenton, on a Leeds-London
ticket with a Travelcard.

If, in future, I had a Leeds-Kenton NR ticket, would I *have* to take
the NR route from Euston, or could I have gone on the underground from
KX to Kenton?


Such a ticket would be issued with cross-London Tube transfer
included, as indicated by the Maltese cross symbol (or is it better
described as a dagger?) in the route field of the ticket. This allows
for transfer by LU between the London termini and other designated
stations.

Such a ticket would obviously get you on the Tube between KXSP [1] and
Euston - though as you already know this is perfectly walkable - and
then onwards on the DC Line from Euston to Kenton.

However, here's the clever bit. The designated list of stations
between which cross-London transfer applies [2] is actually quite
generous and allows for all sorts of weird and wonderful
possibilities, some of which are even quite sensible and useful. And
Queen's Park is on the list. So the cross-London transfer element of
your journey would get you between KXSP and Queen's Park on LU (via
whatever route you choose to get you on the Bakerloo line to get to
QP).

From Queen's Park to Kenton, the normal rail element of your ticket
would kick back in, and here's the good bit - ticketing on the DC Line
between Queen's Park and Harrow & Wealdstone is interavailable, so you
can use the National Rail element of your ticket on either the LU
Bakerloo line or on an overground train. So if you're on a Bakerloo
line train that goes all the way to H&W, you can stay on it past
Queen's Park right up to Kenton.

(There is some funky ticketing stuff with regards to the DC Line now
being part of TfL's London Overground network the details of which I
can't recall, but essentially they all work in passengers favour -
e.g. LU fares are now accepted for all LO journeys, at least as far as
Hatch End [the last station in zone 6] - however this is irrelevant to
Mark's query.)

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[1] KXSP being King's Cross St. Pancras Underground station

[2] The list of stations between which cross-London Tube transfer is
valid is available on this National Rail webpage - click on "show
Station List" to, er, see the list:
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/london/