Paul Corfield wrote:

So to test an example - Highbury and Islington should be able to sell a
GNER "Loony Woony Toony" [1] ticket to Newcastle upon Tyne because you
can catch a FCC train at Highbury and then eventually change on a GNER
service at Stevenage or Peterborough?

Or Kentish Town should be able sell you a ticket to Kettering because
you can change from FCC to Midland Mainline at Luton?

I often make medium distance business-related trips with little
notice, and two sensible routes from my office out of London are
Northern Line to Kentish Town and thence by NR, or Victoria Line to
Tottenham Hale or Seven Sisters and thence by NR. I have certainly
wanted to do journeys like your second example -- and had to rebook at
Luton or Bedford.

It does seem to me -- a fairly knowledgeable traveller -- that the
availability is rather random. Tottenham Hale in particular has both
LU and NR ticket offices, but often the NR one is closed and you are
directed to the LU one, which cannot, as you say, issue very many
types of ticket. On the other hand, I discovered recently that Warren
Street tube station can issue a ticket to Stansted Airport.

We often accommodate visitors from continental Europe or the USA. The
former are often used to wholly integrated transport systems and the
latter are unaccustomed to public transport, and both find the London/
UK system rather baffling. In my experience in other places, it is
unusual to be able to buy a ticket from A to B, but not from B to A,
and I think we lead the world in the complexity of our ticketing
options.

I quite agree that you don't want people making lengthy transactions
at a station with a single LU ticket window, but a return to Derby
from Kentish Town doesn't seem to me to be unreasonable, or
necessarily to take much longer to issue than a tube ticket.

Peter CS

On Sep 27, 10:59 am, wrote:
I often make medium distance business-related trips with little
notice, and two sensible routes from my office out of London are
Northern Line to Kentish Town and thence by NR, or Victoria Line to
Tottenham Hale or Seven Sisters and thence by NR.

Oddly, Seven Sisters has a One ticket machine in the subway to the NR
platforms (ie behind the barriers). Great for people like you arriving
by tube, but if it's your local station you're stuck with what LUL
will sell you (hence my curiosity about what that is).

U

--
http://londonconnections.blogspot.com/
A blog about transport projects in London

On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:59:20 -0700, wrote:

On the other hand, I discovered recently that Warren
Street tube station can issue a ticket to Stansted Airport.

But not a return ticket where the return journey isn't being made on
the same day, and you won't get a Railcard discount.

On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:03:10 -0700, Mr Thant wrote:

In such cases why would
one be able to buy a unusual (whatever one of those is) or long distance
ticket?

unusual = anything other than "full price single (or day return) from
this station to X", where X is a nearby station.

They can also handle Cheap Day Singles and Returns.

On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:05:56 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

Liverpool St struggled to sell me a one day PlusBus
ticket for Colchester earlier this year (on top of a normal return
ticket) - this despite the window in question having a dispenser of
PlusBus leaflets on it.

That's because the damned things are too complicated to issue and need
to be done as an add-on.

The solution is to just add them as origins and destinations and allow
a normal ticket to be sold for them. That might mean offering
Railcard discounts, which could be compensated for by increasing the
non-Railcard fare a bit so the overall take would still be the same.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

Paul Corfield wrote:

I would also comment that I would not trust the "One" ticket office at
Walthamstow Central to sell me anything more complicated than a ticket
to Liverpool St. If I want something complex (i.e. any ticket I would
buy as I have privilege facilities and cannot book on line) I go to a
big station with a decent travel centre and try to book in advance as
the risk of a 30 minute queue when I have 10 minutes to catch a train is
far too great. Liverpool St struggled to sell me a one day PlusBus
ticket for Colchester earlier this year (on top of a normal return
ticket) - this despite the window in question having a dispenser of
PlusBus leaflets on it.

In days of yore (when APTIS still reigned supreme), I wouldn't trust my
local "one" (ex-WAGN) Ticket Office to issue anything more complex than
an undiscounted single or return to somewhere on their "Top 24" list!

I bought an NSE-discounted Travelcard there once, and the clerk issued
it as a Y-P one, and refused to reissue it correctly, saying "Well the
discount's the same, so it's okay", or words to that effect!

On the subject of PlusBus, ATOC have *finally* created a new ticket type
for the add-ons. (Which used to be variously issued as "Bus Day Single",
"Bus Day Return" or "Bus Period Return"). The ticket type in question is
"PlusBus Day", and has a ticket type code of PBD.

Tickets should be issued from the appropriate railhead to the PlusBus
destination (full list in Section B1 of the Rail Links Manual, or check
www.plusbus.info).

Cheers,

Barry

Barry Salter wrote:

I bought an NSE-discounted Travelcard there once, and the clerk issued
it as a Y-P one, and refused to reissue it correctly, saying "Well the
discount's the same, so it's okay", or words to that effect!

So what did you do?
--
Michael Hoffman

I wanted a Farringdon to Blackfriars Thameslink ticket today given the
broken tube. I already had a london terminals return ticket which
despite my local SWT station saying it is perfectly valid from
Farringdon, Im sure we all know it absolutely is not.

The best the machine could offer me was £4 single.

I would like to see better systems in place here. It cant possibly be
right. Presumably my PAYG oyster would have been max debited too if Id
got on a train to Wimbledon.

It seems broken to me.

mf

On 27 Sep, 21:48, Mystery Flyer wrote:
I wanted a Farringdon to Blackfriars Thameslink ticket today given the
broken tube. I already had a london terminals return ticket which
despite my local SWT station saying it is perfectly valid from
Farringdon, Im sure we all know it absolutely is not.

The best the machine could offer me was £4 single.

National Rail quotes £1.80 - I suggest you may have go this ticket if
you'd gone to the ticket office rather than the machine.


I would like to see better systems in place here. It cant possibly be
right. Presumably my PAYG oyster would have been max debited too if Id
got on a train to Wimbledon.

If you just touched-in at Farringdon then you would've got the £4 max
fare. If you'd touched-in at Farringdon and then out at Wimbledon the
system would've presumed you made the journey by Underground all the
way and you'd have been charged £2.50 (M-F 7am to 7pm) or £2.

AFAICS this would've been quasi-legit, as Oyster PAYG would've covered
you for Farringdon to Blackfriars whilst your London Terminals to
Wimbledon would've covered you for the rest of the journey.

You would however be making a £1 or 50p donation to TfL, as the Oyster
PAYG fare from Farrington to Blackfriars is £1.50 (at any time).

The other alternative would've been to disembark at Blackfriars and
touch-out there - as it's an interchange station (between FCC
Thameslink and Southeastern services) there are Oyster readers on the
platforms so you wouldn't have to go out through the gateline then
back in again, and thus may even be able to get back on the same
train.


It seems broken to me.

mf

Ask at the Farringdon ticket office for a single to Blackfriars - if
they can sell you one it's only half-broken in that the ticket machine
can't sell you one.

Michael Hoffman wrote:
Barry Salter wrote:

I bought an NSE-discounted Travelcard there once, and the clerk issued
it as a Y-P one, and refused to reissue it correctly, saying "Well the
discount's the same, so it's okay", or words to that effect!

So what did you do?

Got it exchanged for the correct ticket at Liverpool Street, who sighed
sympathetically, as the clerk at the station in question was completely
clueless, to the extent that I got a letter from WAGN confirming that
there was an easement allowing Off-Peak Travelcards and Cheap Day
Returns on the 09:26 train, as she was refusing to sell them before
09:30 (next train being at 09:41 at the time).

Cheers,

Barry