The other evening, I turned up at Kingston (upon-Thames) station,
needing a ticket to Leicester. The booking office was closed, so I
bought a 5p permit to travel. The problem came when the BR booking
office at Vauxhall was closed too. I sweet talked the LU lady at
Vauxhall into letting me through the barriers and the LU bod a KXSP
didn't seem to have a problem with it either (thank god). The St
Pancras booking office was also closed, but I finally managed to get a
ticket at the barrier before boarding the 2340. It all worked out
nicely, but it seemed to me like I shouldn't have been able to do that
(who was to know I wasn't actually wanting to get to the King's X
area, for instance?). Does anyone know what I ought to have done?

(James) wrote in message . com...
The other evening, I turned up at Kingston (upon-Thames) station,
needing a ticket to Leicester. The booking office was closed, so I
bought a 5p permit to travel. The problem came when the BR booking
office at Vauxhall was closed too. I sweet talked the LU lady at
Vauxhall into letting me through the barriers and the LU bod a KXSP
didn't seem to have a problem with it either (thank god). The St
Pancras booking office was also closed, but I finally managed to get a
ticket at the barrier before boarding the 2340. It all worked out
nicely, but it seemed to me like I shouldn't have been able to do that
(who was to know I wasn't actually wanting to get to the King's X
area, for instance?). Does anyone know what I ought to have done?

I think that the status of National Rail PTTs is not clear on LUL
services but I think that what you did was correct. What you should
be required and able to do is buy an LU ticket for the LUL portion of
the journey and then get that credited against the cost of a National
Rail ticket along with the PTT.

Even better would be a general rule that any ticket(s) can be credited
in full against the cost of any other ticket that has greater
validity.

jb

The other evening, I turned up at Kingston (upon-Thames) station,
needing a ticket to Leicester. The booking office was closed, so I
bought a 5p permit to travel. The problem came when the BR booking
office at Vauxhall was closed too. I sweet talked the LU lady at
Vauxhall into letting me through the barriers and the LU bod a KXSP
didn't seem to have a problem with it either (thank god). The St
Pancras booking office was also closed, but I finally managed to get a
ticket at the barrier before boarding the 2340. It all worked out
nicely, but it seemed to me like I shouldn't have been able to do that
(who was to know I wasn't actually wanting to get to the King's X
area, for instance?). Does anyone know what I ought to have done?

I think that the status of National Rail PTTs is not clear on LUL
services but I think that what you did was correct. What you should
be required and able to do is buy an LU ticket for the LUL portion of
the journey and then get that credited against the cost of a National
Rail ticket along with the PTT.

Even better would be a general rule that any ticket(s) can be credited
in full against the cost of any other ticket that has greater
validity.

If I'd bought an LU ticket, it would have got swallowed at KXSP, so
that would've been another £2 down the drain. (I could almost get a
pint for that at St Pancras!) Sometimes I think New York has it right
with their Metrocards which you never let go of as you swipe them.

Even if I had managed to retain an LU ticket, I doubt MML would have
been kind enough to redeem it, and I probably would have ended up
having to write to two different customer relations departments, which
really wouldn't be worth it over two quid.

What I should be able to do, which is seemingly impossible, is to buy
a BR ticket at Vauxhall Underground, just like you can buy LU tickets
from the BR booking offices at Richmond and Wimbledon.

I've just realised something quite shocking. If I'd got onto
Thameslink whilst within LU fare control and changed at Luton (I had
plenty of time - there's a big gap before the 2340), I could have got
from Kingston to Leicester for 5p. This really takes the ****. No
wonder our railways are losing money.

In message , James
writes
If I'd bought an LU ticket, it would have got swallowed at KXSP

They aren't, because you need to be able to change from the deep level
lines to sub-surface lines, and that requires exiting barriers.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote in message cy.com...
In message , James
writes
If I'd bought an LU ticket, it would have got swallowed at KXSP

They aren't, because you need to be able to change from the deep level
lines to sub-surface lines, and that requires exiting barriers.

Ah I'd forgotten it was weird like that - I very rarely use anything
but the Victoria Line there.

In article m,
(Roland Perry) wrote:

In message , James
writes
If I'd bought an LU ticket, it would have got swallowed at KXSP

They aren't, because you need to be able to change from the deep level
lines to sub-surface lines, and that requires exiting barriers.

Not much longer. One of the effects of the present works will be to end
the need to traverse exit barriers to make tube interchanges.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message ,
Colin Rosenstiel writes
If I'd bought an LU ticket, it would have got swallowed at KXSP

They aren't, because you need to be able to change from the deep level
lines to sub-surface lines, and that requires exiting barriers.

Not much longer. One of the effects of the present works will be to end
the need to traverse exit barriers to make tube interchanges.

I noticed that the new St Pancras station had two sets of escalators
going down into a dark hole underneath the road between KX & StP. It's
still a very long way from there to the Met Line platforms (much further
than XK Platform 11). Nice to see progress, but I don't think it's all
going to be open for a year or two.
--
Roland Perry

(James) wrote in message . com...

I've just realised something quite shocking. If I'd got onto
Thameslink whilst within LU fare control and changed at Luton (I had
plenty of time - there's a big gap before the 2340), I could have got
from Kingston to Leicester for 5p. This really takes the ****. No
wonder our railways are losing money.

Just on this last bit I've chopped out, while I'm a vehement opponent
of penalty fares (extra cash from soft targets; let fare-dodgers off
with occasional tenner), and vehement proponent of fully available
walk-on fares, either at open ticket offices or on trains, there's one
thing I don't get ...

Why do so many people equate their opportunity to get away with not
paying with whether they should pay or not? (Nothing personal; your
message reminded me of comments I've seen many times.)

In message , MIG
writes
Why do so many people equate their opportunity to get away with not
paying with whether they should pay or not?

I think some of it dates back to when the railways were nationalised,
and fares felt a bit more like a "tax" than a "payment". I know several
people (not including myself) that take the view that "if they can't be
bothered to collect the money or clip the ticket, why should I ?"
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 11:43:42 +0100 someone who may be Roland Perry
wrote this:-

I think some of it dates back to when the railways were nationalised,
and fares felt a bit more like a "tax" than a "payment". I know several
people (not including myself) that take the view that "if they can't be
bothered to collect the money or clip the ticket, why should I ?"

A few years ago I tried to buy a ticket for a journey which I had
made from a station with no open ticket office. The staff at the
station I had got off at would not sell me one. This was in the
thrusting era of privatisation, rather than the useless BR BTW. As a
result I now have a very simple approach. I will get on the train
and if someone comes along I will try to catch their attention [1]
so that I can buy a ticket. If they don't want to sell me a ticket
then that is their loss.

Most businesses make it easy for customers to buy. The railways need
to learn this.

[1] They have rushed past me on occasion though I have usually
managed to get their attention the second time they passed.


--
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I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
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