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Old February 19th 18, 10:11 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Tim Woodall[_2_] Tim Woodall[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Aug 2016
Posts: 15
Default Bus operator nominee pass validity.

On 2018-02-19, Tim Woodall wrote:
Does anyone know where I can get a detailed description of the validity
of a bus operator nominee pass?

Tomorrow I need to travel Euston to Watford Junction.

My assumption was that it would be valid on the overground but not the
mainline.

But when I use it on the bus I think it says "staff pass z1-7" BICBW. So
it might not be valid all the way out to Watford Junction for either
service.

To confuse me further, when I tried googling I found someone refering to
the fares manual 2016 that said the mainline was also allowed for this
journey (although that might have been a TFL nominee rather than bus
operator nominee - do they have different validity?)

I found what I think is the 2018 fares manual but I can find no
reference to staff passes at all.

I tried calling the helpline in the fares manual but staff passes aren't
an allowed option. I tried the child/oap option and she didn't know but
said if the bus says 1-7 then it's only valid in those zones. That may
be correct but, if so, the *ONLY* reason I know about that is because
I've used it on the bus. The letter that came with the pass said it was
valid on all TFL services but not national rail.

Were I starting at Watford Junction, I'd try the pass and assume if it
let me through the barrier it would be valid on the TFL service (at the
minimum) but because I'm going the other way I assume the barriers will
let me through for journeys that teminate in z7 regardless of whether I
can go to the end of the line or not.

Tomorrow I'll almost certainly take the mainline, save the 30mins, and
buy a ticket. But I'd now like to clear this up before I accidentally
use my pass on an invalid journey.


I've now found a FOI request that had the 2016 fares guide (72 pages)
and in that it says 'bus operator passes are not valid on any national
rail services' so that sorts out that bit - that concession from EUS to
WFJ is for Staff, retired and nominee oyster cards only.

But this doc doesn't say anything about z1-7 only, says 'on all buses
showing this sign, on trams, on Tube, dlr, london overground and tfl
rail services'

(I assume tube is a shorthand for underground and doesn't literally mean
the tube lines)